Not again

 

Well this time it was The Admiral Nelson in Braunston . The pub is dog friendly so Number one dog Hamish was over the moon to be able to join us for an afternoon tipple or three. With Gary and Della (nb Muleless) and Rich and Sharon (nb Oakapple) the afternoon soon went and before we realised it was dark outside. I thought someone mentioned a quick drink, but maybe not.

There are some great pictures on the walls in this pub. But not many ladies will ever see these.

After a great afternoon and evening and some delicious Water buffalo burgers it was time for the one mile windy walk back to the boats. I think that I could easily get used to this lifestyle.

                                                                                                                Happy Days

Warning FUMES !!!!!!!!

For the last few days we have had fumes in the boat and even after sweeping the chimney it got no better. We checked all the joints on the stove and also checked for leaks around the stove door. It wasn’t until Carolyn spotted a puff of smoke at the top of the flue near the ceiling that we found this. The pipe at the back and out of view has corroded through and was letting smoke and fumes into the boat. We have 2 Carbon monoxide detectors and 2 smoke alarms but none of them went off.

I have now carried out a temporary repair until we can get a new flue pipe made and fitted.We do burn green wood which is normally Ash as well as coal,but the pipe is only two and a half years old and I would have expected it to last longer than that. I think that we were very fortunate and lucky to find it when we did as the outcome could have been far worse.
                                                                                                  Happy (lucky) Days

Windy Braunston

 

With number one Son Jamie and his girlfriend Danny up for a couple of days we show them around the delights of Braunston.

What a great sight to see in January. With Daffodils and Snowdrops also out it will soon be Spring.(I hope)

It was then off to The Boathouse pub for a bit of lunch with Rich and Sharon on NB Oakapple, Gary and Della on NB Muleless and Jamie and Danny from a Caravan down in Devon. It was good to finally meet Rich and Sharon and have a most enjoyable few hours and a few bottles of wine in the company of other friendly fellow boaters. Of course as always the conversation eventually got around to toilets as it always does….Just the ticket.

Its also good to be able to look out of the pub window and see your home just sitting there. And the best thing is that when you have had enough of this pub you can move your home to the next pub..

With the wind picking up a few boaters are having a great deal of trouble trying to control their boats. I do wonder if its worth boating in such conditions.

Even with all that wind we were lucky to have this cracking Sunrise below Braunston. Must nearly be time for the pub to open again !!!

                                                                                                      Happy Days

No turning

 

At 09.10 and in lovely sunshine we pulled pins and after filling with water at the slowest tap on the system we headed up the Hillmorton flight of 3 locks. Its the last time I put any logs on the fire before cruising. With the smoke and the sun I couldn't see a bleeding thing.

With Carolyn on lock wheeling duty because she is twice as fast as me, we make good progress up the locks with a bit of help from the crew of Nab Lindy Lou.

Below and above the locks there are 10 acres of fenced off field. Apparently the a water main for the new Hillmorton developement  is going through here and there are some newts that live locally. So far they have found just a few newts in the 10 acres and mooved them to another location. Im sure the newts would have mooved happily by themselves without all this fuss.

I wonder why so many marinas put up signs to say no turning in the marina entrance. Surely it cant do any harm and anyway what can they do about it. If we needed to we would use one to turn especially if it avoided needing to make a long detour to turn.

Back in Braunston and look, nothing has changed . There's still a right boggy mess at the service point. If all the Canal and River Trust managers and office staff that work in nice cosy offices had to trudge through this mess to fill their kettles for their coffe breaks it would soon be made good. I have complained mentioned it to C&RT before, but what a waste of time that was.

Back outside The Boathouse but hopefully only for a couple of days. We need to arrange for getting a new zip replaced in our cratch cover and we then have a few other bits and pieces to do before we are on our way again.

                                                                                                         Happy Days

On the move at last

Exactly 14 days after arriving at Brownsover and with all our time here used up we pulled pins at 11.00 after the rain had stopped. We said our goodbyes to Gary and Della not knowing when we would bump into each other again, although I Suspect it will not be long.
It was then a short distance to the winding hole where we turn and head towards Hillmorton.
We are lucky again as we don’t meet a boat coming in the opposite direction as it gets a bit tight here at Clifton with all the boats moored on the wharf.
A familiar boat having work done on the wharf. The last time we saw The Gongoozers rest cafe a few weeks ago it was in the dry dock at Braunston ,so I’m not sure why it was taken out again here at Clifton cruisers.
We only did a short cruise down to the bottom of Hillmorton locks. With good TV and Internet we will have a day or two here before continuing our Winter cruise South.
                                                                                                                 Happy Days