A blast from the past

I found some video of our very first cruise in 2006 and for us it brought back memories of the learning curve we went through on our first foray into the canals.  I don't mention it in the video, but as we moved off our mooring for the first time, the bowthruster broke down and couldn't be used at all.  We had to do a 3-point turn from our mooring area into Lock 1 on the Yonne River and were going to rely on the bowthruster for help in this first turn!  Scary stuff but Roger managed it very well thank goodness so we did not have anything go wrong.  With hindsight it was a good thing really as we then had to spend the first cruise learning how to manage our barge without the help of a bowthruster and enabled us to really learn our barge handling - what to do if the wind suddenly takes the bow just as you are entering a tight lock; how to manoeuvre into a mooring; how to turn the barge round using windage and rudder only etc.  We were much more confident at the end of the first season when we went into the shipyard to have a new bowthruster fitted.