The day before New Years eve was one of the stormiest days we have had aboard . It blew an absolute gale. But not enough to blow Carolyn's phone away. I think it is glued to her ear.
Windy or what !
On New Years eve we unexpectedly had to make a dash for Leighton Buzzard about 6 miles away to sort out some legal stuff before the new year. The winds were still very strong and normally we wouldn't travel in such conditions. Carolyn had to hold tight when crossing Stoke lock.
We stopped for water at the bottom of soulbury locks and nearly lost the boat. The wind was blowing so strongly even with Carolyn and my light body on the centre rope we struggled to hold on.
Carolyn kept saying she could hear someone shouting for HELP !! But i couldn't………And look the wind blew over this portaloo.
We eventually picked up this mooring just down from the Globe Inn at Linslade. We walked the one and a quarter miles into Leighton Buzzard as soon as we moored and sorted out what we had to do and got back to Inca in the dark and cracked open the first bottle of many to celebrate the New Year.
Right opposite the mooring was something called The Leighton Buzzard sewage treatment works. As the evening went on the drone from the plant got worse and worse and in the morning after a very bad nights sleep we pulled pins and moved about 200 meters further down the cut. It turned out it was a activated sludge site (What ever that is) and they had a very noisy blower on the aeration ditch…. Honestly …you think they would maintain their equipment a bit better than that…. I'm sure other water companies are a lot better than that at maintaining their equipment !!!!
After very bad weather on New Years day and the River Ouzel flooding the fields we pulled pins at 08.45 on Thursday the 2nd and headed down to the winding hole at Leighton Buzzard. After turning we filled with water on the point and headed for the Tesco moorings.
This is brilliant for boaters . You have got Tesco , Aldi and Homebase right next to the canal and with 2 hour moorings it gives you plenty of time to re stock the boat.
After filling Inca with shopping and the odd bottle of wine we headed North back towards Fenny Stratford. The weather was so good Carolyn , Molly and Hamish walked nearly all the way.
We passed this boat on the way…….You cant beat a bit of SLOW GIN
It took us just under 3 hours to reach Fenny and we picked up this mooring before the lock. We did 3 loads of washing on the cruise so as soon as we stopped it was out with the whirligig.
The dear old weather man gives bad weather again tomorrow so it looks like we are stuck here for a day or 2. Still it could be worse ….we could be sitting on the beach in Goa soaking up all of that sun for 3 months…..Don't get too brown coops !!!
Happy Days
Happy New Year Mr and Mrs GP, hope all goes all ok with the current and forthcoming stormy weather...does the canopy on the stern of the boat act like a sail, i'm guessing that the superstructure does though i guess. Devon is proper wet and stormy as you know and looking at the met office weather map you are looking like your in a better place...apparently 30 ft waves due in on the coast from tomorrow ....i'm just off to don my wetsuit and catch some surf ...all the besets.....oh and let us know your top festive wines ....
ReplyDeleteHello David.. And a happy new year to you and your good lady. Very windy up here but not as bad as you have. We don't travel with the rear canopy up . It is frowned on by the other boaters to travel with it up and yes like you say it would act as a sail. Once the wind catches the side of the boat it is very difficult to control. You would think that with the boat weighing in at nearly 16 ton the wind wouldn't affect it that much.If it starts to rain when travelling we have a large fishing umbrella which works a treat.
ReplyDeleteAs for the wine it has mostly been Pinotage which at 14% and £3.69 from Aldi is not bad value .Also on the list was HARDYs Shiraz Cabernet from one stop at £5.99 and also 14%. Plus anything that was red and on offer. Being a Pennon pensioner I need to find all the bargains.
Hope is all going ok at work and all the changes are going to plan. Be Good