Well for once the forecasters were right!

First both Ian and I would like to thank everyone for the lovely comments and well wishes from our blogger friends, but also our family and friends. We are truly humbled.

What a great night we had last night. So many congratulations hugs and kisses went to Ian that he was quite overcome. Some of our fellow boaters and friends  piled onto Nb Icing owned by Dennis and Margaret. It's the designated  'party boat' because of it's long front deck and ample room inside. Beer was drunk and loads of laughter and merriment as well as a game of Mexican Train was enjoyed by all. We eventually fell back into the boat just before midnight having had a wonderful night.. So as promised here are the photos of yesterdays continuing site work..

Decision was made to use the large tent as the tombola and book stall and the smaller tent as the bric a brac. There is so much stuff for the bric a brac stall that I expect we will be spilling out onto the grass.

Bunting goes up

Another grass cut hopefully the last one before the event.

Wonder when the bunting will go up on the boats.  16 boats by 9am

The books have been set out and the bric a brac sorted. 105 boaters packs have been filled with only the rally plaques to be added as they still hadn't arrived from the suppliers by the time we packed up at 6 pm last night.
So now for today............
OMG. What can I tell you about today! First we struggled to put the bunting up on our boat. The wind tried very hard to snatch the bunting from our hands and send it across the canal. We eventually acheived our goal and while Ian went off to help with the electrics, I took Jade below lock to see how many boats had turned up.

Bunting up

Great to see so many boats.

  As soon as I returned I started sorting the Tombola in the large tent. The wind by now was beginning to be quite alarming and the canvas was being whipped into a frenzy while the poles creaked and groaned. Then suddenly 4 of the poles gave way. The force of the wind made them bend and crease right at the knuckle joint.which attached them to the roof. Thankfully Howard ( ECP&DA chairman) was around and while he held on for dear life, I rushed to get more bodies to help.  Ian happened to be strolling past so he was the first to be grabbed. He was left holding a corner pole while I held on frantically to the middle and Howard departed with one of the bent poles to see if it could be repaired. The damaged poles were removed one by one and straightened sufficiently to be reattached again. Then men arrived out of the woodwork armed with a load of rope and between them all sucured the tent once again. The wind continued to blow a hooley right until late afternoon but thanks to the efforts of our work party team, the tent stayed firmly attached to the ground.

More stakes go in.

 The loo has turned up and were conveinantly placed a few yards from us. Seems we dont need to worry about filling up our cassette for the next few days. Hope it doesn't get to smelly as the wind is blowing in our direction! No one has been given the job of cleaning them every day. Maybe I had better volunteer.

Quite near to our boat as you can see. Thats my bird feeder to the left of the picture.

 Chesterfield and Derby and Sandiacre canal society's have arrived but due to the high winds will now erect there gazebos first thing tomorrow. Tonight is the boaters hog roast and so far the rain has held off and the wind has died so its all looking good for a bumper turnout. Early start for us all tomorrow and as I will be busy all day, goodness knows if I will have time to blog. If I get a break I'll give it a go.

The birds and bees and even the flies do it!