Sunday, July 12, 2009

Beware of the Wasps

We left Stockton flight at 9.30am and it was Thomas's turn to stay on board Derwent6. We made our way through Bascote Locks and at Wood lock there was one gate out of action due to a Wasps nest inside the lock gate. This took us out into the country before hitting Leamington Spa. We've got to say it must be a least 10 years ago when we last went through here, and we were pleasantly surprised. It was very clean and well kept with new houses backing onto the canal and new towpaths. There is even a new Lidl's with good moorings. We then got to the Saltisford Arm and managed to get in by breasting up the two boats.The first night here is free and then it' s four pounds a night and as we want to take all the children to Warwick castle tomorrow we will be staying a couple of nights. Cliff had a casserole going all day on the slow cooker and we all sat down with the sun setting on the bow of both boats. A nice night to the perfect day!!!!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Out with all the boys (and girls)

Horrible drizzle this morning.. but was up doing some interior cleaning and then we made our way down to Calcutt locks again as we were meeting up with family. Cliff, (Del's brother) Lou, and the five kids are hiring a boat from Calcutt marina and Len & Terry were coming on board with us. So we waited for them to have all their instructions before heading off towards Stockton Locks. Cliff did really well handling the 60 foot, nine berth boat they have and only went in the trees once! We got to the bottom of the flight with no problems and the kids loved it. We moored right outside The Blue Lias pub and got a few drinks with the kids playing on the swings and slides.It started to rain when another two crew members turned up, Karen and Kerry. We all had a good night drinking wine on Cliff's boat till the late hours.




PS We will not be blogging everyday now for a few weeks due to the fact we don't want to be worrying about doing it everyday, and want to enjoy our time with our family, so for all you hardcore people out there, please be patient with us.......we promise we will blog when we can!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Ahhh Diesel

Woke up to lovely sunshine this morning, so after some breakfast we headed off to Calcutt to get diesel, which was now reading one on the gauge. We don't worry because we carry a spare can of diesel in case we ever need it, but it's the agg of bleeding the system if you ever run out. We arrived at around lunch time and it had been reasonably quiet on the cut. We were able to go through the lock, fill with diesel and go back up to the junction with no traffic...amazing! We got a nice people watching spot right at the junction, it's fascinating what happens here with everybody getting in each others way, but it gave us a laugh! Two guys were putting up a banner and were chased off when they put their stake right into a wasps nest and they chased them half way across Wigrams marina.


We then had some lovely minty lamb chops before settling down to watch the last part of Torchwood.

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Getting some exercise

We continued to clean the boat today doing some polishing and brasses and oiling the woodwork. We are now running low on diesel so will have to move tomorrow. This afternoon we thought we needed to get a bit fitter so we set up the ETrex GPS and went Geocaching. The first find was only 0.3 of a mile away and we found a small camera film case in a hollow of a tree.Then we moved another half a mile away to pick up a second one lodged in a wall on a disused railway, where there was a disc in it from Canada.That then took us to another new one, in a field full of bulls! The last one was only two days old and someone had beat us to it by a few hours. They got to it at 7.40am in the morning...have some people got a life? We're keen but not that eager! We took a nice circular route back to Derwent6 which took us through Wheat, Barley and Rye fields and also a field full of beans.These only need a week more and they will be ready for picking, it would be rude not to borrow some. We saw loads of ladybirds and this funny looking character. The fella looked like a moth but also like a dragonfly with double wings. Does anyone know what it is? We then got back and had Roast Pork, run the engine for a hour, before settling down to Torchwood.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

You have got reverse you know!

Due to the fact we were starting to run low on diesel and water we made our way back to Braunston. It seems really busy at the moment, it must be the good weather bringing out all the private and hire boats. In Braunston we filled with water, got rid of our rubbish and did a manual pumpout. We were amazed that while we were getting rid of the rubbish some idiot decided to leave their rubbish at the water point, lazy gits! Because someone thought it might be us, and we couldn't just leave it there, we took it to the disposal point...we have to live here!


We then met a hire boat right on the bridge in Braunston and where we stopped, he decided he would just keep coming. To avoid hitting him we pulled the bow into the hedgerow. We told the guy on the tiller that all he needed to do was stop like we did, and with this some American guy on the tiller said "you're not the first one to tell me that, I'm still learning!" Nice eh!!! When will they learn they have got reverse.


We then made our way to the M25 of the waterways, and yes it was busy, so we moored up and watched the world go by. We have been lucky with the rain today and we managed to clean the brasses. We then chilled in the evening watching Torchwood and eating cherry pie!

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Oil change day

With the rain belting against the window we decided to stay put... so the jobs we keep putting off got done. We have done over 500 hours now with Derwent6 and we will be changing the oil and filter and the gearbox oil every 250 hours. The job is not as difficult as it sounds due to the sump siphon pump which allows you to drain the oil without taking out a sump plug. You have to remove the engine covers and then turn the tap of the sump you wish to drain. The hardest part is changing the filter and cleaning out the bilge with the dropped oil, but again not difficult. We are having terrific thunder storms here today, and it was nice to have the time to watch the cloud formations turning into a storm.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Cherry picking when we move


We got up this morning with the sun shining through the porthole so decided to turn around. We were going to Rugby, but because of the bad film reviews at the weekend, we didn't have any reason to go. The only problem with turning round is that it would take us three hours and the weather was also turning. We got going and we soon got the odd shower. At the turning point (winding hole) you could see the rain coming in the distance, and it seemed like we were going through the middle of some showers. It was the thunder and lightening that made up our minds to stop. We then watched the rain come down, and boy did it rain. We had to loosen off the guide ropes as the water levels rose. In between showers we found some wild cherry trees so did a bit of cherry picking....should make a nice pie or crumble. Later we will be watching a bit of TV, as its Torchwood tonight.