By no means could our time at Hawkesbury Junction be
described as wasted. First there was a day spent making marmalade...
...whilst at the
same time cutting and splitting all the remaining ash that we had on the roof.
The next day Diane came to visit, which of course involved cake, scones and
craftiness. That evening we went over to Lindsay and Paul’s boat and had a
takeaway. We were going to go out for a meal to celebrate Lindsay’s birthday,
but they’d had to take poor little Jack to the vet’s and were waiting for a
phone call to say they could go and get him. It wasn’t quite the celebration it
should have been, but it was good that we were able to be there and be a bit of
support for them. (Good news - a week later Jack is almost back to his old
self.) Lindsay had once again very kindly put our licence discs through her photo
editor and we were very impressed with the results.
In the morning we were up early for another of our road
trips. Going away from the boat in the winter requires planning. All the pipes
from the water tank to the taps have to be drained to prevent them from
freezing. Because we have a gas water heater this involves one of us opening
the drain valve while the other one blows into the hot tap in the kitchen. Ideally
we’d have emptied the freezer so we could turn the power off but there was
still stuff in it. Plan b was to run the gennie for a couple of hours with the
fridge on its coldest setting and the battery charger on, then turn the fridge
to its least cold setting just before we left. The forecast was for
temperatures between -2˚C and +4˚C, so hopefully, even with only a
small amount of sunshine, the solar panels would be able to keep up with the
power drain. As we knew we’d be coming back at dusk to a
cold boat, we let the fire go out then set it again so we’d be warm as quickly
as possible.
Our first port of call was Bristol to see Dave’s sister Anne. In the afternoon we had a walk through the city and round the floating harbour.
That evening there just happened to be a lantern parade in the city; local
junior schools, playgroups and nurseries had all come together to form a
brightly lit musical carnival that snaked through the streets just as dusk was
falling. We had a quick half in the Spotted Cow while we waited for it to
start, then followed the parade through the streets to the finish.
The amount
of effort that had gone into constructing all the various illuminations was
quite moving.
On the way back to Anne's bedsit, we came across this...
"Help Yourself Fresh Bayleaves"
...which was very serendipudosious as we'd run out about a week before.
Leaving Bristol the following morning we carried on into the
West Country to a little village near Bude, where our old friends Jacqui and Al
have bought a beautiful cottage.
We had an evening of catching up and they
taught us how to play 5 Crowns. Great game!
Another morning and another sunny drive westward, this time
to Sancreed, near Land’s End to see Kate, another of Dave’s sisters. We had
posh fish finger sandwiches at Sennen Cove with Kate and Rod, followed by a
stroll along the beach...
...then we all went over to Land’s End to watch the
sunset.
After dinner back at Kate’s flat we sat down and played Cluedo which,
despite Dave’s best attempts at cheating, Ann-Marie won, with Kate hot on her
heels.
In the morning we filled up the screenwash bottle for the
third time in as many days and set off up the A30 back towards the metropolis.
We popped in for a cuppa with John on our way, then left sunny Cornwall behind.
By the time we got to Karen’s it was foggy and cold again.
We’d gone to Karen’s because the following morning at 6am we
were working at Heathrow. Not quite as glamorous as you might imagine,
we were counting passengers boarding and alighting the Heathrow Express deep in
the bowels of the airport.
We finished at 2pm and drove back to the boat via
the chippy at Brinklow (excellent cod & chips). Within an hour of getting
back we’d got the fire lit, refilled the water pipes, had dinner and were in
bed with hot water bottles watching catch-up. The plan for the batteries had
worked and they were at 12.9 volts. Very impressive.
On a cold and sunny morning we left Hawkesbury and headed
north up the Coventry canal to Marsworth Junction where we turned right onto
the Ashby.
On the way we came across a boat that had come loose and was half
way across the cut.
On inspection, after we’d pulled over and hauled it back
in, we found that it still had a piling hook (sometimes called a nappy pin) attached
to the back rope; either it hadn’t been hooked onto the Armco properly or, more
likely as we were on the outskirts of Nuneaton, some jovial young prankster had
unhooked it.
As we came past Burton Hastings the clouds gathered and the sun
started to disappear. We pulled up at the next likely looking spot at Goodacres
Bridge and had lunch while we decided what we were going to do in the
afternoon.
Our view at Goodacres Bridge
As the weather was still OK we plumped for moving the car forward to Basin Bridge where there was a very handy car park.
When sold our house, we gave Digs and Bailey, our two cats,
to Mum & Dad. Digs died about four years ago and on the walk back for the
car, we got the very sad news that Bailey, after using up far more than nine
lives, had gone to join her. He’d lived with Mum & Dad almost as long as
he’d lived with us and they were really upset, but we all agreed that at
seventeen he’d had a good innings and he’d been on borrowed time for six months
or so. He was a fabulous cat, everyone’s best mate and the world is a sadder
place without him.
After one night at Goodacres Bridge we moved up to Basin Bridge where the car was parked.
We’d only been back at the boat for a week and we were off
again. Unlike the spur of the moment Cornwall trip, this time we’d had a fair
amount of time to organise ourselves. That meant we’d eaten all the food in the
freezer (the final few meals had been interesting to say the least) so just
before we left we could isolate the domestic batteries and leave them connected
to the solar panels. Once again we set the fire, but as the forecast didn’t
have any sub-zero numbers on it we didn’t have to drain the water pipes.
Our off-boat travels this time were to Antrim to celebrate
Caleb’s Christening. We’ll tell you all about it next time and try not to bombard you
with hundreds of pictures of the most gorgeous baby in the world.
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