Thursday 12^th July 2018

Managed to get a few good photos of the boat from across the canal below the Big Lock this morning. It is not often you get a view of the whole boat from this angle.

Nick, my drinking pal from the Golden Lion came for his breakfast. Nick had never been on a canal boat before and his perceptions were tiny, cramped and dark. He went away much more enlightened.

We then set off shopping at Tesco’s and Lidl’s and bought far too much stuff to carry in one go. We are regretting letting my rucksacks go. The smaller day sack would have been a lot easier. We have small rucksacks but they are just not big enough.

The space under the engine foundation was wiped clean of the oil left over from changing the oil in the gearbox. After taking on water we set off as far as the local dump to get rid of rubbish and also the oil from the oil changes. Then it was off up a well beaten track to try and get moored at Bramble Cuttings.

This was not to be though. It looks as though there is a Broken Cross Boat Club meeting. They, after all, maintain the area. There are four boats there and two are breasted up. So we are moored just after the bridge before Bramble Cuttings and, hopefully, in a prime position to get a space when the boats move off.

The weather today is much cooler with a lot of cloud. We still ate a barbeque outside though.

Aaron rang us. He is very upbeat about his new job and the training. It was good to hear him sounding positive and enthusiastic, it seems a while since he has sounded this way.

We are both getting fed up with our routine. We are just waiting for this electrical work and until it is done, are moving short distances, over familiar ground, every few days. We just want to get gone and explore pastures new. Start the adventure.

Sandra has now sorted the problem with the solar panels and so, strictly speaking, the rest of the work she is doing for us is cosmetic. However, we would both feel better if she looked the electrics over and so, until this is done, we are stuck and largely at her mercy.

Hopefully by this time next week we’ll be away and done.

The solar panels now, are working fine. At 9.30pm this evening battery capacity was 99%, this after cruising for less than an hour and on a cloudy day. It’ll be interesting to see what they are first thing tomorrow morning.

Day Total: 0 locks; 2 miles; 0 Tunnels; engine running hours 0.8

Overall Total: 99 locks; 185 miles; 8 tunnels; engine running hours 106.2