Caterham District Scouts

We set off at 6.45 pm after a delay in waiting for a scout from Chaldon who went to Hamsey Green pick up point and found that the bus had left as he was not expected there. We tried to make contact but were unable to do so as it appeared that they had moved that day and their home contact line had been disconnected. We tried to make contact on the journey but again were unsuccessful as his mobile was switched off.

We arrived at Braunston at approx 10.00 pm and carried out the necessary bits getting ourselves ready for departure the following morning. We duly set off at 7.00 am and made our way towards Lemington when after about an hour we received a call from Guinevere (the other boat) indicating that they had a man overboard. While carrying out the rescue, their engine stalled, this was due to the propeller getting jammed. On inspection it appeared that when they put the boat into reverse it sucked a sleeping bag around the propeller and it took the best part of an hour to free. While this was happening Lancelot had moored up waiting to see if we could be of any assistance but we were unable to make contact, so we sent a couple of boys back to find out what was going on. They then contacted us to inform us that they had freed the sleeping bag and were now ready to proceed so we told the boys to stay with the boat and catch up with us later. Once free they proceeded and caught up with us at the first lock were we took the boys back on board, we did not get as far as hoped but managed to make it most of the way to Lemington. We turned round while some of the scouts got off and went shopping where we made our way back to moor up for the night. After dinner we had a campfire and a few fireworks, which rounded off the evening.

On Sunday we set off back to Braunston and while this was happening 3 scouts from 4th Caterham earned their Power Coxswain badge. After reaching Braunston we thought we were in for an early departure but that was not the case as the 2nd boat got stuck behind a barge towing another behind it. We left at 4.45 arriving back in Caterham at 7.45 all well and truly exhausted from the exploits of the weekend.

The man overboard must be the quickest in all the trips that have been made.

John T