IWA Festival Saturday

There we both were, sitting watching a question of Sport last night when we became aware of a boat mooring along side us. We stuck our heads out of the cratch and Ian offered to help with ropes etc. I looked on bemused because instead of being stern to stern, he moored bow to stern. As it was only a short distance from Shobnall winding hole I suggested  winding round so we would both be facing the same direction. The lady on the boat had had enough and didn't want this to happen.As their mooring was on S44  they had to reverse over 24 boat lengths just to reach this mooring. She then told us that the ground on their moorings was so soft and spongy that every time a boat went passed the pins pulled out and they were cast adrift. The Harbour Master suggested he came along side us. So after a lot of maneuvering he finally tied his ropes to his pins on the bank. That's when it struck us. Our length is 57ft and he was 62ft. Something didn't compute. In the end he had to tie the stern ropes to the boat in front of us and then back to his pins and do the same to his bow ropes to the one behind. Now what I'm wondering is ,when we move of this mooring and if he is still here ,how will he fit his 62ft boat into a 57ft gap??? Interesting question don't you think.
So back to the festival.
Last night we had the illuminated boat parade. Ian and I set of with the woofits around 9.30pm. Bad bad move!! We made it to the pedestrian bridge at the site when Ian noticed that \judy was not a happy bunny. In fact she really didn't want to walk any further, so I suggested to Ian that I would take both dogs back to the boat. Now normally we can go from our boat to the site in about 10-15 minutes. With Judy dragging her heels it took me over an hour to get her back to the boat. At one point I even picked her up but she's to heavy for me to carry very far. Of course when I left the boat again to get back to the site the parade had already started. I did manage to get some pictures and I must say that the  a lot of effort had gone into dressing the boats. Well done to all those that entered.

Today was gloriously hot and sunny. How very unusual for an IWA Festival!!! We again spent loads of money. Completely changed all our interior boat lights for LED's from a company called Bedazzled. Show price was offering 20% discount so instead of £160 we paid £130. Ian bought some more miracle brasso and after testing some of their miracle canvas cleaner, we purchased that to. There was nothing in the arena that I wanted to watch today, Yesterdays terriers didn't race again, much to my disappointment,  so I have put on a few pictures that I did manage to take.



The lovely fireman were also present. They were doing an epic challange. To climb Everest on the Festival site in 6 hours. They built a scaffold tower of 6 metres and a number of fireman took it in turns to climb up the ladder and slide down the pole onto a padded mat below, for at least 1474 times to reach Everests height. This was all done to raise money for the local, as well as their own, charities. I hope they make their target of £2000.

 
And finally. A  picture of the historic boats moored toward Dallows lock.