Tis the season (for hoons)

Still moored at Apsley Marina

Tuesday night and all was well except for some blustery wind conditions which was rattling things around outside. About 1am a wind gust woke me and I thought we may have lost our satellite dish. Upon peering out through the front cratch I saw that the latter was still in place but the boat moored ahead of us wasn't, it was moored or resting up against the opposite bank. As this boat had been very loosely moored I just assumed the wind had pulled the pins out and blown it across the cut so knowing that there was nobody aboard I returned to bed.  I had just started to doze off when I heard Dot jump out of bed and yell "Bugger off". Now this is not normal behaviour so I shot out of bed into the cratch to see 3 louts running across the bridge. They were in the process of undoing our ropes when Dot felt the movement on the boat, these were securely tied onto the boat meaning it takes a while to undo them, hence we were the only ones still securely tied up.  When I got off the boat I found the boat behind us (n/b Tripitaka) had been let loose and they were at right angles across the cut despite their boat being chained to the bollards. The cheeky blighters had climbed aboard the boat to untie the ropes. Chris and Lesley had surfaced and were in the process of starting the engine. The hoons must have been very quiet because that boat has a Staffie on board for security and he never made a murmur and slept through it all.  What a way to meet your neighbours at 2am in the morning.

We helped them secure their boat and all the while the hoons were in the car park on other bank creating mayhem and shouting abuse at us, so Lesley fromTripitaka rang the police explaining what had happened and that we were still being harrassed by these guys. Within 10 minutes the police arrived and found them on London Road and rounded them up. What action was taken by the police we are unsure but at least these hoons may get the message, don't mess with boats that don't belong to you.

When it was safe to cross the bridge I went and checked on the other boat and found that it was only been held in place by the wind so I secured it best I could.

Later on Wednesday morning we met the lady owner of the latter vessel, which subsequently has been sold and awaiting collection, and helped her to return the boat to it's original mooring.

830 locks, 1140.5 miles, 33 Tunnels, 39 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006