Tall and Long Ships

It was Tall Ships weekend in Gloucester down at the docks, it would be a bit difficult in the middle of town I suppose!
We saw them but we had a Narrow Boat booked at 0900, courtesy of Daniel, and we all set off after a bit of instruction regarding engine, throttle, manouvering, red and green lights at the bridges and etiquette regarding which side to pass on etc.
Daniel set off to start with and after half an hour or so I couldn't stand it any longer and took over as I'd been itching to have a go. Ok for a while but then I asked Lennon to get my camera and while he was taking a couple of shots and, handing over the camera, I was totally distracted and found myself heading at speed toward the side of the canal! I closed the throttle and steered back out to midstream but too late for the stern which hit the side construction with a thump. I was called into the captains office (Marlane was in the seating area in the bow) and got torn off a strip and banned from steering unless supervised!! HAHAHAHAHAHA It gave everyone a laugh and made the trip even more memorable. 
We had the boat all day, until 1700, but with a following wind we got back to the docks shortly after 1600. 
It was a really good day and there was lots to see in the way of birds, other boats, canalside buildings etc. After my initial mishap it was, I found, very easy to control the narrow boat, I just made sure I wasn't distracted again!
Extra is a pair of Swans, one on the nest, with 3 signets. Thought Thingsbeautiful (Jaki) would like that.