| This Month's Totals and Average | |||
| 12.04 miles | 4 locks | 6.32 hrs | 2.54 lmph |
Quiet day, but sorted out a couple of problems on the "home" laptop. Wind picking up through the day.
Another sunny morning although cold. There had been a light flurry of snow overnight, but forecast suggested getting warm during the middle part of the day and remaining fine. Waited till thaw set in, brushed the melting snow/ice off the boat, and did the 'household' shopping in the morning. After lunch, took "Paws" out for a run to the junction and back. The sawmill at the junction sells black bags full of wood-scraps suitable for kindling at very reasonable price (better value than the marina) so will be getting from there in future.
| 0.85 miles | 0 locks | 0.64 hrs | 1.32 lmph |
A lot warmer for the beginning of the week. Again mostly sunny, with occasional rain showers, mostly overnight. Generally lazy time reading, but also trying to get our two laptops to talk to each other across the internet (not winning on that one!).
Wednesday turned much colder, but although areas of the county had blizzards and disrupted travel, we had only a couple of short wintery showers. Thursday was similar, again with only a couple of showers.
Sunday started a beautiful sunny morning again, if cold. Did the routine shopping, including bedding etc for the Fuzz. Moved the boat over to the services berth for coal, kindling and loo. Surprised to find the basin starting to ice over; there was none at the berth. Jackie had no kindling (again!), but managed to get a bag from Drayton Boats (they had a spare from the saw mill, so that could be a source from now on). Turned to rain late afternoon.
Spent Monday trying to route the cables for the mifi. What a job! Had great difficulty getting the skirting-board trap-doors out (house joiners making things too tight again). Dropped my torch behind the calorifier (took nearly an hour to recover it!) Eventually got the cables in just before dinner. Ice more evident on the water, although the day remained bright and sunny.
Another beautiful day on Tuesday. Managed to finally finish off the cable routing and put all the panels back. Forecast for snow, so topped the water again and got in a few extra provisions. Hatches well battened down!
Well, the snow never materialised at the marina (although I believe parts of the county were badly hit). A couple of showers of small hail was all we got. The remainder of the day was dull and damp. Stayed in and had a lazy day.
Thursday and Friday were very cold, with ice in the marina. Saturday was a lot warmer. Occasional showers throughout, but nothing to cause any problems. Generally quiet time.
A cold but sunny day throughout. Adam from Top Notch visited late morning, and spent the remainder of the day on repair work. He glued back all the cross-beams and the other areas of veneer that had come adrift. He removed the airing locker door, which had the most difficult bit, and has taken it back to the workshop, along with the outer rear doors and locker lids which need the varnish-work corrected. He also measured up for the missing support brackets for the exhaust and cooling water pipe (both the Barrus engineer and High Line Yachting had commented on this). He is expected back before the end of January.
Shopping for provisions, and routine chores. Waiting for builder to contact with date for them attending. Snow overnight into Wednesday, but not a lot. It froze solid, so although it began to thaw, the car park was dangerous for the bike. Didn't get the other shopping done, but had a walk instead.
Generaly cold, a lot of sunshine, but with cloudy periods and occasional rain. Very windy overnight. Builder coming Saturday. Took a drive to Burton (Thursday) and Coventry (Friday) and got the elusive bits of shopping.
Barrus engineer visited to repair the 'morse' controller. He commented on the fact that the control cable had not been clamped properly when built, and on the lack of support provided for some of the piping. New mifi unit and high-gain antenna arrived by post. Set up under test-bed conditions, but appears to give good wireless coverage within the boat, and the internet connection is supersonic in comparison to the old unit.
Not a lot going on. Strong winds and heavy rain passing through. Arranged replacement mi-fi unit with WifiOnBoard, should be here over the weekend. Trying to source telephone handset with answering machine that can be powered off 12v.
Visit to builders office. A very useful and frank meeting at which we agreed a way forward. Expectations are for yard staff to attend within the next week to review and start work, taking some items away to fix at the yard. These will be completed and returned during last week in January. Manual is to be completed and proof-read within the next week, a printed copy of the final document to be brought when staff return at end of January. Barrus to contact to arrange date for engineer to attend. A few revelations were aired, and I feel far happier about the shape of relations. Plan on a good night's sleep tonight.
Got up early to dark, damp morning. Quickly through the routine chores, then let go and descended the two Glascote locks. It was fun remembering that to go in reverse I had to push the lever forward, and pull it back to go ahead, but managed to get back to the marina without incident.
Sun was coming out as I got back. Pulled onto the services berth and took fuel, before returning to my berth on the pontoons. Cleared up from the trip and had lunch.
Spent most of the afternoon at the shops, restocking after the trip. Cloud came in again mid-afternoon, but it remained relatively warm.
| 1.69 miles | 2 locks | 1.16 hrs | 3.18 lmph |
Bright sunny morning, but couldn't get woken up (well, I was due for a long lie). Got away mid-morning with the intention of heading round to Amington before returning to base.
Ascended the Glascote two locks and pulled in after the winding hole for lunch, but couldn't get the engine out of reverse. Checked what I could, but eventually thought the cable had broken, so reluctantly called RCR. Very nice young lady on the phone took the details and said an engineer would be with me around 14:00. Sam turned up just after 14:00, and stripped out the 'morse' controller to find the cable intact, but the mechanism jammed. We spent two hours trying to get it fixed, but eventually settled for a jury-rig to get me back to base where I could get it attended to properly.
Once he left, I reversed the 50 yards to the winding hole, turned and returned to the top of the locks. By this time it was dark so didn't attempt to go down. Cleared up the remaining 'debris' from the work and got ready for dinner.
| 1.68 miles | 2 locks | 1.52 hrs | 2.42 lmph |
Last night's forecast said rain until lunchtime. This mornings suggests rain all day. Decided not to go anywhere.
Rang "The Boss" and wished her a happy 60th birthday. Generally pottered about. Will be needing fuel within a couple of days so will probably head back to base tomorrow.
Back to the sunny mornings again today. Wind reduced from yesterday, but still cold under exposed conditions.
Moved off promptly and headed into Whittington. Never stopped here before, always somewhere we've 'just passed through'. Walked into the village from Bridge 80. Noted a church, two pubs, coffee shop, chinese take-away, hairdresser, and pharmacy. Also have a Co-op which I used to get spinach for 'her Ladyship'. There is no cash machine in the village. Walked back to "Paws" via Bridge 77, thus circumnavigating the village on foot.
Had lunch and cleaned 'her Ladyship' (and gave her some spinach), before moving off headed for Fazeley. Decided that I wasn't going back to the marina yet, so continued ahead when I reached the junction and moored at the aqueduct over the River Tame. Sun still out, but getting quite cold. Battened down, and got the heating on!
| 7.82 miles | 0 locks | 2.99 hrs | 2.61 lmph |
Happy New Year to all our readers.
New day, New year. Overcast, but with brighter areas. A lot warmer this morning, but the wind had risen overnight.
Generally a quiet day, but did routine clean-up and maintenance on the computers both here and at home.
Wind continued to slowly increase during the day, and rain set in late afternoon. Not a pleasant evening, but forecast of a good day tomorrow.
