Last weekend myself and a bunch of my long-time friends hired a canal boat as a group celebration/commiseration at all turning 25. We charted the not-so notorious waters of the River Wey in Surrey and over four days traversed the stretch between Godalming and (almost) Weybridge. Despite pessimism induced by an overly-cautious advisory dvd sent out by the boat hire company and watched by us the week before (paraphrased sample quote: "[when using locks] be careful when using the lever keys to open and close lock gates, they can fly off and cause severe facial injuries") it turned out to be, once we'd got our heads around steering, a mostly painless trip - the only time someone ended up in the river was through their own will, rather than falling or being pushed.
It was a wonderful, really relaxing way to spend a few days with mates, mooring up to stop for a drinks at pubs or cruising down river with a can of beer in hand; sitting on the roof in late afternoon sunshine reading the sunday papers; and pulling together as a team to get the barge through the many locks without mishap or trying to turn all 70-odd foot of the thing around. I will only alude to Peter's attempts to crash into the riverbank and tree on purpose and the resultant half destroyed tiller. It was a bit cold (being October) but there was no rain. All in all probably one of the best weekends I have spent with these lads in a long while.
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