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Belated party for Aria. Loose ends at the house. Both cars service and MoT.
Up early as I had a couple of other things I wanted to do on the way, but still didn't want to be late arriving (Pat would be out as usual at dancing). Very good run north (apart from the torrential downpour just south of Shap), getting in far quicker than expected. Dropped in at the "Smart" dealership to arrange service and MoT for my car.
Friday was another beautiful day. Found out from the maintenance staff that the water leak had been fixed earlier in the week - disappointing that no message was sent to moorers. Routine chores - washing (finally), collected more coal. Collected possible fix for wifi, but again found it wasn't compatible, so once again it was returned.
Beautiful weather continued over the weekend, although dulling over Sunday afternoon. Topped up water and got another batch of washing done (it had backed-up slightly with the leak situation and not knowing when the supply was on or off). Otherwise a quiet time.
Decided I'd have a break from the mental "strain" with a short trip to the house. I can take in the belated birthday party for Aria (she had taken ill the day before the planned one at her birthday). Monday spent preparing - not shutting down fridge or freezer this time as intending only to be away a short time. Mostly a good day, but we did get a short rain shower just after lunch.
Very heavy rain and strong wind overnight into Friday. Researching combination of alternatives for wifi and internet (3G or 4G, range extender or "mesh" system, better technology router etc). Rain cleared by after lunch so trip to local phone provider for discussion. Work on the leak under the road at the marina postponed to Monday as it was too waterlogged to excavate.
More rain and wind overnight, but rain had cleared by breakfast. Wind died mid-afternoon Saturday. Heavy rain again overnight into Sunday. New mifi/router box arrived Sunday afternoon, but I found it needed a different size of SIM card.
Lovely day, Monday - beautiful sunshine and reasonably warm. Went into Lichfield to get replacement (T-Mobile) SIM, easy enough, but found it wasn't recognised by the new router. Return trip to Lichfield and got new contract card from EE (rather than the legacy T-Mobile) - it wasn't recognised either! Item packaged up and, with a further trip into Lichfield, returned as faulty. Replacement requested (assuming they would send it to the same address). No luck, they were going to send it to Fife! Phonecall to Amazon sorted it out (I hope - we'll see tomorrow). Work on the leak resumed, but no information yet as to results.
Tuesday dawned another nice day - not quite so sunny and a little cooler. Routine shopping and chores. Replacement mifi/router collected but too late to start testing.
Another beautiful day on Wednesday. Spent the whole day working on the comms system. The new router box gave no better performance than the old one (so upgrading technology isn't the answer). It did give marginally better speeds on 4G over 3G, but is it worth the extra cost in contract fees? The "mesh" system (TP-Link Deco 5) arrived early, so also got that tested. The set-up was very simple, it tested its connection to internet once the first node was installed and eventually gave an excellent network inside the boat. Although supplied with mains power adapters, their output is actually 12v so suitable for fitting in boats. Unfortunately, as soon as it had tested its internet connection, it dropped it - the router was still reporting connected, but the new network wasn't able to access it. Not happy (it may be that with different router setup, it could be a very good system, just not fitting my needs). Stripped everything out ready to start again.
After a cooler night, Thursday dawned with fog that burned off quickly giving yet another beautiful day. All items packaged and returned for refund. Old system set up again - back to square one! More research - let's look at trying to get a better signal from the marina wifi.
A slightly warmer start to February (although still pretty cold, with ice over the basin and canal). Outlook for the weekend pretty grim, so stocked up with coal and topped up water. After occasional bright spells, flurries of fine snow arrived on a rising bitter wind.
Saturday dawned with wall-2-wall sunshine. Although still quite cold, the basin had started to thaw. Wind had died out quickly overnight. Sunday was back to cold again - frozen hard overnight. Generally pottered over the weekend.
Massive thaw overnight into Monday, with heavy rain in the early hours. Woke to an outside temperature of +6°C. Took a trip to chandlers for a few items. The damp start to the day slowly cleared to a beautiful 'warm' sunny afternoon.
Generally pottered around Tuesday. Weather reasonable.
Heavy rain overnight into Wednesday brought a warm day with plenty of sun. Took a drive to Burton to arrange drydock for our stern-tube leak - booked for 12th April, the first available. In the afternoon, took "Paws" for a trip to the services berth for fuel. Found out that the site water was being turned off Thursday to fix a large leak, and that there would be restrictions on the roadways due excavations - topped up the water and put the car in the main carpark. Had a chat with Adrian on "Al Dina" a couple of berths along.
Weather deteriorated overnight again into Thursday, bringing very heavy rain and stronger winds which lasted well through the morning. By after lunch, it had cleared somewhat so made return visit to Shobnall with extra details for the drydock. By mid-afternoon it had turned into a sunny day, but the forecast is for more rain.
