Weedon To Hillmorton

OK, so, you should have the latest blog to read, which I posted earlier this morning, now, on to the next phase.

It’s still Saturday 18th April, and we’re still at Weedon. We had thought to spend an hour or so trundling up to Whilton Marina at the bottom of Buckbey Locks but, as the head wind is pretty fierce and chilly with it, I think we’ll probably stay here for the weekend.

I have to confess, I am not the mildest mannered person in the world. Sometimes, especially when we’re mooring up in less than pleasant conditions, such as mud and rain, I do tend to lose my rag a bit. Impatience, most folks would call it. Yesterday was no exception because, when we arrived here we had some difficulty aligning the boat and, to make matters worse, I had problems attaching the hook for the stern line. Eventually I managed it, as you do, but it put me in a foul mood for a while. It also had the effect, as my moods can do, of causing my dear Wifey to go a little quiet, and who can blame her. Thank goodness she’s such an understanding person otherwise I’m sure she would have divorced me many years ago. As it is we have, for the most part, now enjoyed almost 29 years of marriage, and that day is fast approaching. Make a note in your diaries folks, but don’t tell her I told you, for 28th June, which is also her birthday.

Cheers for now, tomorrow’s another day and there’s a pretty good pub just around the corner!

Wednesday 22nd April 2009

Well now folks, life seems to be full of problems. Most of them are pretty minor, thank goodness but, from time to time a problem crops up that simply will not be cured.

Today, I attempted to send you all a message, but, for some reason best known to itself, Outlook would not comply. So, I checked my settings and, as I suspected, they were all as they should be. However, just to be on the safe side, I accessed my Shiralee account via IE and checked out just how Outlook and Outlook Express should be set up. Having followed the instructions, I still found my settings to be OK. So, now what? I know, thought I, I’ll email the company concerned who are, for your information, absolute-email.net and sent them a query, an answer to which I am still awaiting.

Meanwhile here we are at Norton Junction, where we arrived yesterday morning. The weather is absolutely glorious and long may it continue. Sometime today, around about 12.30 pm we’ll be popping across to the local watering hole for a lunchtime snack. In this lovely weather it really would be rude not to.

Hopefully, before the day is out, I’ll receive advice about my problems with Outlook/Outlook Express. It may be that I’ll have to re-install Internet Explorer 8 from Microsoft’s website. Up until Monday Outlook was performing correctly, but today it simply will not work at all.

Ah well, all for today.

Friday 24th April 2009

Yesterday – St. Geaorge’s Day – started bright and sunny and, since we’d outstayed our 48 hour welcome at Norton Junction, we set out at 7 am for Braunston Tunnel and the six locks going down to Braunston. Obviously we’re not the only travellers to start early in order to avoid coming face to face with another boat coming through the tunnel, because, as we arrived at the entrance, two more boats were just exiting it. Now, that’s what we call good timing. In the event we were moored up at Braunston by 9.15, which ain’t bad going, even if we do say so ourselves.

Anyway, once we’d had a cuppa and Wifey had done some shopping, we simply chilled out for the rest of the day. I had thought to try and get on line and have another bash at rectifying the fault with Outlook and Outlook Express but, even with two local, unsecured networks in the nearby marinas, the signal was too weak. I also tried the Modem, but could get no signal at all. Looking back in last year’s diary I discovered that Braunston is a dead spot as far as my Modem is concerned.

So, here we are and it’s already 2.30 in the afternoon and I’ve completed a long awaited spot of work on Shiralee, namely the installation of four new side fenders. Yesterday we called into the local chandlery in search of the heavy duty fenders that swivel. They are quite long, between a foot and 18 inches, have a length of rope running through the middle. Each end of the fender has a central bearing of some sort, that allows it to swivel, thus preventing it from becoming jammed up against such things as lock gates.

We also bought some brass attachments with an eye in for the rope to pass through. These have been riveted, by yours truly, to the handrail and the ropes have been attached and lashed together with strong twine and a few well placed cable ties. They are now permanently fixed to the boat, which should go some way to preventing the nay further damage being caused by reckless boaters. Nuff said!

Wifey of course, has spent some time making bread, which she has now become very efficient at and, in between times, has been fetching and carrying tools and such for me. Thank goodness for wives is all I can say.

I have now finished the 4th book in a series of seven, by James Patterson, which are called “Womens Murder Club”. If you enjoy crime drama you’ll enjoy these. Of course we’re a little prejudiced since we both love his books and have read, or have in our possession, almost all of them.

Tomorrow, although it does go against the grain somewhat, we’re on the move again, this time to Hillmorton. Against the grain because it’s Saturday and we’d promised ourselves we’d avoid weekend cruising. However, by morning we would have been here for the maximum 48 hours, so we really have no choice. Even so, we need to get to Hillmorton because it has a pub near to the towpath, and my Sunday lunchtime drinky poohs is calling.

With a bit of luck I’ll be able to go online tomorrow and post this blog but, if not, well, there’s always another day.

All for now. Enjoy your weekend.

Saturday 25th April 2009

What a day! Left Braunston at about 7.45 this morning with the intention of stopping for the weekend at Hillmorton. We’d no sooner filled up with water than the heavens opened up. But, since we’d already used up our 48 hours, there was nothing for it but to continue. A couple of times we were tempted to pull in but, sorry to say, my determination to enjoy a Sunday lunchtime tipple or three got the better of my good judgement.

As it happened, I couldn’t remember, for the life of me, what the moorings were like, having passed through there last year. Braving the rain was not, as we were to discover, not a good idea. Right next door to the pub, which stands by a bridge, is a marina, which is not the worst of it. Just past the bridge is a housing estate, and one can never be certain about security when moored up near such a place. Besides which that stretch of water is between the houses and trees, so I couldn’t guarantee getting online either. So, we continued on to a short distance from the first of three locks, and it’s not a bad spot either. T.V. is O.K. and, with all the Rugby aerials just across the canal from us, I’ll be most disappointed if I don’t get online to post this blog.

As you will no doubt recall, we spent our first winter on Shiralee at Kecksy’s Farm in Sawbridgeworth. In fact it was after being welcomed aboard Bill and Babs’s boat in 2005 that we finally sold up and bought Shiralee in September 2006. So, you can imagine our surprise when, just as I was making lunch, along they came in their boat Kaydee. Naturally they stopped for a chat and we caught up with all the gossip, including the fact that they had a couple of suicides a while ago. Apparently one was a fellow named Dean, who was the son of Marlene, the owner of Kecksy’s, whilst the other was another Dean, who owned a small cruiser. Strangely enough, the second Dean had just been allocated a boat space at the Moorhen Marina, so they’re at a bit of a loss as to why he took his own life. Both suicides were as a result of throwing themselves off the bridge and under trains.

Anyway, that’s the bad news, the good news is, that Bill and Babs are heading for the Lancaster Canal and the Ribble Link. We had given some thought to doing that run ourselves this year, but decided on the Llangollen instead. Also, since we have all but decided to do the Kennet and Avon next year, the Ribble Link will have to wait until 2011.

We’re not sure if we’re going to stay here tomorrow as well and, it being a Sunday, regardless of whether there’s a pub to go to, we’re not keen on travelling at weekends. We only did so today because we had to, otherwise we’d have stayed at Braunston.

So, there you have it for this blog, hopefully.

All abreast for now.

Dave, Sheila and Rusty.