It would be easy to figure this out if you were already caffeinated. Eventually you put the kettle on, but it takes forever for the water to boil (you may need to switch propane tanks) and you really wish the boat hire had provided an electric kettle. (Electric kettles and hair dryers can draw 2,000 watts, well beyond the capacity of the electrical system of most hire boats.)
After instant coffee (you’ll discover on the last day the boat has a French press), you begin the daily engine checks and perhaps the checks you should have done the night before. After the dipstick, radiator and weed hatch have been inspected, you start the engine and cast off. Once underway, you remember to turn on the inverter to charge your cell phones and cameras and then realize it had been left on all night.
If you’re fortunate, your first lock of the day is in a small town with a nearby bakery so someone can run out for scones and rolls. You hope to tour a stately home now owned by the National Trust by one o’clock, but there are five locks and two swing bridges before then. You decide to walk ahead on the towpath to stretch your legs and because two of the locks are in quick succession. Walking on the towpath you discover a boat that sells ice cream moored just before one of the busier and more picturesque locks. Luckily you have plenty of time to eat your ice cream because you walked so much faster than the boat can drive.
Today is the pleasantest day so far on the canal. If you’re a beginner, maybe it’s the third day of your midweek break. Everyone’s really starting to relax. Everyone’s taken a turn at the tiller and all of you have some idea how to steer. Turning a lock is getting easier, although you dropped a windlass key somewhere and can’t find it. Because it’s fall, you’ve eaten your fill of the blackberries along the towpath. The leaves are just starting to turn but it’s still warm during the day. You had rain the first day but now the sun is shining on this green and pleasant land.
Tomorrow is the day when you really have to put on the miles to make your return to the boat hire, and you realize a mid-week break is far too short. Already you’re planning another canal trip, maybe even a ring route the next time.