Shrimping in the Rain

Shrimp in the rain, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

The problem with an open boat in a rainstorm is not the actual getting wet. When it started heaving it down yesterday just as I was passing the entrance to Garstang Marina, I quickly donned a waterproof jacket (admittedly hoping for a brief summer shower rather than the prolonged monsoon that swept across the Fylde Plain from the Irish Sea) and carried on.
I've never been that troubled by rain. Even when instructed to put a hat on / put my hood up / get under this umbrella / take shelter in Topshop / run back to the car as if the alarm was going off, I have always just walked around as if rain was made of nothing more corrosive than...water. This has caused endless derision and complaint from those around me, but really, I can't see what all the fuss is about. Even if my clothes are not waterproof I am fairly sure that my skin is and, rather annoyingly for my mother, I learnt at the age of six that the common cold is not brought on by getting wet.
So I was happy enough inside my jacket plodding up the canal.
The reactions of people on other boats ranged from the 'Are you alright?' wave to the 'See how dry we are under this canopy' look and included an offer of an umbrella (declined, nicely) and the suggestion that I might take shelter under a bridge (easier said than done).
But none of this was even remotely as difficult as the actual reason I had to tie up to the towpath and sit inside the cuddy like a Hobbit for fifteen minutes.
Even at 3.2 mph (but with the wind blowing the rain in my face at an additional 10 mph) I couldn't see where I was going. It was like the day I rode my CX500 motorcycle from Manchester to Southend in a thunderstorm wearing an open face crash helmet. Only worse, because I'm not 26 any more and I now wear contact lenses.
So, in case it rains again this year, which seems likely given the extent to which it did last August, I am going to invest in some World War 1 flying goggles. I might grow a big moustache as well and go for the full Biggles look.
That should be enough to stop people offering me umbrellas.
And speeding advice.

Speed Dating

Ratcliffe Wharf, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

Took my boat 'Shrimp' for a trip up the canal again today. It was gloriously hot and, as is surprisingly often the case on such a well used canal, remarkably quiet most of the way from Garstang to Ratcliffe Wharf.
As I travelled up the canal I came across a number of moored boats and, in accordance with BW's (and presumably their occupants') wishes, I slowed right down as I passed them, to 'tickover' speed. As I have such an addiction to gadgets, I have fitted Shrimp with a Navman Fishfinder which has a built in log, and which gives a speed readout on the screen. So I know that Shrimp is moving at 1.9mph (exactly) at tickover. I also know when I am travelling at 3mph (which I do most of the time), and what 4mph feels like.
Rather annoying then to have someone flapping his arms at me in alarm as I approached a moored boat at less than 3 mph, fully intending to slow to my 'tickover' speed as I passed. I asked him how fast he thought I was going but he was too busy telling his companions how reckless I was and buttoning up his oilskins as the wall of water that was my three inch wash slammed against the bank, to answer me.
Strangely enough, I had a similar experience in the car the other morning on my way to work, when a cyclist pulled into the middle of the road and waved his arms at me as I got near to him. Thinking he could see an accident or a broken down badger that was invisible to me I slowed down, only to discover that he was just taking the opportunity to make me slow down for the sake of it. Incredulous I gave him a wide berth and accelerated to my previous breakneck 40 mph.
I digress.
It struck me that we are getting a bit pathetic about boat speeds on the canal. For a start, there's the speed limit.
4 mph.
'A brisk walking pace' .
I wound Shrimp up to 4mph this afternoon and watched the bank flash past way faster than I am capable of walking at. I have to say that it was also way faster than I would normally travel at on a canal, so even my most 'inconsiderate anti social madcap' speed is well below the actual limit. Imagine the arm flapping that 4mph would produce.
But even if I do make a bit of wash (at 3.3 mph), so what? I'm not talking about three feet of breaking water topping the towpath, but more of a large ripple following me along. It might actually make other boats rock slightly, but I always thought boats were supposed to be able to withstand a certain amount of rocking.
When I had a boat on the Norfolk Broads in the early nineties, the speed limits were reduced from 7 mph to 6 mph following a study which demonstrated that bank erosion in sensitive areas was reduced significantly at the lower speed. I appreciate that canals are narrower and shallower and therefore the effects of boat speed are magnified but even so, are the margins of the canals of Britain being washed away by boats travelling at 4 mph?
I suspect that the limit is as much to do with reducing the risk of collision as anything else. After all, the packet boats that operated on the canal from 1833 to 1846 travelled the 55 miles from Kendal to Preston in ten hours. They were 76 feet long and pulled by galloping horses. And even my innumerate brain can see that is an average speed of 5.5 mph. Which means they must have travelled much faster than that at times.
I wouldn't dream of advocating tearing up and down the canal at full throttle, I'm not even suggesting that there is anything wrong with being considerate towards other canal users.
But, and this is what is really worrying me, if we are all going to start telling each other to slow down even when we're well within the speed limit, there won't be any need for speed cameras.
And I was so looking forward to seeing those on the towpath.

Short Narrowboat

Short Narrowboat, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

...or a narrow shortboat. This charming little boat turned up at the marina on Saturday night. I can't recall seeing her on the canal before but I was so taken with her that I almost missed the final of 'Britain's Got Talent' trying to photograph her. Which is a bit like saying that I almost missed the opportunity to set fire to my ears by taking her photograph.
(Who am I trying to kid? I thought Signature were robbed and the blonde with the electric violin looked so nice I didn't care whether she could play the thing or not.)
Anyway, regarding the boat. As the owner of the smallest boat in the marina, I am fast becoming an enthusiast of miniaturisation. The Government are doing everything they can (but not quite enough) to get me to drive a Nissan Micra, my new phone has a video camera, the Internet, my email account and the weather forecast on it and it fits in my shirt pocket, and while I used to be hauled around the streets of SW15 by a Labrador the size of Basingstoke, I now go all unnecessary over my Mum's Border Terrier.
So if I had the resources (which I don't) to buy a steel narrowboat to drift my way to retirement on, this is exactly the sort of boat I should be buying.
I'm tempted to say that 'size isn't everything', but increasingly, it seems that it is.