Some people’s behaviour can put a damper on the whole day.

As we were leaving Claydon, we had another boat in front of us, so we resigned ourselves to cruising in convoy. We slowed down a little to create space between us, but there was another boat behind us, which made it quite clear that they wanted to overtake. There really wasn’t any point, as we were on a ten-mile stretch without locks,  so we were all going to end up in the same place, give or take a few minutes. However, we really didn’t want to travel all day with a boat on our backside, so we slowed down, pulled over and let them pass.

As predicted, when we arrived at the locks, there they were, waiting to go into the lock. Over the course of about three hours, they gained less than two minutes.  

The boat was crewed by a solo female, who was extraordinarily unpleasant as we approached the lock.  We had no choice but to raft up, but she insisted on moving her boat forward before the one in the lock had had a chance to come out. This left us adrift. Her reply was “get a life, that’s what engines are for”. Well, her boat had bow thrusters and remote control, so I guess she could do anything she wanted, whereas we have a tiller and a forward and backward control. No matter. We let it pass. Some people are just unpleasant.

We kept seeing her for the rest of day up an down the towpath and in the farmhouse café, and, unlike any other boater we ever met, she totally blanked us. Even the next morning as she took her dog out and walked past our boat.

But then, oh sweet revenge! We managed to find a lovely mooring spot very close to one of the locks going down to Napton, and we happened to be moored in front of her. So – when we saw that she was getting her boat ready in the morning we immediately moved to the lock and set it for ourselves. We hadn’t even managed to get our shoes on, but we were determined to go first. It meant that she had to wait at every single lock going down to Napton. In the big scheme of things it made no difference at all, but we felt vindicated for her behaviour the previous day.

She probably thinks we’re totally unbearable people, so thankfully she went a different way from us, and we don’t need to put with her ever again.

We behaved quite childish, so sorry, lady. Maybe next time we’ll be kind to you.