Saturday 24th August 2019



A busy day today it seemed. Brenda went to the butchers to pick up the vacuum packed meat while I revisited the Top Lock Shop. After taking on water we moved into the marina for fuel and gas. Staff in this marina, we have found, are largely disinterested to say the least. We took on a gas bottle and had started to refuel when it was noticed on the pump that they only give fuel at the 60/40 split and the price was £1.20. Shocking. And the declared fuel split is absolutely nothing to do with them. It is between yourself as a boater and the Government, sellers of fuel are purely the middle men. We promptly stopped fuelling, paid our money and left.

We stopped off at Midland Chandlers to part with more money. We bought engine oil and hull blackening paint apart from a few other bits and bobs. We also looked at their reclining chairs.

We had bought our armchairs from Next, they had to be ordered and were expensive, but we have found them to be too big for the boat and never found them comfortable. The boat had to be built around them and we were under the impression they would have to be broken up to remove them. So before replacing them we want to be absolutely sure. Midland Chandlers will deliver anywhere in the country so we will wait awhile.

It was quite late on in the day when we eventually left Braunston so we decided to go as far as one of our winter mooring sites near Dunchurch Pools Marina, just across the bushes from Oxley Young Offenders Institution, the largest of its kind in Europe.

It had been a very hot day and we were glad of the shade at the mooring. We played about with the armchairs and found we can get them out of the boat by removing the side windows. All’s good.

It was a glorious afternoon and evening. We sat on the bank with Brenda reading and myself making cabin strings before a barbeque. The night was dead still, the skies super clear and all the stars out.



Weather: hot, hot, hot.



Day Total: 0 locks; 3 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; Day’s running hours 1.7

Overall Total: 705 locks; 1231 miles; 49 tunnels; 57 Swing Bridges; 11 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; total engine running hours 776.8hrs










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