Shiralee: Cruise 2014 #4

Saturday 26^th April to Friday 2^nd May

 Sunday 27^th April

 We cruised the five and a half miles to Hinkley Wharf yesterday morning, mainly because we needed to collect some mail from the local Post Office. (Thanks Bruv)

 After the usual cup of coffee, we then took the bus into Nuneaton, just for a wee bit of shopping. We won’t get another chance until Wednesday, which is when we’ll be at Atherstone.

 Strange to say that, while we’re at the marina for winter, I have plenty of trouble with my painful calf muscles and feet. It’s not as if I don’t get enough exercise while we’re there, what with walks to the shops and around Rugby and Northampton; which, by the way, only has one ‘h’ in it, as opposed to the two that virtually every TV broadcaster uses when pronouncing it. I hate that!! Similarly with Southampton, it’s South-ampton, not South-hampton. So there!!

 But I digress. Today, we’ll stay here and pop into the Wharf Inn at lunchtime, rather than move along to Lime Kilns, which is only a mile away.

 If it stays dry, I just might get some more painting done on the roof this morning. Rain yesterday and Friday, and the roof needs to be left to dry out thoroughly before I can do any more.

 Other than that, I foresee a pretty normal Sunday, which will include the Mail and a coffee.

 Monday 28^th April

 Off to bridge 3 this morning, but I fear that still no painting will get done, the clouds are really threatening this morning. Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to put my feet up.

 I didn’t get any painting done yesterday either, because it rained pretty heavily in the afternoon.

 Tuesday 29^th April

 About a week ago on a visit to Nuneaton, we called into a Maplin’s store and bought a 500Gbt Seagate external hard drive. We already have two, smaller Verbatim drives but, since they have been playing up lately, we thought it best to get a new one. However, having installed the Seagate Dashboard, I now have a nice, new nag screen popping up almost every time I use the laptop. This I do not find at all amusing. In fact it’s getting on my nerves and the only thing I can think to do – since the help files don’t tell me how to switch this pop-up off, is uninstall the Dashboard. Ain’t that great? Anyway, I’m sure I’ll sort it out, but first I’ll go to the Seagate home page and see what they have to say.

 Yesterday we travelled about five miles and stopped at bridge 3, which leaves us just under a mile to the end of the Ashby and on to the Coventry canal. We have until the 9^th of May to reach our meeting place on the Birmingham and Fazeley canal, so we still have plenty of time, because that’s less than 20 miles away. We need to stop off at Fazeley anyway, because we need to go to the local out-of-town shopping centre for Wifey’s cross-stitch threads.

 I also managed to get some undercoating done yesterday afternoon. The plan is that, when we get to Fazely we’ll stop with the starboard side to the towpath and get that side of the roof undercoat finished. We’ll then move along and turn around at the nearest winding hole and face in the opposite direction to finish the port side undercoat. After that it’s anybody’s guess as to when the roof gets a full coat of Donegal Green.

 Unfortunately we still have much more to do, both on the green and the cream. As for the maroon colour, well, I doubt we’ll get that lot done this time out.

 Wednesday 30^th April

 Well, that’s our first month out of the way and maybe we can look forward to some decent weather for our BCN cruise, starting on the 10^th May.

 Yesterday morning we took a gentle run down to bridge 24 on the Coventry canal, which is just before Springwood Haven marina. Strange to say, not one other boat moored nearby. We’ve moored here on many occasions and there have always been other boats here. This is the first time that we’ve had no company.

 Anyway, as it rained on us on the way here there was no way I could get any painting done, so that will have to be later today, assuming it stays dry. We’ll be heading for Atherstone this morning, where we have four miles and five locks to contend with. That will be the first set of locks since leaving Hawkesbury Junction and travelling along the Ashby which, when you need a break, is all lock free. We’ll be staying at Atherstone for two days.

 I’m becoming rather concerned at the delay in processing my driving licence renewal. I first sent in my application at the latter end of February, after which the DVLA then asked for a new photo, and they followed this with a new medical questionnaire. Both of these requests were dealt with immediately and were sent by Guaranteed Next day Delivery.

 The questionnaire also asked if I had any objections to them acquiring my medical records; which they would have done by asking my GP at Crick; but, as of yesterday no such request has been forwarded to the surgery. So, do I contact DVLA again and be a pain in the you-know-what, or do I wait a little longer?

 It was reported in the national press some time ago, that DVLA are asking Government to waive the age related renewal of licences until the age of 80, rather than the current 70, simply because they are having to deal with so many. However, when I last submitted a renewal three years ago, it was dealt with pretty quickly. So, you can see why I’m becoming concerned about the delay.

 I sent the questionnaire in on 26^th March and it was signed for on the 27th and it’s now another month.

 After a month of cruising and running our engine for a couple of hours in the evening, I’m happy to note that we’re having no problems with power. This is all down to Simon and his finding that loose connection on the heater unit. All we have to do is ensure we keep the batteries topped up, by continuing with the couple of hours running of engine in the evenings, and we should be OK for the rest of this trip.

 Thursday 1^st May

 Yesterday we took a slow meander along the Coventry canal, from Springwood Haven to Atherstone, taking in about four miles and five locks. After the third of these locks we had to stop for a boat coming up from the next lock. The young woman driving the holiday boat didn’t seem too competent and so, like all good, experienced boaters, we held open the lock gates and operated the paddles for her, which was when we discovered why she was driving the boat, her other half had had the misfortune to fall into the water and was drying himself off. How embarsking for him, what??

 Now, after giving the matter due consideration, I realised that, although it has been over two months since I first applied to renew my driving licence, it’s actually only been a month since I submitted the medical questionnaire. So, since I don’t want to provoke the very nice people at DVLA into revoking my licence, I think I’ll allow them a couple of weeks more. That’s only fair on those hard-pressed government minions, isn’t it?

 With the printer that Chris gave us; which was rather old and decrepit; I could run light watercolour paper through without a problem. Sadly this new Epson is unable to pass the extra thickness through, which means that I can’t cheat with my pastels. Shame! I’ll just have to go with the other method, which entails tracing over the main parts of the photo I want to paint, reversing the tracing and going around it with a charcoal pencil, then laying the charcoal side on my watercolour paper and pressing down. This leaves a faint impression of the picture, which I can then follow with my pastels.

 Since leaving Crick on 1^st of April, we’ve been unable to find a shop that sells postcards. This is probably because none of the newsagents consider their area suitable for holiday makers, which is a shame because the Midlands has a lot going for it. However, as I promised Noel at Crick, that I would send him a gentle reminder once a month about running the car, I’ve had to resort to a Notelet. Fortunately we have some here from the RNLI, so he’ll have to make do with that.

 Today is a shopping and chill-out day. Yesterday we wandered up Atherstone high street in search of books, which we found plenty of at the various charity shops. We actually arrived back at the boat with nine, which must be a record. Unfortunately, the one book that will allow us to continue a Wilbur Smith sequence of stories was still unavailable. We’ve even tried Smith’s and Waterstone’s, but with no luck at either. Not to worry though, we still have many others to get through, but we are wondering where this particular book is hiding.

 Friday 2^nd May

 Another Bank Holiday weekend is almost upon us and we’ll be moving along a short distance this morning. We’ve done five of the 11 Atherstone locks so far and will go down another four and stop way out there in the sticks. If the weather holds up and stays dry for us, we’ll make Polesworth for Saturday morning and spend the weekend there.

 Yesterday we spotted a boat go by that will be travelling with us along the BCN. About a week ago Colin, the owner of that boat, emailed everybody and I replied to it. He obviously recognised our boat yesterday, because he emailed again this morning telling us where they are going today; some lakes or other on the Birmingham and Worcester. Obviously he and his wife aren’t retired yet because, had they been so they probably wouldn’t be travelling all that way in one day, which makes us rather lazy, I supposed.

 Anyway, may we wish you a very pleasant holiday weekend and, if at all possible, have a bit of fun.

 Cheers for now.

 Dave and Sheila.