Our Ricky weekend began on Friday 15th May, when we left Black Jack's Lock mooring and cruised to Rickmansworth with NB Sweet Dreams owned by Jenny and Dave, who were also going to the festival.
Having enjoyed a short jaunt up the canal, we arrived at Rickmansworth, where we were told we were mooring up against Joe and iron Joey boat built in 1883. Joe is still working today. For the Ricky weekend she was home to Peter Boyce and Irene, who were using Joe to sell items to raise money for the restoration of NB Lucy. LUCY is a wooden butty built at Braunston for the carrying fleet of John Knill, entering the fleet in 1953. Peter and his team have now taken her out of her watery grave, with the view to restoring her, for further information go to her website.
Once we were moored up alongside Joe. Frank and Sue on NB Lotus came alongside us, making us the jam in the narrowboat sandwich.The weather for the weekend was not supposed to be good, but Saturday turned out to be a great day, although the wind was very gusty. We both dressed up in our traditional boat gear and got to chat to lots of people, which included a visit from Frances and Alan who own NB Lazydays. They were up for the day to enjoy the festival and all it had to offer. Apart from the boats, there was also music, food and stalls. Being our first time at the event, we had a thoroughly great first day. Meeting lots of new people. There were plenty of historic boats to look at, these included. Working boats, Roger, Raymond, Nutfield, Corona, Baldock, Clover, Fazeley, Ara, Archimedes, Lupin, Victoria, Pacific, Caldy, Calysto, Nuneaton, plus others which fail to come to mind at the moment. I guess I am tired.
One of the main events of the weekend was the tug of war. Chris Bennett had tried to talk Keith into entering Hadar, but there is no way we would want to risk anything happening to our National DA2. The tug of war was great fun, with NB Clover winning on Saturday and NB Kestral winning Sunday. We enjoyed visits from friends all over the weekend, but one of the highlights of my day on Saturday was meeting Sarah from NB Warrior. I have been wanting to meet Sarah for a long time, as I pop in and out of her blog, so it was great to meet her and Jim. We welcomed them onboard to have a look at our National engine and I gave her a guided tour around a not very tidy Hadar. For some reason when we are at festivals, the only areas that get tidied up are the back cabin and engine room. Paddy and Marmite made Sarah feel very welcome in their own ways. I sincerely hope that we meet up with them again, maybe when they are out on NB Warrior.
We were fortunate with the weather on Saturday, unfortunately Sunday was not so great, so I ditched my boat womans bonnet and shawl for cords and a waistcoat. It began raining early on making the ground a little muddy, this was soon remedied with bales of straw around the arena. Despite the weather, the public were still out in numbers, enjoying the boats, music and the stalls. If you have never been to the Rickmansworth Festival, it is a must for any boater or member of the public. So another festival is over with for another year and the Rickmansworth Festival is in need of a Harbourmaster for 2010.
When I asked the harbourmaster about his notice, he told me that it was all true what he wrote. Sounds like a great job to me LOL. Honestly it is hard work, but also rewarding when everything is going well. I think the stress levels maybe go up when things are not going according to plan though.
2 comments:
It was a real joy to meet you too - we are going to the Braunston Festival with 'Warrior' but I understand from Keith that you won't be there. Our 'grand tour' this year will be up North, starting by going up through Leicester and then who knows there was even a suggestion that we would go back to our mooring via the Wash but I think now that having met such great people (and Chris Bennett :) we will try and move 'Warrior' around the Southern system over the winter. Best of luck in all you do.
Jim
Hi Jim. Unfortunately we are not going to Braunston, that will have to wait for another year. We are now heading for the Wendover Festival at the weekend, as Keith and 3 other boaters are going to do their helmsmans certificate. we had not planned to go, but hey why not we have nothing else to do. After that we are not sure. Keith fancies going to Stratford, but we will see what the time allows, as we need to be in Stone for the middle of August. Then it will be time to plod up on to the Leicester ready for our winter coal run. How the time flies. The weekend was fantastic, and like you we met some great people. Have a wonderful time cruising. Give our regards to Sarah.
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