What a weekend!

24th to 27th May

Today is a recovery day, including catching up with the blog. It's been a great show, despite severe weather events; here follows a recap on the highlights.

Friday night was one of the best parties I've ever been involved with. We ended up with 13 people eating chilli and baked spuds on Sanity, with salads, sweets and cheese supplied by other members of the team. Peter brought a few (!) bottles of wine, several of which we drank.

At the end of the evening (well, after midnight, actually) Sheila, Elanor and I were on the bow, trying to clear up the worst of the detritus, when a strange ring of flashing red lights was seen moving down the towpath towards us, hovering in the air like something out of the X-files.

Eventually it drifted towards Elanor's shoulders, and Sheila finally found a torch to shine towards it. This exposed an apologetic and puzzled Doberman type dog with a collar of flashing LED's round its neck. It trotted off, and we collapsed chortling into the boat.

Saturday, we had the prospect of the long trek round to the show site, since we don't have the footbridge this year. The weather was, however, quite reasonable, and we were soon busy polishing Kala's sides, erecting the gazebo on the bank above the path and generally bracing ourselves for the fray.

Sheila had to trek back round to the boats on the towpath to fetch a vase, in what was to become the most irritating aspect of the show – it was around half a mile, I reckon, to get to and fro. We just must hope that they'll have sorted something out for next year.

Saturday saw a good steady stream of people looking round the boat, many of them making very complimentary remarks. Kala is very similar to Braidbar no. 100 that won Best Boat in Show last year, and made a striking contrast to the strange boat Fernwood were showing on the next pontoon.

This was a "state of the art" modern boat, with slanted window apertures and absolutely everything on remote control, including steering the boat from bow or stern, and raising and lowering the cratch cover, if that's the word for what it had over its bow.

We were told that there were a total of 15 remote controls on board, many of which had been persuaded to work by the end of the show.

In the afternoon we took groups of folk round the dangerous trek along the road to the boats on the towpath to let them see some alternative Braidbar designs, including Sanity which now shows the effect of four years' wear and tear. (I reckon four years' continuous cruising is equivalent to 50 years' average private holiday boat use, so she's entitled to look a bit scuffed here and there.)

In the evening we all ate separately, then met on Shimshams for drinks.

Sunday proved to be wet and windy, just like last year. Despite this, we continued to have a lot of interest shown in Kala. Sheila and I got the first two hours off to go round the show and look for the various things we wanted to buy. We also got a chance to chat to old friends like Joan Caplan of RBOA.

The shopping included waterproofs, some boat shoes for Sheila, and a recovery ladder in a bag to be attached to the stern fender chains. You can grab and pull a handle on the bottom if you've fallen in, and a four-rung ladder emerges, hopefully to allow you to cimb out.

We also got some of LeeSan's new descaler for the loo – I'll report back in due course when I see how effective it is in use.

In the evening it was Just Siviting's turn to host the post prandial drinks – this has been the most sociable Crick ever for us.

Monday started off windy, and clearly planned to become even more so. Sheila and I got the first turn off again, and at 10.30 we were just closing a deal on two pairs of Regatta zip-off trousers when we heard a Tannoy announcement that, because of the strong wind, they were abandoning the Show, and would the customers please make their way to exits.

This is the first time that it's been necessary to actually close the show. It seems a bit extreme to do so just because of the wind, but two small marquees had already been blown over, and the huge main marquee was beginning to shuffle its feet in a sinister fashion.

We went back to Kala straight away, where for the rest of the morning people continued to turn up to see round. Some had travelled long distances, so it was understandable that they were prepared to risk the wind to view the boat.

At lunchtime we shut down and packed everything away. Peter then generously gave us all lunch at Edward's of Crick. This took a while to order and consume, not because the service was slow, but because we were enjoying the wind down, and the excellent food deserved to be consumed with attention it deserved. Thank you, Peter.

After lunch Elanor set off, and just as she was leaving the boat, Andrew Denny of Granny Buttons arrived for a chat. It was good to meet a fellow blogger, especially one as experienced and authoritative as Andrew.

We spent a good time chatting, and, possibly from sheer force of habit, Sheila showed him over Sanity (for the next few weeks, anyone visiting Sanity risks being hauled over it with the complete sales talk.)

I then discovered that we'd taken so long to eat lunch it had been too late to get to the Co-op to buy cheese and biscuits for the evening's final party. (Nothing to do with Andrew, honestly – it was four o'clock when we came out of Edward's, and the Co-op had shut).

Nonetheless we had a selection of stuff left over from various boats, so were able to consume a bit of food with the wine and talk.

As might be supposed, and is indeed already indicated above, today has been a quiet day. We got up in leisurely fashion, wandered down to the Co-op to get stuff for lunch, and wandered back, still nattering to various friends on the towpath.

Just before lunch, I took some time to help Austin with an oil and filter change on Just Siviting, whilst Liz and Sheila retreated to Sanity to decipher a crochet pattern.

After lunch, I mounted the recovery ladder on the stern, but comprehensively failed to find anyone prepared to test it. Other activities have included snoozing, and watching a procession of smart looking boats leave the marina and set off for home.

We've decided to give the River Soar a miss this week, in view of the rain, and will go back to Braunston and so to Fradley, Great Hayward, Stourport and Gloucester on our way to Saul Junction for the next Festival.

Meantime, thanks to one and all for a great weekend. In no particular order, that means:

Austin and Liz Siviter
Chris and Lizzie Birks
Dan and Lesley Love
Peter and Susan Mason
Iain and Luisa Bryceland
and of course:

Sheila and Elanor Napier.