Spencer and Clancy

Spencer and Clancy have arrived! As you can see we took a detour at London King's Cross to see Platform 9 3/4, where Harry Potter and his best pals go to Hogwarts each year on the Hogwarts express. It was tons o' fun. But eventually we had to take the Cambridge express up to boring old Cambridge. When we got there the guys hung on for about 45 minutes before falling asleep for 5 hours straight. We woke them up at six for a night of punting. One of my Economics classmates, Adam, is a real expert on the art of Punting, having done his Undergraduate degree here and he got us a boat from his college which meant it was dirt cheap, £3 per hour! Anyway, we ended up taking the boat out for more than 3.5 hours. It was a real blast.

I took us up the river while Adam gave the guys the history of Cambridge. We made it from one end to the other and then let Spencer give it a shot. He had some. . . trouble. He was very good at making us go in circles and crash into willow trees. He gave up the pole before we got to a really crowded part of the river, where all the kids sit on the bank and watch the punters go by.

Clancy was hesitant to try it next, but when he did he was a natural. He manuevered us under bridges, around corners - he was really good, nothing more to say. I think he has a promising future in a very specific field of boatwork.
Grace did it as well and she was good although she did lose the pole at one point (not the only one to do so - keep reading). Anyway we had the river to ourselve most of the night since all the punting companies require the boats be in by 7 which is when we started. We could keep it out until 11 if we wanted to, since we were renting from a college. We found ourselves back where we started at nine with plenty of energy so we kept going.
This meant we had to drag the boat up a ramp with rollers to get it into the higher part of the river. With mighty muscles we did the job and went down the river cam up towards Grantchester. I was driving the boat again, and I was getting very cocky. I drank a beer with one hand while driving with the other. But, things went awry.

I lost the pole. Oops. This was the turning point. We headed back.
When we got to the rollers Adam told us the thing to do is ride the boat down the ramp, like a log flume ride. It's a tricky business that involves proper weight distribution or else the boat floods. Spencer, Clancy, Adam and I gave a mighty push and hopped in. We were headed down and into the water! A big wave washed over the front of the boat and worked it's way to the back, so everyone yelled as it came to them and soaked their feet.
We had to bail the boat out, since you get fined for returning a waterlogged boat. We pulled ashore and used a pint glass Grace brought to empty the boat (only 15 minutes work). We returned the boat a little before 11 and then biked into town for some late night chips.
The chipper guy must have liked Spencer and Clancy - I think they charm everyone with their politness and use of the word "sir" - anyway he gave us all free lollipops.

And that was day one.

-Written by Matt, not Grace