Northern Pride and the Pirates

Nick from Canal Boat Magazine went to visit Barry and Sandra from NB Northern Pride on Friday who were moored in Heyford. As I wasn’t too far away, and wanted to meet them too, he picked me up on the way.  Barry and Sandra are Kiwi’s who take 6 months off a year to cruise the waterways. Barry is a professional photographer and thus the blog is full of fantastic pictures. Nick and I had a wonderful morning drinking tea and learning about the travels around the system! Later in the afternoon I was delighted to see them pass me in Thrupp. They moored up and we caught up later in the evening at the Boat Inn. Fortunately we were there long enough to have a sensible chat before being invaded by Pirates.  As stag parties go this bunch of pirates were polite and harmless and rather comical.  We were, at one point, being “entertained” by one pirate at a time, the latest just happened to be going on a bit… so I , realising we weren’t going to get away from the rowdy bunch, decided to request a new pirate. Big mistake… once I had been picked up, and put down again I decided I would keep quite and sit down.  I expect they were after our table – we did have the best seats in the pub! 

I have no idea what Barry and Sandra thought of our quiet sleepy village, but I suspect any shreds that may have been left of the suggestion that we were a calm collective and quiet bunch was blown out the window in its entirety on the Saturday evening when they returned to the pub. I gather there was a hen party there… this lot found it slightly harder to keep their clothes on than the pirates…

It was lovely to meet Barry and Sandra, what lovely people they are!