Braunston Historic Boat Show
Very often we spend weekends on the boat when we don’t travel and on those occasions I don’t write anything. This weekend is a little different because it is the weekend of the Braunston Historic Boat Rally. We wanted to be here last year but Phoenix III was being repainted and although we popped down for a day, this is our first chance to experience the whole weekend.
We arrived on thursday evening and after unpacking and having something to eat we made our way to the beer tent where we watched a play called ‘A matter of time’. The production was excellent with two people playing all six parts. It poured rain for most of the time and very often threatened to drown out the actors voices. The rain continued on and off during the night, not a very good way to mark midsummer at all.
Friday dawned and while I was at work, Sue cleaned the boat from stem to stern. In the evening we returned to the beer tent where we had a drink while we listened to the band performing on stage. It was almost midnight when we returned to the boat and turned in for the night.
The wind was still blowing when we awoke on Saturday morning but at least it was dry. We took a walk around the marina and waited for the official opening before we returned to the back deck of Phoenix III where we positioned ourselves on a pair of high chairs from where we could watch the parade as it made its way through the marina. After a while we took a walk up to the village to do some shopping before returning to the show. We then took a walk around the various stalls at the show, renewing aquaintances with the Redshaws who worked on Phoenix’s original engine and with Eddie who supplied our Boatman stove and from whom we bought a new set of fire irons. We drifted into the beer tent, a bit of a habit forming here, and listened to some more live music, first of all from singer songwriter Junal and then from ‘Four men in a boat’ who sang a variety of traditional folk songs. We returned to Phoenix III where we relaxed and carried out a few essential jobs which included varnishing some woodwork.
We had a lazy start to Sunday and after fortifying ourselves with a bacon roll, we took a walk up to the village shop. We had another wander around before sitting on the back deck of Phoenix III to watch the parade of boats again. We had a talk with some people looking at boats for sale and invited them inside to show them what ours looks like. Cliff and Liz joined us at two o’clock and after a bit of lunch we all went and listened to some more live music. All too soon it was five o’clock and the show was over and by the time we had packed up the things that we wanted to take home it was seven o’clock. We had enjoyed the show as well as we had expected and the weather had been much better than the BBC had forecast so we pronounced the weekend a success and we’re looking forward to doing it all again next year.