Tuesday 24th May

Today everyone was up at 9.00am and before breakfast we all went for a shower near the outside toilets. For breakfast we had cereal and bacon butties. After breakfast we put on our oil skins to get ready to go on deck. When everyone was on deck Russ showed us how to lower down the power boat and showed us how to work it. Marcus went first down the canal and it went fine. Next it was my turn and I went full throttle down under the bridge until it was Chris’s turn. Chris went down as far as he could until he reached the lock so we tied it up onto the stairs and Russ showed us how the lock worked and we all had a go at working the lock. After that we went back down and Boulos finished his go. Tom was up next and he had a hard time getting used the controls and went mental nearly crashing about 5 times. Then Marcus came again and he did it just as well as last time. It was my go again and when we got back to the marina Russ let me do a doughnut at full speed, but I had to stop because it started to fill up with quite a lot of water. When we got back to Tenacity, Mira was waiting for us with lunch. For lunch we had sausage butties with crisps and fruit, and also Mira was showing us how to do Origami with crisp packets. After lunch everyone put there oil skins back on and we went to the top deck to learn how to tie knots onto the cleats on the jetty. Before leaving we refilled the water tanks and at 3.00pm the lock keepers arrived and started to get ready for us to go through. Once out of the locks we parked and all of our spectators went away. To get off the boat Mira and Russ tied a fender to a ladder to get ashore to go to the shop across the road. In the shop we bought some sweets, chocolate, and a cricket set which we used in a nearby field and a few of the local kids joined in. With Tom getting the best shot out of us lot we went back in to enjoy Mira’s spaghetti bolognaises which I spilt all down my shirt and my mouth, we moved onto our chocolate fondue which I also spilt all down me. After that we chilled for a bit and got ready for bed ready to get up at 4:30 am tomorrow morning.


Oli.