Monday 10th August to Friday 21st August
Monday 10th August
Yesterday, I’m very pleased to say, was a little cooler, but still too
hot for working on the paintwork. So, after paying the local shop a visit, for
the mail and milk, we spent the day idling away the time and spent an hour
sitting outside The Greyhound Inn.
Today we’ll be moving on to Springwood Haven and, if the weather stays
cool, we’ll get some more rubbing down done.
Tuesday 11th August
After a walk round to the shop yesterday morning, we finally left
Hawkesbury Junction at 08.30 and arrived at Springwood Haven at 11.00, just
about the right time for coffee and biscuits.
Along the way we passed the Trip Boat out of Boot Wharf in Nuneaton and
who should be driving it was none other than a boater we haven’t seen for some
time, whose name is Dave. He and his wife Jackie were moored at Pillings Lock
Marina at the same time as us, which was way back in 2009/10; the same period
as when I had my knees replaced.
That Trip Boat had only just left the Wharf and, as we came round the
bend we came face to face with a right jumble of boats. One of them was about
to reverse back to the wharf, whilst another was attempting to give him room to
do so, and then along came Shiralee to stir things up a bit. Eventually the
other boaters decided it would be better to make room for Shiralee before
sorting themselves out.
By early afternoon the clouds had drifted over and we were able to get
a small amount of rubbing down done, after which Wifey applied the rust killer.
Today we’ll be off to Atherstone where we’ll do some shopping and more
rubbing down, we hope.
Wednesday 12th August
It took 2½ hours to cover the four miles and five locks to Atherstone
yesterday morning, all in fine, dry weather. Our first priority, as you all
know, was our coffee and chocolate biscuits, after which a visit to the local
Co-op.
Now, we have three puzzle books that we buy every month; Puzzler’s
Sudoku and Suguru, along with Killer Sudoku, which is Wifey’s speciality. Unfortunately
Suguru is fairly new, and so the Co-op hasn’t quite caught up with that one and
we even find that Smith’s don’t always have it on their shelves either. So,
first thing this morning we’ll be taking a walk down the High Street, to see if
we can find it in another Newsagent. However, since it is now a week since the
latest issue came out, I have my doubts about finding it.
Around about midday yesterday Wifey took Alex for a long walk;
something she likes to do most days. I sat reading for a while and, when I
judged she should be back soon, I put the kettle on for a cuppa. We don’t use
the electric kettle when cruising, because it draws too much power from the
batteries, so it’s the old fashioned gas stove model for us, which take some
time to boil.
So, aforementioned kettle is about to come to the boil and I stuck my
head out of the hatch and I could just see her coming along by the sixth lock.
When she finally arrived a few minutes later, along came our old friends from
Kecksy’s farm in Sawbridgeworth, Bill and Babs.
Of course we had a quick chat as they passed by but, as I fully
expected from Bill, he walked back to us for a more lengthy chat and to catch
up on the latest from Sawbridgeworth. Amongst other topics were the loss of
their dog, Mollie and the loss of a friendship at the farm. We discovered also
that he’s not too fond of the form of art that Picasso turned out, and that
he’s under his doctor with various complaints, very much like I am. Well, he’s
76 now, although you wouldn’t think he suffered from anything more than the odd
cold here and there.
We’ll be staying at Atherstone today and, if the weather is in our
favour, will go through the rest of this string of locks and moor up again. We
plan to be in Polesworth for the weekend.
Almost forgot, our Alex has become pretty close to Wifey and is none
too happy when she’s out of sight. He’s OK when we both go off shopping; in
itself pretty odd; but he frets when she’s off the boat and operating the
locks. Yesterday he kicked up quite a stink as she walked between locks and
started howling, almost like a wolf and quite loud. We’ve not known him to do
so before, not even when going through locks, so it seemed quite comical this
time around.
Thursday 13th August
It is now 07.10 and, although overcast, it’s still dry out there. I
mention this because we really would like to go down the remaining four locks
and moor up away from the noise of local traffic and trains. Unfortunately,
according to Shefali Oza, the weather girl at BBC West Midlands, we’re due for
some pretty heavy rain this morning. So, will we get away, or won’t we? Watch
this space.
Friday 14th August
The forecast storms and such didn’t turn up yesterday morning so we
ventured forth, down four locks and were moored up within an hour of leaving
Atherstone.
Later in the day we started getting the odd wasp in the boat, which
Wifey swiftly caught and released out of the hatch, only to find another one
somewhere else in the boat. Eventually we found them coming in in twos and
threes, so we closed all the windows, which made it pretty warm in here,
especially when Wifey started cooking dinner.
Even though all the windows were closed, still the little blighters
were finding their way in. Wifey suggested they were crawling in through the
condensation drainage holes in the bottom of the windows. But those holes
aren’t big enough, or so we thought. However, when she actually saw a wasp
coming out of one of those holes in a bedroom window, we were proved wrong. The
only other place they were likely to be finding a way in, would have been
through the sides of the stern hatch. The problem was somewhat minimised when Wifey
stuffed the holes in the bedroom with kitchen towel.
The rain eventually turned up during the night and, even if it starts
again this morning we’ll want to be away from this wasp-infested area. Our next
stop will be Polesworth, assuming there’s enough space for us, otherwise we’ll
continue on to Fazeley.
Sunday 16th August
Here at Polesworth we are moored up with trees on both sides of the
canal. Because of this the inside of the boat is rather chilly come morning.
Yesterday morning I tried to put the heater on, but without any luck and, with
our distribution panel showing 12.2 volts, I thought it ought to have worked.
However, since I hadn’t run the engine until the batteries reached their float
charge, I assumed low power to be the problem. Well, this morning proved me
wrong, no heater again. We ran the engine for a total of 5 ½ hours yesterday
and brought the batteries to float on both occasions and, what’s more, we
didn’t have the inverter/charger on at all, except when Wifey did the ironing,
but the engine was running at that point, so shouldn’t have made a difference.
I think Wifey had her suspicions yesterday evening, because she asked
me if I wanted the fire lit, but I decided against it. This morning I am
sitting here with a cardigan on, because it’s like sitting in an icebox right
now. So, fire alight later today and I also have to repair our Eco-Fan in order
to spread the heat about.
Thursday 20th August
On Monday morning, in order to top up with water, we moved the boat
about 100yds to the water point and then a short distance further on to a
mooring point. Then, later in the day we continued to rub down the starboard
side below the gunwale.
On Tuesday morning we completed the six miles to Whittington and, after
a bit of shopping at the local Co-op and a coffee, we completed the rubbing
down and rust proofing of the area we rubbed down on Monday.
Yesterday was a day that begged us to start painting the back half of
the roof, which we set about doing as soon as we had visited the Co-op once
again. We first removed the centre rope and other objects that usually clutter
up that half of the roof, such as the pole, plank and boat hook. Sheila elected
to paint from the port side, whilst I worked from the towpath side.
We finished that half of the roof and took a break for lunch, after
which we hemmed and hawed as to whether to remove the top-box and flower boxes
and painting the front half. Shame on us but we decided against it and, as you
would expect, we were treated to loads of rain later and overnight, so the
chances of doing so today are pretty remote. So far it has stayed dry today,
but probably not enough for the roof to dry out for more painting. Still, we
continue to moor up on this side until Saturday, when we’ll be at Handsacre for
the weekend and, if the weather stays dry we should be able to finish the roof.
Friday 21st August
Hallelujah!! We finally finished the roof yesterday afternoon.
Thankfully, although it threatened rain for most of the day, we had a fairly
decent breeze that dried the overnight dew off. So, we left it until early
afternoon and got stuck in, and now we only have the sides below the gunwale to
finish off.
Of course, there’s more to do over the rest of the boat, such as the
outside of the bow and stern, along with the whole interior of the bow and
especially the floor, which need a good rub down and several coats of paint,
but we can do that by stopping for a few days somewhere away from the madding
crowd.
Now, it’s Friday morning and we’ll be off to Fradley Junction but,
before we do I’ll wish you all a very pleasant weekend and post this blog.
All abreast from Dave, Sheila and Alex.
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