The Chronicles of Donna the Duck:
Chapter 6: THE FIRST BOATING TRIP
That evening Donna had a big surprise, she had not had a ride in the car since the day we collected her, that fluffy duckling about 10 weeks ago. I had quite a large carton prepared, it had its flaps taped upright to give it some height and it had a bed of straw, all mod cons for my duck. When the car was at last loaded with all our gear and the dogs, I picked her up and put her in her box. She did not seem to mind in the least. She stood up and her head came over the top of the box and she spent the whole of the 45 minute journey looking at everything and quacking her comments. It was fortunate we had an estate car. I rather expected some surprised faces from the cars following us but we are a very serious minded people and of course you can see a duck looking at you from the back window of a car any day of the week can't you ?
Her quarters on the boat were to be the bows. Our boat was a 32 ft narrow boat and the bows section was a triangular area, open to the air, the sides being about 3 feet high. Right in the pointy bit of the bows was a locker which used to house the spare windlasses and other boating paraphernalia. I had previously cleaned it out and put a board across which retained some straw that would be her bed. Mel had made a wire door for the locker so we could keep Donna secure in her locker at night or if we wanted to leave the boat for a time.
Of course I accepted that Donna could get out of this bow area very easily
if she decided to. She had already demonstrated that at home she can jump 2 or 3 feet with the aid of her wings. So if she jumped out onto the water and swam away, I would have lost her. I had decided this was a risk we had to take.We were a boating family and she would have to boat if she wanted to stay with us.So she was installed and we moved off.
When the boat started to move, she quacked loudly but stayed put. I sat with her on the short run down to the first lock and I stroked her and talked to her but I was a little worried about how she would react at the bustle and action at the lock especially as I would not be able to sit with her as I had my duties at lock time. It all went off smoothly, she seemed to watch all the action with great interest and as the boat settled slowly as the water was emptied from the lock, Donna's quacks seemed to reverberate from the lock walls but she stayed in her quarters. We had a bit of excitement as we left the lock. We were traveling with some friends and their boat and their engine cut out. So we had to go alongside and lash the boats together so we could continue under our power while they sorted out the problem. Again Donna quacked a lot, but stayed put. The last lock we had been through had been the last one on the River Trent and the next would be the first on the River Soar and we would then be going up river. This means we go in at one level and the water then pours in and we rise to the new level. This can cause a lot of water turbulence at the front of the lock so of course you choose to stay well back in the lock if possible. The first lock was uneventful, the rise in levels is only about 1 foot or so so we were soon through. The next lock, however, was a very deep one, at least 12 foot. By the time we arrived at this lock we had collected other boats and our two boats , still lashed side by side found ourselves at the front of the lock with other boats packed in behind us. This meant Donna would be right up against the water which pours in as the gate paddles are opened. I was up on the lockside holding ropes so I could only shout down to Donna and I would be absolutely helpless if she panicked and flew out of the boat. The paddles were opened and the water cascaded in in curtained arcs very close to the bows of our boat. The noise is tremendous but again Donna just quacked back at it and craned her neck so she could see what was going on. So as we left the lock, I felt very happy, we had been through the worst sort of lock in the most turbulent position and had come through with Donna quite unperturbed . So I began to relax and enjoy the trip, feeling more confident that Donna was not going to disappear over the side at the slightest unusual happening, and in fact it looked as though she might fit into this boating family quite well. The rest of the journey held no terrors and we were soon tied up at the rally site, bows into the bank and in a row of boats, looking not unlike a row of sardines in a tin. It was soon time to turn in for the night and I popped Donna into her night quarters , put the wire door across the opening and said good night to her and left her. She soon settled down and we never heard another quack until next morning.
She generated quite a bit of interest next morning when she emerged . It was a glorious hot sunny morning and the rally site soon got busy as all the boaters and caravanner's woke up and started their perambulations across the field. Day visitors poured in and there were soon crowds milling around, We seemed to have a continuous stream of visitors expressing surprise seeing a duck on a boat. Donna seemed to enjoy showing off to her public, strutting about and quacking back at them. It certainly enlivened our day. When we left the boat to explore the rally site I left her loose in the bows and we came back to find her quite happily settled in a shady corner. I had brought a supply of straw to make her comfortable and when soiled it got thrown overboard, I never see vegetable matter as pollution.
I was tempted to put Donna out onto the water for a swim but I was very nervous of giving her too much liberty in this way, she might like it too much. However later in the evening when a more peaceful atmosphere pervaded the area, I decided to risk it. I popped her under my arm and walked along to an area of river bank that was bare of moored boats. Here the bank sloped down gradually to the water so that the water was only a few inches deep to at least a yard out Not without trepidation I put her down in about 2 inches of water. She just stood there, transfixed as she felt the water around her toes, then she just turned and walked back to me on the bank. I could not believe it, a duck who turns her back on the wide open spaces of a river. So I tried again, I picked her up and placed her a bit further out, in about 4 inches of water. Now she could feel the water lapping around her legs and touching her feathers,she flapped her wings in the water, took a long drink, then turned and walked out. I tried several times , the result was always the same. A big expanse of water too much of a good thing to a duck who has been used to dust bin lids and tin baths of water. So I gave up and walked back to the boat and she waddles after me. We spent the rest of the lovely warm evening sitting on the stern of our boat with friends, having a drink and listening to the pop groups in the distance. Donna seemed quite content to snooze in her bow section until time for her to go to bed in her locker.
After lunch next day we set off home and again we had no trouble with Donna,she seemed to have accepted boats as part of life. This reassured me that later that summer we could quite happily manage her on our longer holiday, so the weekend had been a most successful trial run.
