messing about with boats

I was away over the weekend messing about with boats, Like David when I am off I too like messing about on the water, unlike David I mess with boats on the coast, I think that once you have water and boats in your blood you cant leave it alone for too long! This weekend saw me go over to Cowes on Friday night to watch the finale of the Cowes racing week, it ended with a magnificent fire work display, we were lucky that the weather was reasonable, we arrived early in Cowes and took a wander around the many out side bars, stages with plenty of live entertainment and many food outlets, at about 8.30 we made our way back to our boat and headed out to find a spot to watch the fireworks, there were hundreds of boats doing the same thing and I have to say that never before have I seen so many boats moving in one location, there was everything that you can imagine, steamers, cruisers, trip boats, yachts, passenger liners, Rigid inflatables, jet ski's rowing boats, canoes, I would say that almost anything that could float was there to see the spectacular event, and what an amazing display it was, it lasted for around half an hour and we had ring side seats about 100 yards away from the floating barge that was used as a launching platform, the fireworks lit up the whole of the Solent and Cowes! It was the first time that I have boated at night on the sea and what a contrast to boating on the canal at night, when we left it was a maze of boats also leaving, it was mayhem trying to dodge boats coming from every direction heading for their home port, we only had to travel a few miles back over to Southampton, the police were out in force to make sure that everyone behaved them selves, we arrived back at our mooring about an hour after leaving and it was a most exhilarating ride back in the dark! If you have a passion for all things boaty then a visit to Cowes during Cowes week is a must, its not just about yachts! Here is a picture of the boat that I was on this weekend.

The day started off a little chilly today but the sun soon came out and coupled with the blue sky made it a lovely morning here at Norbury, we had three day boats out first thing and they certainly picked a nice dayto go boating, it did however cloud over for a while but on but the sun came out again this afternoon and has made the rest of the day very nice! The day has been a bit quiet today, we have seen a few boats on the wharf for diesel but nothing like you would expect for August, the numbers of boats on the move does seem to be less than we have seen in previous years, I cant quite understand it, I know that fuel costs have risen through the roof but narrow boats don't use that much diesel and the majority of the costs of owning a boat are just to keep it on the water so cruising is only a small proportion of its annual costs, so why are less people going boating? I also know that there are many more boats up for sale this year compared to previous years (sign of the current economic climate) but we do still seem to be selling quite a lot of boats, so why are less people going boating on the canals? Its funny because as I am writing this we have had a couple in off a boat and they made the comment "where are all the boats?" They had traveled up from down South and they said that the Shroppie was the busiest water way that they had been on yet! God only knows how quiet it is else where?

On another note, we have been asked in the past if we offer finance on boats well we don't do it our selves but we have now teemed up with an asset finance company that can provide funding for purchasing narrow boats, this should help people who need finance to full fill their dream of owning a boat.

That's it from me for today, so until tomorrow.
Simon