Yesterday was the Camboaters Open Boat Day. It is a great event, involving lots of residential boats from the river Cam coming and mooring up together in the basin at Jesus Lock and opening their doors to curious local people. Plenty of people are curious about our way of life and it is fun to chat to them, and let them know that we are not the stereotypical hairy hippie types, but a diverse bunch with very diverse boats.
James chatting to a couple next to Eleanor
Unfortunately we were not able to bring the Duck in, even though we really wanted to, because we wanted to save any remaining strength left in the propeller shaft coupling for our trip to March, and because we were not sure if Lyra would be best pleased. But we were very happy to help out. Several people were giving tours of their boats by themselves (Jeff on Eleanor, Steph on AWOL and Mike on Innocenti), and so James and I were on hand to answer general boaty questions and alleviate some of the pressure. We were also tasked with blowing up helium balloons and tying up bunting. The boats looked wonderfully festive!
Geraniums and strawberries on the roof of Innocenti
I was surprised at the sheer numbers of people who were interested in having a look around the boats. Innocenti alone must have had more than 100 pass through! I think it was very successful in showing people what living afloat is like and improving relations between boaters and the rest of the Cambridge community. The sun shone all day, there was music on the roof of Dutch barge Daya, and there was a distinctly holiday feel to the day. The best comment was from a boy who proclaimed Innocenti to be 'Awesome!'
No comments:
Post a Comment