Doing trips on the upper reaches of the Lancaster canal near Kendall.

The Inland Waterways Association held the 2006 National Trail Boat Festival on the upper reaches of the Lancaster canal at Crooklands near  Kendall and we offered to take Roseann down to do trips as part of the event. Our offer was accepted as this meant that twice as many people could get a boat trip than if only Waterwitch the Lancaster Canal Trusts boat was available. In fact we carried a total of 408 passengers over three days on Roseann.

This was a big undertaking for us as although Roseann was sitting on a trailer (she had been lifted there by BW) we had never towed her anywhere or launched her or retrieved her. However, we discussed it and decided that this was something which we just had to do. Before we could go anywhere, however we had a lot of work to do. Roseann had to be repainted, fendering had to be put on to protect the canopy and of course the trailer had to be thoroughly checked to make sure it was road safe etc. The weather was against us and we seemed to have rain every day for weeks after we decided to take Roseann to foreign parts - the furthest afield she had ever been before was to the Falkirk Wheel to run trips as part of the first two Scottish boat shows. Our insurance company had to be approached to make sure we would have cover and then we realised that her licence would expire a few days before the trip - although she in fact had to have a visitors licence for her sojourn on the Lancaster. We needed people to man the boat and in the end 7 of us went down with Roseann. Bill and Brenda and Iain and Ann took their caravans, Andy and Tricia stayed in a Travel Lodge and Chris stayed in his van.  Iain towed Roseann.

The convoy of two caravans and a boat set off at 10 am and after a lunch stop on the way arrived at the Festival site about 2pm. A good run down. We erected the caravan awnings in a howling gale  and while we were having a bite to eat before going to the launch site we realised that we had forgotten to take  any mooring pins. Oh the embarrassment! We borrowed  a couple from another boater until we got our own the next day. When it was our turn to launch,  the four of us piled into the Landrover (the others arrived the next day) and set off for the slipway at Millness. Iain did a nifty bit of reversing and Roseann floated free a if she had been doing it all her life. The only problem was that a board from the trailer also floated free and had to be retrieved from the canal. It could have been worse, as we had no idea if any of the boards on the trailer were in fact attached or not and we had visions of spending days retrieving bits of wood from the canal. I hasten to add, that it was borrowed trailer or we would have known. Bill, Brenda and I cruised back to the Festival site while Iain took the Landy back and met us with Roseann's canopy. It is like wrestling with an octopus putting the canopy on and while it was lying on the towpath as we planned how to do it, Gael walked over it and left nice clear muddy paw prints on the underside of the roof. That gave us a good talking point with the children we carried on the trips! We then tucked up Roseann for the night. The next day, we explored the other end of the navigable bit at Stainton and Bill got some more practice at bringing Roseann along side. Iain and I had to return home to attend a family party that evening and the others took part in a quiz (a creditable 6th out of 13 teams) and a boat building competition (which they won). OK it was a cardboard boat but still a boat.

Saturday morning saw the start of the trips and we ran a trip every half hour all day for three days with crew changes after every two trips. We had been given a handout of interesting points along the route from the Lancaster Canal Trust and by supplementing this with general canal chat about weirs, feeders and rope marks on bridges we gave passengers and interesting trip and hopefully more will now appreciate why it is so important that the upper reaches are connected to the rest of the canal at Tewitfield.

On Saturday evening, we were provided with an  excellent carry out Chinese meal followed by an interesting talk on ropes on working boats. It has to be said, however, that Chris, who used to live on a working boat, was not too sure about some of the info we were given.

On Sunday evening, there was an illuminated boat parade and although we had not had time to do any preparation for this before we left, Andy and Chris quickly acquired some lights to decorate Roseann, who had the honour of leading the parade. Some of the boats were very imaginatively illuminated but I think Roseann's minimalistic approach was very tasteful!

After our last public trip on Monday we took the local WRGs to Stainton and in return they helped us remove Roseann's canopy and get her back onto the trailer. Again, this was accomplished fairly easily and we celebrated a very enjoyable weekend with a meal out in the local hotel.

This was a fantastic trip and I must thank everyone in the Lancaster Canal Trust and the IWA who made us so welcome and did everything possible to make sure our stay was a happy one.

However, our own members who made the trip  and entered into the sprit of the occasion so enthusiastically and carried out their duties so professionally also deserve a big vote of thanks.

Here are a few photos of the occasion