Roof Boy

One of the great things about our recent holiday on a canal boat was how much the youngest step son enjoyed it. I’m not going to mention the older one for the sake of my blood pressure. His main job was to help me moor and cast off while his mother and brother did the locks and swing bridges. What he lacked in physical strength he made up with enthusiasm. I’m very safety conscious on boats and he gave me heart palpitations every time he lept from the boat slightly to soon. Ironically it was me who got injured from not taking sufficient care but that’s another story.

What he loved most was going on the roof to move the center rope. Within a few hours of getting the boat he had given him self the title ‘Roof Boy’ which had an accompanying football style chant. As soon as we moored up he would sit on the roof surveying his kingdom annoying the neighbors with his chant. I also had to take a large number of pictures with him on the roof in a strange ape like pose, I never understood what this had to do with his roof boy duties but he is a very odd boy.

He constantly nagged me to let him travel there. I wouldn’t let him, I didn’t think it was safe but after he saw lots of others kids on roofs I finally relented and let him on the last couple of days providing he sat near enough for me to grab. Despite my worrying he traveled on the roof very safely even he was up and down every five minutes.

The week on the boat has convinced me I need to get a new sailing boat for next year, because unlike me he is a natural on a boat. Might even get the older one back into sailing, but don’t hold your breath.