Sunday 17th May 2020



Beccles were leaving us today, bound for Tattenhall Marina where they had friends they had promised to do shopping for. It was a shame to break up the group but it had to happen eventually. We said our goodbyes to Terry, Sonia, Jess and Lauren. No doubt we will meet again in the future.

We walked up to visit Lol and Jackie off Caramia, moored above the lock, and spent a nice hour or so with them. They are a lovely couple, great fun and entertaining.

We called into the chandlery on the way back, my rope had arrived. Brilliant, now I can get on with some more wrap-around fendering.

At long last we managed to get a phone signal and speak to Tracey and the kids. This is the only down-side of Syke’s, the phone signal is very poor and intermittent. It was lovely speaking to the kids, it had been a long time, and great to use face-time and actually see them. We miss them terribly but are determined not to venture into Middlewich and risk seeing them. Manny’s voice has broken.

On the way back to the boat, we noticed that four of the five fishermen that had been on the towpath for the last three days and two nights had gone. They had not had a single bite between them in all that time and are putting it down to the quality of the water, full of green algae probably from the lack of boat movements meaning the water is not getting oxygenated.

We had decided that I would make a set of fenders for Gaia as a boat warming present and so, after measuring up, I set to, to make these while Brenda prepared a Sunday Roast chicken dinner for us all.

The four of us, Brenda and myself, Danny and Jemima, sat outside with dinner. It was nice to be having dinner outside. Food always seems to taste so much better outdoors and it was much enjoyed by all.

Afterwards, Danny went off to collect Jacob from Nantwich. I finished the first fender for Gaia, Danny and Jemima were very pleased with it. Jacob was so excited to be back with Jemima and his dad and we had missed him. We sat with a few more drinks before bed.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Thursday 6 th September 2018 We started off just before 10am in not too bad weather. The whole of the surface of the canal was covered in a kind of white dust. It turned out it was some kind of seed probably from trees, but it was a weird sight. We quickly came across the first lock of the day beside the Gallows Inn pub. We were going to stop here last night but we were both glad we hadn’t. The pub didn’t look very welcoming and the area didn’t seem the best. We had been warned that the locks on the Erewash Canal were heavy. And they are. Brenda was really struggling with many of them which is very unusual. Not just the weight of the gates but also the difficulty in operating the paddle gear. It is not a good idea to leave the boat unattended in a double lock when it is the only boat in there, but there were a few locks were we had to do just that and even I struggled mightily with the locks. Yesterday we saw just four boats on the move all day, and they were all go...
Read more
Image
Thursday 8 th August 2019 We had spoken with our neighbours yesterday, Ken and Mary, both in their mid-70’s who have lived on their boat, continuously cruising for 11 years. We had agreed to move up the river, doing the locks, together. After a couple of trips to Tesco’s, again taking the trolley right to the boat and buying a new cordless vacuum cleaner, we set off. It felt fantastic to be out on the Thames. At Caversham Lock, there seemed to be plenty of colour and lots of people watching the boats. We were held for a while at the lock with a queue of cabin cruisers ahead of us. It is necessary to hold an Environmental Agency licence for navigating on the Thames. We had been told at Blake’s Lock that we would be able to obtain one at Caversham, but the lock was being manned by a volunteer who did not have authority to issue licences. Beyond the lock was no doubt Reading’s better face and it looked lovely from the river. Reading Bridge was a particularly attractive brid...
Read more
Image
Friday 22 nd February 2019 The fog first thing this morning was so thick you could see no more than 50 yards. A harbinger of a nice day it turned out. We were on the move by 8am for the mile run-in to Atherstone and we moored just before the top lock near a road bridge that is very convenient for the town. We are opposite the derelict factory of Wilson and Stafford. This was a felt hat making enterprise that made hats that were exported all over the world until closure about 35 years ago. Apparently, slaves on the West Indies sugar plantations all wore hats made in Atherstone. The factory is a blight on the town. It has been sold several times for housing development and would make desirable apartments. The frontage of the building is listed but the problem lies inside. There are many chemicals absorbed into the fabric of the building including mercury, a heavy metal used in the making of hats and asbestos. It would cost a fortune to demolish or develop, including clos...
Read more