What a Super Network

We had a visitor today - never met him before: tried to at Crick, but his plan to spend all the time in the Beer Tent was foiled by other people taking him places, or wanting to see him on his boat. We watched his boat being built, read about his kidnap in Saudi, and saw his boat hit the water for the first time. That was exciting as we were waiting for our boat to be finished, but could only see it every few weeks or so. If you haven't already guessed who knocked on the side of Epiphany today, then click on this link. No, I'm not going to give you any easy way by giving his name away, but he announced it was him, and came in and had a coffee and a chat. When I say "came in" I mean he sat on the front step, as he was rather wet, as his call at Devizes Marina, to buy some oil for an oil change, coincided with a deluge. We talked about new boats and places that we had both visited and the Kennet and Avon and the fact that the Caen Hill flight is closed while BW repair the gate on lock 23. He mentioned the fact that he had 3 friends coming to join him at the flight on Saturday, including a special person, whose blog and Canal World Discussion Forum posts we have followed for quite a while. Initially it had taken me quite a long while to work out his/her gender as she/he managed always to write without giving any hints about "Gender not set"! Eventually I worked it out though.

We also had an email from Derek and Dot - now famous around the world for their survival at Osney Island on the Thames during the coming flooding. Another couple we had never met except on the Net, until they came to Devizes and we met up. How friendships are made.... If you want to follow these friends of ours, you just have to look at some of the blogs listed on the right hand side of our own blog here: --->

Of course it helps to have something in common as important as our love of the canals and rivers, but you never know what you may learn about us! Just don't spread it around ;-)

As for the question you might be asking about today's visitor - it's true, he's a really nice guy. I hope we meet again before he leaves the K&A.