Continuing the theme of water from the weekend, my owners thought it would be a good opportunity to get me used to going on a boat, before our holiday in the summer. If it wasn’t bad enough having to walk past a large group of swans who clearly had issues with me, I then discover there is a bit about going on a boat that no one has mentioned to me. I’d picked up that it might rock a bit. I’d understood the deck can get slippery when wet. I know I may have to wear a life jacket. However, the bit I had not understood was what I had to do to get onto the boat. Why do they make the planks you walk along to get onto the boat out of wood that has gaps between it? Why do they let you look down and see the water lapping below? Well I wasn’t happy. My first comment was ‘It’s ok but I’ll pass.’ Then it turned out that I wasn’t going to be allowed to stay on the shore on my own, besides which the swans were looking pretty menacing. I had to really pull myself together to walk across it. I was expecting the water to come splashing up at any moment to try and wet my paws, or worse, to wash me into the murky depths of Lake Windermere. I now need to have a discussion with my mistress to understand exactly what is going to be expected of me in the summer. This really can’t be the only way to get me on and off the boat. I think they should, at the very least, obtain a gangway with no gaps between the planks. The trip itself was very easy in comparison. I had to stand on my back legs with my body on my mistress’s lap so that I could see over the rail, Then the wind kept blowing my ears inside out, but none of that was really a problem compared to the gangway.