We make it as far as Trent Lock before deciding to moor for lunch. Egg butties – cannot beat them! We watch a bit of MotoGP before heading to the pub for a little drink – someone has to keep the hospitality industry going, especially with all this talk of a recession – although there isn’t evidence of this here. The pubs and tea rooms are full, the ice-cream van is loitering – might have had a sneaky 99 ((That’s ice-cream in a cone with a flake)) It’s nice to see everywhere so busy and back to normal.
We make an executive decision to stay where we are for the day. It means the batteries end up going a little close to the 50% mark come tomorrow morning but we spend a pleasant and productive few hours faffing on the boat. The Captain discovers that the water tank/boiler thing has the part attached to it he thought was missing, which means we only need to buy an element for it and we can have hot water when in the marina – hurrah. So, I don’t really understand all this stuff but when we are cruising and have the engine on this is heating the water in the tank so happy days we can have hot showers etc but in the marina when the engine isn’t running, we don’t. We thought it was going to cost us quite a bit of cash to get it sorted but hopefully we can get the element part and the Captain can work his magic and it’s another thing fixed on the boat!
On route to our current mooring we share the locks with a boat and three people. Turns out this boat is off to help another boat as they have been grounded ((this is when a boat is stuck and cannot move under its own steam)) the river has lowered since we came through a few weeks ago so I’m not surprised boats are finding themselves having problems. We also go past the boaters who were moored in our marina and have a very quick chat and hello on our way past. When we get to the next lock, we wait for the boaters, unfortunately they didn’t manage to get the other boater ‘unbeached’ which is terrible as the lady also had to take her boat to Willington to be blacked ((That’s when the boats are taking out of the water and a bitumen is painted onto the hull to protect it from the water corrosion and water-based bugs!)) Ours doesn’t need blacking but after talking to a few people I think we are going to email or ring and book ours in for Oct 2023 to be on the safe side.
Also, by the power of communication we have sold a few more bits from the house which were in storage and we are hoping when we return to clear the rest of the storage unit. I don’t feel like we have ‘officially’ made the transition until the storage unit has gone. We still have the bunker on the marina site but that would be easy to fit on the boat for the time when we cruise the network. ((The bunker is basically a shed in the marina grounds which Peachy’s mother named the bunker!))
In the afternoon we decide to treat ourselves to another visit to the pub. What is better on a Sunday afternoon to sit in a pub garden, basking in the glorious sunshine. Simply perfect. We finally head back for a pizza before settling on the stern with a glass of water ((yeah right!)) enjoying the sun go down and the rather large moon arching its way over the top of the cooling towers of the Power station. I know some people don’t like to look at industrial buildings but I think they add something to a landscape, same as the windfarms. I think they look majestic. ((I think you’ve had too much water today – you like everything!)) the sun sets on another lovely day.
C.L. Peache 