Friday 24th April to Saturday 16th May
Tuesday 28th April
Upon our return to Crick last Thursday, I immediately contacted Dave,
our engineer, to let him know we were home. After that it was simply a case of
tracking him down and arranging for him to check our batteries out, which he
did on Friday morning.
It was then arranged for him to come by on Monday morning, so as to
decide when to change to change the batteries over. As it happened, I tracked
him down elsewhere in the marina, and he suggested I go along to Midland
Chandlers at Braunston and buy the batteries, which we did later in the
morning.
I’m now expecting him to come along this morning and do the necessary.
Wednesday 29th April
Dave came along yesterday and changed our batteries. So far, so good.
However, when it came to checking everything was OK, it wasn’t. We had no
indication of the state of the starter battery on our Distribution Panel. It
took a goodly amount of time before he found a loose connection, which happens
sometimes when playing with electrics. Eventually all was well and life returns
to normal.
In a couple of weeks he’ll be along again to connect up our immersion
heater, which will save considerably on diesel.
Saturday 2nd May
Took the bus into Rugby on Thursday morning then, in the afternoon, we
had a good sort out of clothes. It’s surprising how old bit of clothing is
replaced by new, but the old lies around for ages before it’s parcelled up and
recycled. In this instance we have a black sack full to take over to the
recycling bin in Daventry, which we’ll do sometime next week, on a day when we
can take the car out and have some chance of getting back in the carpark.
Yesterday we made a start on the cupboards and managed to throw out
some useless items and fill a shopping bag with stuff for the charity shop. All
in all a pretty successful couple of days.
Today, after lunch, we’ll make a start on our bookshelves, which are
also overloaded with useless tat, all of which needs to be sitting on a charity
shop shelf. We could be pretty busy next week.
Sunday 3rd May
Yesterday was a pretty good day weather-wise, which is more than can be
said for last night and this morning, when it’s been raining for most of the
time. It has stopped now, but it looks like there’s more to come.
We have a multi-shelf book case that sits behind our armchairs, and
these are what we sorted out yesterday, after our coffee and biscuits of
course. After completing this necessary chore, I was amazed at the pile of
books we were throwing out. I was even more amazed when I compared that pile to
the spaces left over. Somehow I didn’t believe all those books could have been
in there!!
Anyway, we took some of them over to the site wash room, which has book
shelves and works on the basis of, take a book and replace it with another one.
Now, as if that wasn’t enough exercise for one day, we decided to take
a walk before lunch. The initial aim was to walk along the towpath to Crick
Tunnel and then turn around and make our way back. However, being the
adventurous couple that we are, we took a pathway leading up to some fields and
followed the Public Footpath signs.
This all looked innocent enough but, by the time we had completed the
walk; which finished at our local Post Office; we had crossed five fields and
six stiles. With my dodgy legs that was no mean feat, I can tell you. Still, we
all need exercise, but I think I’ll give that particular walk a miss in future.
Tuesday 5th May
Yesterday morning, after our usual walk to the shops for the paper, we
set to and sorted out all the gumph under my side of the dinette, and what a
load of gumph there was too.
After re-packaging the books and such from yesterday’s effort, we now
had a load more books to sort out. We also had quite a bit of junk too, which
went into the skip.
Today we plan on driving over to Daventry to dispose of the old
clothing, along with books and such to the local charity shops.
I’m not sure when we’ll be tackling Wifey’s side of the dinette, but I
don’t suppose we’ll be in the mood for it after our trip to Daventry.
Thursday 7th May
We’ve had two days of horrid weather but, at last it seems to have
settled down now. We had a clear out of Wifey’s side of the dinette yesterday,
and now we have to take it the stuff we don’t want into Rugby this morning.
Dave Hull should be along on Monday to wire up our Immersion Heater.
Saturday 9th May
Yesterday, with not much planned regarding clearing out the boat, we
took Alex over to Daventry Country Park and then settled down for a lazy day.
Sunday 10th May
We met Pauline as we were walking through the village and asked if she
and Chris would like to join us at the club today. She said she would have
words with Chris, but that it would mean staying longer than they had planned.
Sadly they decided to get moving along. However, they will be back for the Boat
Show, so we might see them again.
Monday 11th May
Dave Hull should be coming around to connect up our Immersion Heater
this morning. Although, having said that, there’s really no telling when that
will be. He’s so busy and so popular that there’s no telling what else he has
on today.
Yesterday we ran into a bit of good luck; which makes a nice change
when you consider the amount of money we’ve had to shell out of late. As usual,
it being a Sunday, we strolled up to the club for a couple of drinks and some
snacks. We had just sat down when, out of the blue, our barmaid came over and
told us we’d won the meat raffle. This is drawn every week and I usually put in
a couple of quid.
So, we waited until we were about to leave and then called Wendy over
and asked her to get our prize out of the freezer. Well, the last time we won
anything there was a £10 voucher for the butchers shop in a village some
distance away. This time however, we had won a 3.0Kg tray of huge pork chops.
When we got them back to the boat and waited for them to defrost, we
found we had eight of them. So, we now have a pork dinner for almost every day
this week. Can’t be bad, can it??
Today, after Dave has sorted out the Immersion Heater, we’ll probably
take a run over to Daventry and dispose of the rest of our rubbish.
With the Crick Boat Show looming we’ve all been told to remove our cars
from our car park to the main one. It seems that the people setting up the
displays need our car park for their trucks and things. Later on and prior to
the show starting, everybody will have to move their cars to one of the
outlying fields. Actually, we’re quite looking forward to the show. The last
time we attended was when we found the boat we now live on.
Tuesday 12th May
Dave turned up to wire in our Immersion Heater yesterday which, due to
its awkward location, took him about two hours. We let it run for a further
hour +, but still no hot water came through.
At that point we switched it off and took Alex for a walk and, just as
we were heading towards the gate, along came Dave and he wasn’t happy with the
news. Mind you, that Immersion had been there since 2009, so perhaps it’s no
good now.
Later in the evening, just as we were climbing into bed, Sheila
imparted some pearls of wisdom; which I have since emailed to Dave. She tells
me that this Immersion Heater MUST be wired into the landline mains and CAN’T
be used whilst cruising.
Now, we know that he actually took a spur off the washing machine
switch; assuming, no doubt, that this was also wired to landline mains, when in
fact it is wired to the Inverter/Charger.
These pearls of wisdom I have also imparted to Dave, who probably won’t
be happy. It may well be that this makes no difference, but I have a sneaky
suspicion that………….!!!
Anyway, we’ll see what he has to say when he gets here this morning.
Thursday 14th May
Dave arrived on Tuesday morning and discovered that the reset button on
the immersion heater had popped out. This meant that, just for a change, the
boating gods were smiling upon us, because we didn’t have to pay for a new one.
Hallelujah brother!!!
Yesterday we drove over to Daventry, topped up with petrol, disposed of
a trolley load and a bag full of books, then popped into Tesco for a wee bit of
shopping and the latest Eric Clapton disc.
Today we’ll be taking the bus into Rugby to top up with books from
charity shops.
Already the people are arriving to set up for the forthcoming Boat
Show. Our small car park has been taken over and we’ll all be moving our cars
to nearby fields. We all hope it will be dry on the weekend of the show.
Later…… Well, we popped into town, visited a few charity shops, did a
wee bit of shopping, had a coffee and tea cake at our favourite coffee shop,
and managed to catch the next bus back.
It’s now 3 pm and raining quite hard, but we really do need to walk the
dog and visit the office, so wet weather gear on and off we go.
But first I’ll post this blog and wish you a very pleasant Friday and
weekend.
Saturday 16th May
Ooops! Our Internet signal wasn’t up to much on Thursday and I was
unable to post this blog. I have since re-erected the antenna that goes with
the WiFi Unit and it is now much stronger. I suppose that being surrounded by
so much metal the signal gets bounced around. At present we don’t have a boat
next to us on the antenna side, although that will probably change if many more
boats are moved from the main marina.
So, without further ado I’ll wish you a great weekend and try again.
All the best from Dave, Sheila and Alex.
