With it being half term we had the pleasure of our Granddaughter Curly (Abbie) coming to stay with us for the week. As usual it wasn't long before she jumped on to the tiller and had a go at steering Inca. She is now becoming a proper little boating girl as she can now start and stop the engine plus she can read the maps as well. The only problem is that i have now been demoted to second mate with Curly as First mate and Carolyn of course is the Captain.
Its always good Crossing Grafton Street Aqueduct and watching the cars speeding below.
With the weather reaching over 20 degrees we are so lucky and what a pleasure to be cruising South through Milton Keynes in brilliant Sunshine.
We eventually got to Fenny Stratford and moored for a couple of days above the lock . Carolyn and Curly were in their element with all the shops at Bletchley and came back loaded with new clothes , shoes and toys for Curly. They also had a couple of trips to Bletchley leisure centre were they spent several hours enjoying the swimming pool.
On Wednesday morning Carolyn and Curly had yet another early morning swim and when they returned we pulled pins at 12.00 and headed for one of our favourite moorings at Stoke Hammond. With the water temperature still high this Heron was having no trouble fishing in the shallows.
On Thursday morning we pulled pins at 09.15 and soon arrived at Stoke Hammond lock . Carolyn certainly enjoys Curly’s company .
With plenty of water at Soulbury 3 locks we met these boats at the middle lock and had to wait in the pound as they locked down.
At the top of 3 locks it was total chaos . The poor old hire boat got in a right old state as he tried to moor before the top lock .At one time with us hard on the offside he nearly hit us. Matters weren't made any better when the two boats behind him started shouting at him. Carolyn to the rescue again when she told them what they needed to do to get to the bank. With the good weather there were a lot of Wyvern hire boats out and apparently there were some very good deals to be had with one hirer telling us he was told by Wyvern to make an offer for the weekend.
Its Halloween and Wow that's really scary…The Pumpkin is scary as well !!!!!!
With the week over far too quickly Number one Daughter Chloe arrives at Linslade from Devon to pick up Curly. After a night aboard they departed on Saturday morning for the 4 hour journey back to Totnes. Although it was great to have Curly for the week it was good to hand her back to her Mum as you forget how tired you get looking after kids ,Well that's the advantage of being Grandparents being able to give the little darlings back….
Happy Days
great blog.where was abbies life jacket?she certainly looks as if she was in control pumkin looked good, don't know what Carolyn & Abbie were looking out for witches perhaps. x
ReplyDeleteHi Gary and Carolyn, Good to idea re Bletchley for the granddaughter - we will remember that for next year with our grandsons. Have been going backwards through your blog this morning (NZ time) and saw your post re not having to have the engine on to charge batteries since April. Can you give us some info about your solar panels, please - capacity, who supplied and/or fitted them, what appliances they support? I really don't like being inside the boat when the engine is running to charge the batteries and also don't like paying for the diesel to do so! So our plan is to get solar panels fitted as soon as we are back next season.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it's been lovely reading the last 10 or so posts of yours this morning - like you we were through that stretch two or three times before we put the boat into winter moorings at Barby and flew home a few weeks ago.
Warm regards, Marilyn and David from nb Waka Huia
Hi Marilyn and David . The solar system we have was fitted by Tim from Onboardsolar http://www.onboardsolar.co.uk/index.php . We have 4 x 100 watt panels through an MPPT controller. We are fairly heavy users as we run a fridge with freezer compartment , 20 inch Tv . separate tv recorder box which is on between 3 to 4 hours a day on average in the summer ,laptops and tablets which are on more than the Tv , plus shower/water pumps and lights . All our lights are LED so that saves a lot of power. We find that in mid summer the batteries are reading 100% on the Smartgauge by mid morning. If it wasn't for the fact that we needed room on the roof for coal and wood in the winter I would fit some more panels mainly for winter use. I have found your blog and am reading it at the moment ...Best wishes Gary and Carolyn
DeleteThanks, for that info, Gary and Carolyn. We have only heard good things of Tim, so will get on to contacting him very shortly. We are in the midst of packing up from our house of 34 years at the moment, so all other efforts are on hold until that is sorted. I hope you enjoy our blog too.
DeleteCheers, Marilyn
the old chaplain probably made a note of your boats name to remind himself not to call again..lol... more than likely felt the same way I felt when I saw you at work
ReplyDeleteHello Nicolas ..Just like you he was a star ..Good job there where people like me at work to make you look good .....Keep up the good work !!! Ps share price is looking good ... I do look forward to a good Divi !!!!
ReplyDelete