ITS THAT TIME AGAIN.

Balloons in Marrakesh

Well folks as the title says ‘its that time again’ and we have set off on our summer adventures.

But first I must backtrack to where I left you in August 2025.

We had reached the top of Atherstone locks and were in touching distance of our home in Swan Lane. But first we had a very important favour to do for our good friend Keith and Andrew, they were taking steam boat Hasty to be blacked at Alvecote marina, which was at the bottom of the locks we had just come up.

They sounded their horn as they passed us by, and we headed down to the top lock to meet them windlasses in hand and raring to go.

Our celebration at meeting up with our old friend was short lived, as they told us absolutely terrible news. Canal and River Trust had given all the boats at Swan Lane wharf 6 months notice to quit, as they wanted to sell the wharf to a developer. We had a lease that had years to run, but apparently this wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. As you can imagine we were gobsmacked, my opinion of CRT, which was already poor, hit rock bottom on this news.

However much to our surprise Keith had an ace up his sleeve. It would appear that when we renewed the lease a clause had been added, which some how had passed CRT by, which allowed the person running the wharf first refusal to buy it at going rate. As Keith runs Swan Lane he was that person, and he and Andrew had decided to sell their house and buy the wharf, we were saved, hopefully. At this time CRT had not agreed to the sale, but was considering it, and eventually they agreed. So Keith is now in the process of buying the wharf, and as anyone who has ever bought a house knows, never mind a business, it can be a long drawn out business.

But Swan Lane Wharf is saved. YIPPEE

It was a long day getting Hasty down the locks, but it made the pint at the end of the day even sweeter, and we headed to the Market Tavern and the Angel Ale House, our 2 favourite haunts in Atherstone.

We took a couple of days to get back to Swan Lane, and I vetoed the idea of going up the Ashby, as I find it rather boring with no locks for me to do.

On our return we found we had new moorers, Kata and Daniel a lovely Hungarian couple, Pete Jones, a rather absent minded gentleman who had bought Stuart’s boat Throstle, and Jimmy with Yeti the golden Labrador.

We caught up with our friends Col and Mags, they were in full wedding mode (well Mags was) with their wedding being only a few weeks away.

Of course I had to organise a get together to get to know everyone, and we headed round to the Brickies for a few pints, before going back to the meeting room for food, and more beer of course. A great night was had by all.

Friends old and new

The wedding went without a hitch and everyone had an amazing day.

The happy couple and their best man

I started back at work almost straight away, a shock to the system that’s for sure, and our life on the wharf settled into our normal winter routine. Meaning there was not a lot for me to write about.

Christmas came and went, we had our usual Wharf Christmas meal which was well attended, and between Christmas and New year another wharf social when Kata cooked a lovely Hungarian goulash, and some amazing cakes.

Wharf Christmas Party

As it was a long wet winter, the Captain and I decided to book a holiday to Marrakesh, which happened to coincide with my birthday. Marrakesh is manic, but we loved it, and the weather was great. For my birthday the Captain booked us a hot air balloon ride to see the sunrise over the Atlas mountains. Wow what an experience, as we and 50 other balloons took off just as the sun was rising.

Balloons as far as the eye can see

Now it was getting time to plan our summer cruise, we decided to do the north east this year, starting on the Oxford canal before joining the Leicester line of the Grand Union, then on to the River Soar and then the Trent. We will get to Boston this year, and hope to call in at Doncaster and Sheffield before our trying to get to Ripon on the River Ouse. We have to be in Langley Mill for the 7^th Sept, as we are coming out of the water to be blacked and have a few jobs done on the rudder and skeg. So an interesting cruise planned, and fingers crossed there will be no problems with water or infrastructure this year.

We did do a shake down cruise at Easter just up to Hawkesbury, with Kata and Daniel and Col and Mags, who drove to the Greyhound, and we all had a meal, next day we headed down to Coventry basin for the night. The boat ran perfectly.

Coventry Basin

So back to the present day and we have set off, as usual our first port of call was Hawkesbury, and of course a pint or 2 in the Greyhound. Today the weather has been very kind to us, even if the wind is still a little chilly, it was nice when the sun was out, and we travel about 9 miles. Only 1 lock today, the little stop lock at Hawkesbury, but of course I ended up helping a couple of boats before we came through. We have moored in the middle of nowhere for the night, but the canal has been busy with plenty of boats passing us in both directions.

So now we are all up to date, and I will be posting a blog every week of our journey (or should that read floating pub crawl).

So I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures.