CELEBRATIONS AND PREPARATIONS.

 

Happy Birthday Captain

Welcome to a new year, yes I know its May, but there isn’t much to write about when we are the Wharf. Life is pretty quiet and we don’t go out and do much during the winter months.

So lets start with the first part of the title, the celebrations.

As some of you know the Captain turned 70yrs old at the end of April. He wanted to do a ‘big’ holiday, somewhere different and exotic. We ran through a number of options before I came up with the idea of a Caribbean cruise (I know a busman’s holiday for us) but it hit the spot and it was booked and sorted with in a couple of days. I got the idea from an old school friend of mine, thank you Janet.

She went with Tui on the Marella Voyager, whist we booked our 2 weeks on the Marella Discovery. One week was called Tropical Shores and the other Cocktails and Coconuts. It was all inclusive and visited 10 islands over the 2 weeks.

A bigger boat

All I can say was that it was amazing, the organisation, the food, the staff, the islands, everything was wonderful, and we are definitely thinking about doing another one at some point.

Claudine and Francis our waiters

I won’t go into great detail as its not really what this blog is about, but I will say one of the highlights was swimming with a turtle in Barbados.

A green turtle

We returned to Blightly the week before his birthday, and spent it not doing a lot (due to the weather and a bit of jet lag) which had a knock on effect the following week.

We met all the family in Stoke on Trent for a birthday meal, as it was the most central point for everyone, and it was great to get together for such an important milestone.

Well the week after his birthday it was all hands on deck getting the boat ready for setting off for our summer cruise. The Captain in his ultimate wisdom, decided at the last minute he was going to upgrade our solar panels and top boxes, (something he had been talking about last summer and most of the winter) but hey ho it had to be done at the last moment. This left the rest of the organising, cleaning and sorting to me.

The worst job was the cleaning of our cratch and pram covers with Cillit Bang black mould remover. It took me 2 days, but if I say so myself they looked good when I had finished, even if they smelt strongly of bleach. I made various trips to Aldi and Lidl to ensure we have everything we need food wise. Planted out my little garden of herbs and flowers. I was overjoyed to see that my mint, which had been a single sprig last year, gifted to me by another boater, had taken over the pot it was planted in and was looking very healthy. My bay tree and chives are also flourishing.

We set off on Friday 3^rd May, our boaty friends Col and Mags were to come and meet us (by car) at Hawkesbury Junction for a farewell meal in the Greyhound. Unfortunately they both came down with a very bad cold a few days before and didn’t make it, but we enjoyed the meal and raised a glass to them.

https://www.thegreyhoundsuttonstop.co.uk/

Saturday we stayed at Hawkesbury as we had been invited to Kenfest, a beer, food and music festival in Kenilworth by my cousins Gary and Toni. Gary kindly picked us up, and we had a great afternoon with them before catching the bus back to boat and a quiet night.

https://kenfest.co.uk/tc-events/kenfest-2024/

So it was Sunday before we truly set off for what should be a 5months cruise. Our plans have changed (surprise surprise) quite significantly since last year. We had talked about going on the River Nene and doing, what are called the Low Levels and the Norfolk Broads. Now we have decided to go north, starting on the Trent and Mersey, before joining the Shropshire Union and going onto the Llangollen and then later into Liverpool. At this point we will have to decide our next move, we want to go across the Leeds Liverpool and on to the River Trent, ending up in Langley Mill for the beginning of September, as we are taking the boat out to have its bottom cleaned and blacked. A job that has to be done every 2/3yrs. However information has reached us that the last lock on the Leeds Liverpool, which drops you down on to the River Ayr from the canal at Granary Wharf in Leeds, will be closed from May until the end of July for ‘essential repairs’. We don’t want to go all the way across the Pennines, only to find we have to retrace our steps because we are unable to get through this lock. So a decision will be made before we join the LL at Wigan.

So where are we now, sat in the sunshine at Polesworth after doing the 11 Atherstone locks in a respectable couple of hours. We spent Sunday night in the middle of nowhere before mooring up in Atherstone for the night (Monday), and of course we had to have a pint in the Angel Ale House, one of our favourite pubs on the system and the Captain wore his new tee shirt

Very apt don't you think

Here we were joined by our fellow Swan Lane moorer Steve, from NB Precious Jet and Charley his pooch. He had set out for his cruise whilst we were on holiday, spending time on the Ashby canal before mooring up near the bottom of Atherstone locks a couple of days earlier. We should see him again at Fazeley, were we will part company, as he is heading south to Gloucester and we will be heading north to Stoke.

Its been great to be back travelling again, listening to the birds and the gentle chugging of the engine as we glide through the beautiful countryside. I have enjoyed watching the locks fill and empty, just taking in all the sights and sounds I have missed through the winter months.

Hope you will join us on our latest adventure as it unfolds over the next few months.