'President' was taken to Windmill End on Saturday. This annual end of season event was well attended by both boats and visitors and, as usual, retained its cosy ambience even though there were a goodly number of trade tents and stands.

After a night at Brook St, new member Lionel Simpson and myself made our way to Windmill End to join Malcolm Nixon for the return journey to Black Country Living Museum.

Saturday evening had been quite an adventure - one of the frustrating sort. Arriving later than planned at Tipton we found no-one at the Museum and after fish and chips in Dudley whilst waiting for a bus to Windmill End, we arrived to find 'President' locked up. We were by this time very cold and tired. Jaded spirits were soon lifted after a visit to Ma Pardoes. By means of lessons learned during a life of crime we were able to spend a comfortable night at the museum. We later found out that we had missed Malcolm Nixon and Cyril Deane by just a few minutes at the "Old Swan".

Mid Sunday morning the boiler was lit and steam gently raised. 'President' attracted a lot of visitors - we were well sited by the bridge - and a photographer from the Birmingham Post took photographs, one of which appeared in next day's newspaper. The boat has been quite a star this year.

With 50 lbs on the gauge we left Malcolm to keep an eye on things whilst the two of us did the trade stalls and had a jolly hour in the beer tent. Two brews were sampled - one being porter - very nice and very potent. Met some very interesting people at a shared table. That's one of the nice things about boat rallies.

Neil Ratcliffe visited the boat and set up the tunnel lights before we departed for the journey back to the Black Country Living Museum. Our return journey was preceded by some clever manoeuvring to turn the boat at the entrance to Dudley No.2 canal. It was a nice bit of team work by the steerer and engineman and some heartening remarks from the canal bank on our abilities were overheard.

Having navigated the tunnel and turned onto the New Main Line Lionel brewed tea and I broke out a large lemon iced cake purchased the previous day at a fete. Factory Locks were quite interesting. This was Lionel's first trip on a canal boat so Malcolm had to do some locking and lock tuition whilst I acted as engineman and steerer. As usual, the lifting bridge provided a very physical conclusion to the homeward journey, after which an hour was spent clearing out the boiler and leaving everything neat and tidy.

And so concluded a very busy boating season. 'President' was steamed just once more, for the working boat weekend at the museum.

Keith Rogers