Nick and Family for the Day.

Thursday 4th August, 2016 at Aston Marina.
Today, we have arranged a day trip for Nick and his family. Nick is the Moorings Manager at the marina; he has recently completed a "Helmsman's Course" but rarely has the chance to go out on a boat and practise his skills. So, we thought that it would be fun to take him and his family out for the day so that he can practise his boating skills and his family can get a better idea of what he does for a living.
Guy sat in the stern on look-out duty.

Nick arrived with his wife Lindsey and children Tobias and Jemima. To our surprise and delight, with them was our friend Terry, who took us on our "Helmsman's Course" in 2008 and who had also very recently taught Nick on his course. Terry was there by chance as he was doing some training at the marina.

M dubbed them the "Three Musketeers" although the "Three Old Salts" would probably be more appropriate! Obviously, Nick needs to grow a beard!!

Lindsey, Tobias and Jemima soon made themselves at home in MM...

While Nick took the tiller and steered MM out of the marina.

Aston Lock, next to the marina, has a milepost that is exactly half-way along the Trent & Mersey Canal, as it shows 46 miles to Shardlow in the east and 46 miles to Preston Brook in the west.

The whole family took it in turns to help with the locks and "help" Nick steer MM.

On the outskirts of Stone, someone has reconstructed an old signal box in their garden. M said that she wants one like that in her garden too!

As Nick became more confident, R enjoyed the rare pleasure of being able to walk the towpath and work the locks.

Just north of Stone, having gone though five locks, we turned MM round and stopped for lunch. There had been occasional rain showers during the morning (much to M's annoyance) - but we timed lunch well as it rained hard all the time that we were moored up.

There were further heavy showers in the afternoon - so the lock labourers got very wet - but then the rain gave way to a bright late afternoon. Jemima had a go on the tiller and did very well, while Tobias looked on.

We arrived back at the marina more than a little damp but in very good spirits. It was great to see Nick's confidence grow as the day progressed.

All the family declared that they had had  a jolly good time despite the rain and would like to do it again. We will certainly arrange it, maybe over the winter. They are a lovely family and it was a pleasure to have them on board.
After Nick's family had left, our good friend Angi arrived with our new friends Geraldine and Rob. None of them has ever been on a narrowboat before and so we had agreed to take them out on a day trip tomorrow. They had booked local B&Bs and driven up from Surrey. We showed them round MM, had a few glasses of champagne and then the five of us went to the marina Bistro for dinner.
 All in all, a really great day.
Today: 5 miles, 10 locks and 5.5 hours.
Summer Trip: 211 miles, 136 locks and 152.8 hours.