Today we had to return the car to Newark as we thought we were going to cruise back down the Erewash tomorrow but in the end we decided to stay a few more days to do jobs on the boat as mentioned before the fire is crucial to us this year. Tomorrow will see us tackling it and I’m not sure we have bitten off more we can chew but it has to be done!
We went for lunch with Chris’s folks which was very nice before they drove us back to the Morrison’s at Eastwood as we’d ordered some stuff and used the Amazon lockers for the first time. It’s something new to get used to when you don’t have a permanent address anymore. But there has never been an easier time to be ‘addressless’ now that these facilities are available. It’s the same as having shopping delivered, you can you the WhatThreeWords option for a location, it really is so easy. We haven’t used the shopping delivery yet as so far we have been in walking or cycling distance of shops.
We do some more painting and last bits on the boat as she will be going back in the water tomorrow so it’s important we get as many jobs done as possible whilst we have easy access.
After a little walk up the canal to enjoy the lighter evenings as they are starting to draw in as autumn is coming closer, it’s another day gone. It’s strange to think it’s been 42 days since we left the marina. We’ve had targets of places to be and things to do and it won’t be until mid September when we will need to decide where our first point of call will be and onto another new stretch of water.
We are keeping our eye on the winter stoppages the Canal and River Trust publish. ((Explain Peachy!)) Oh yeah, sorry. Over the winter the CRT have a planned amount of work they do on the canals, everything from sorting out water levels, dredging, locks which needs fixing and the list goes on. So, it’s best to check where these works are going to take place else you might find yourself arriving on the canal/a lock and you cannot go through it and unable to turn boat to go back and get stuck for months. Also, we need to think about the rivers as if they are liable to flooding, again you can get stuck for months on the wrong side. ((That’s actually quite interesting Peachy. Maybe your canal book would be quite useful. Or they could just read this blog for free!))
This time next week we are hoping to cruise back down the Erewash canal. There has been a few issues with low water, but some of the boats have a bigger draft than us – that’s the amount of our boat under the water. Hopefully my vlog went live yesterday and you can see what I mean from when we were in the dry dock.
Fingers crossed we didn’t make a mistake by staying up here. To be honest though we are loving our time at Langley Mill it’s been very good to us. Especially Vikki, Dan & Tom from Langley Mill Boatyard who have been so helpful and kind we would 100% recommend you come here. These people are what canal life is all about.
Until tomorrow. xx
C.L. Peache 