Now we are a Charity.

The Canals and River Trust, or CART C&RT for short, has taken over from British Waterways. Much has already been spent on decorating the bridges and lock at Gloucester with special bunting and balloons. The new logo will have to adorn all communications along the towpaths etc at great expense. Maffi also pointed out, on his blog, that C&RT projects £1.2 million will be lost over the next four years fund raising. Anyway We don’t expect any great changes to occur yet a-while.

We received an e-mail from C&RT pointing out that they will now be responsible for-

2,000 miles of Canals, Rivers, Reservoirs and Docks.

There are 1569 Locks that boaters can use.

In 2010-11 there were 35,000 licensed boats on the waterways.

200 new miles of waterway in the last decade!

Apparently 10.5 million people live on, or enjoy the waterways and can support the new trust by joining it for £5 per family, or £3 pp.

All in all quite a responsibility!

Well, what a gorgeous day it has been here with two boats being craned out successfully, even though it is Friday 13th. The Streathay Wharf Boat Transport lorry looked the business with a very posh cab.

Then an A. B. Tuckey transporter later followed it gently along the rough track from Davis’s Boatyard. This is the company that we used when Oakfield was launched.

This afternoon a small group of model boat enthusiasts came to manoeuvre their boats around in the wind. I liked the detailed fishing vessels Osprey and Antje. In between times we have been seeing quite a bit of family and friends, or just sitting out the storms with our heads in our books.