Penultimate Weekend

Off to the boat this Friday – taking the old TV & Sat box back up as a neighbour is keen to have it plus I’m taking a car load of stuff … then it’s back to clean house – paint bits of house … big hand over on Friday 30th, the girls move in and then . . so long, farewell … wish me luck as you wave me goodbye … we’re off to a life afloat. More on that story later.

Most of our possessions are either in the local tip, someone else’s problem or sitting stacked up in our lean-to. Ebay & PayPal have made a fortune out of our sales!  Still it’s been good to shed so much accumulated junk from the last 20+ years.  Anyone want a red leather 3 piece suite??

Thought I’d take a few early pix before a single soul stirred and spoiled the flat glass-like surface of the marina. Looks like a good day for painting!

If all goes well we’ll be on board permanently at the end of October

Back on board

Just a quick visit to bring more “stuff”.
The house is slowly emptying, this time the TV, sat box and dvd played came up. The old Sony 26" plus Humax box will be up for sale when I get back. I also brought all the beer brewing kit up, got a nice American Pale Ale to brew next month, when hopefully we move on board. 30th looks like the date. Most of me chores done – fire’s on and we’re all cosy. Remedial painting tomorrow.
Home Sunday or Monday.

End of the wee holiday

We moved to Welford junction, some 3 hours from Foxton. Rain was forecast so we left after lunch and it did chuck it down later that night and ALL next day. Well it is was Bank Holiday Monday. The plan was to do some of that remedial painting but no, it wasn’t to be. We thought we could stay another day and wait for some dry weather but having to run the engine, we’d might as well get on and go back to the marina – only 3 hrs away … so we did … in the drizzle.

We got back to Yelvertoft at 4, just in time to queue for the service pontoon! Just a refuel (some 160 litres!), then back in our slot.  Home again.

We packed up on Tuesday and went back to the house … more prospective tenants looming – hopefully we’ll back at the boat soon and this time … for good!

Day 20 – Kilby to Foxton

There was a nice couple moored in front of us on Toe the Line, we were up and ready to go at 0830 for the 15 locks to Foxton but would definitely prefer sailing in convoy, so we let them gather their senses, have a fry up and then leave together  … at 0940.

We didn’t take many pix as we had come this way before. Much easier going back as we’d done this stretch all on our own some 3 weeks ago. Gosh is it only 3 weeks – seems like we’ve been out for months. Easily losing track of the day now. We arrived at Foxton hours ahead of any plan that we might of had, even though we were following a day-hire boat who’s occupants drove at 1 mph all the way from Saddington tunnel to Foxton. Odd.

Still much to our surprise, Foxton wasn’t that busy, it was late afternoon and so we were added to the Lock keeper’s list of boats. As soon as Life Goes On (also from Yelvertoft) comes down we could go in! Viv was going to drive this time and I’d do the locks!

A big Grockle centre this and a pain to “moor and wait” as opposite to us is a tour boat’s moorings and there are so many others coming and going . .  you can see here the two pubs plus souvenir shop … right off we go Viv . .

Viv did a grand job of driving the 20 ton, 65 feet boat thru all these cavernous lock chambers

all I did was wind up the very easy paddles and chat with the volunteer lock keepers and grockles.  All the gates were opened by young children …good.

Quite a quick uphill climb and a moor up at the visitor moorings along the top level but we had a problem – loud rumblings from the prop and no steering!

No waurez. Boat’s not going anywhere. Up with the stern hatch and open up the weed hatch to reveal a huge square of thick, black plastic neatly collaring the prop – sorted:

After a longish day, time for a remedial pint of Inclined Plane at the Bridge 61 pub and then back for turkey risotto leftovers.

So that’s it, no more locks, we’ve done 144 in total and will have covered around 166 miles. 

We’ll move from here later, after the rain (which has so far failed to arrive) to Welford for the Bank Holiday weather (yes a whole day of rain forecast) and then hopefully some of that remedial painting if we can.

Then it’s back to home at Yelvertoft and then back to the house to try and get it rented out.

Day 19 Leicester to Kilby Bridge

image

A nice bright day as we bid farewell to the city of Leicester. Dozens of swans gather on this stretch as we head for Freeman’s Meadow Lock. I snapped this one coming in to land.

We did see a neighbour, Peggy Ellen, opposite but they didn’t seem ready to go so we pushed off … they came along later and caught us up. So, in convoy again – nice, as these locks can be heavy.

image

Kilby bridge for lunch & overnight.

image

A scenic spot. Evening meal was over in the Navigation. Friday night is fish night, so Steve had a Navigation burger (£6.95) and Viv had Thai fishcakes. Very tasty and good value with Adnams Broadside to wash them down.

Sunset

image
image

Day 18, I think, Leicester!

We decided to stay a second night. Something we’ve not done for a while and also to give the solar panels a chance to prove their mettle in keeping the batteries alive. Had to wait for the sun to come round but at full sun it was putting over 20 amps out … nice. Also chance for Viv to visit the open market:

image

Quite a pleasant city . .

image
image

Quite a lot of fuss over this chap … whose remains they dug up under a car park …

image

Saw his tomb in the cathedral but wasn’t too keen to pay the £7.65 to visit the Richard III experience … I can’t but helping thinking about the rhyming slang!

image

Saw this strange craft passing by … it’s a weed cutter.  It has a giant underwater cutter … could have done with this ahead of us on the Erewash Canal.

Bought some fresh seafood in the market to supplement the frozen ones . . another pauper’s supper:

Wanlip to Leicester

We spent the morning walking the dog in the Watermead Country Park – a huge park – once gravel pits but now a series of large lakes, which Toby just loves. As the sun then came out, we thought we’d push on to Leicester – just 3 hours away. A beautiful, scenic route along the Soar:

There’s that Space Centre again

Swan’s nest bridge and on into Leicester to those visitor pontoon moorings again:

An evening sortie into the city . .  past the cathedral …

and our quest … to locate the Ale Wagon – owned by the Hoskins family, who used to have their own brewery (Tom Hoskins) many years ago. Some good beers (Tiny Rebel – “Dirty Stop Out”, oak smoked stout, nice and a few of their own beers too). 

Then on to the Criterion …

where we tried their Pig Pub beer “Weiner Citra” – very nice.

Day 16 – Wanlip

Shortish day today as rain promised in the afternoon. We’ve had very Camelot weather on this trip, i.e. sun during the day and rain at night or after we’ve stopped chugging along. So 3 to 4 hours today – lovely bimble along the river Soar. The boat really does pick up her skirts and zoom along. It’s actually nice to retrace our steps … we went too fast & too rushed coming down, so chance to have another look. Some very twisty bits, then Barrow-upon-Soar, Mountsorrel … then back to Wanlip and Watermead Country Park – full of lakes for the Boggle to go for a swim or six.  We decided to moor at the Hope & Anchor (is there a theme to this trip??), as there’s free mooring, a water point and open views to assist the solar panels … although in the rain – they don’t do much. Still, an amp is an amp. We’ve collected nearly 300 ampere-hours so far … only 36,000 to go to recoup the outlay!  The main point of having them is to lay off using the engine to charge batteries in a nice secluded & quiet spot.

Talking of that black Boggle, here he is.  Still a bit skittish over boat life and every bump makes him cry “Let me off!”.  Still, I’d like to think he is getting better.

Saw this fellah, opposite our mooring today. We also spotted an otter swimming across the river.

The 1860 conveyor or Echo bridge, No 25 near Mountsorrel.

A bit damp but our mooring for a night or maybe two

With heavy rain forecast overnight – bit concerned to see their flood defences in the car park. Time to ease springs …