Monday 11th March – Day 233
It’s cruising day today and a new canal for us and The Plot. The boat batteries are back to how they were last winter as we’ve have no solar the last few days due to the weather and we didn’t cruise yesterday, so it’s up early as everything needs emptying and filling and we cruise into our first lock just after 8.30am. I walk ahead and set the lock and do a little bit of filming for YouTube as Chris cruises the boat and then it’s quickly into the second and last lock for a while. The first swing bridge announces our departure off the Trent and Mersey canal and onto Coventry canal and the start of our journey to London.
We cruise through the swing bridge and moor up to fill with water and do the usual boat facility jobs. ((wait you only emptied them the other day! You cannot be drinking that much wine!)) we only emptied one of the cassettes and the other isn’t full but you empty them where you can! Boating rule as well as filling the water whenever you come across a waterpoint. Chris seems to have sorted the problem with the travel pack and so I make the first coffee of the day! ((Wait! You mean you didn’t have a coffee in bed?????)) well, I did, sort off. It was one of those packet ones so doesn’t really count.
All emptied and filled up in the right order and it’s off we go! It certainly feels like the adventure and has started. As I’ve said before we aim to cruise up the Ashby ((Sounds like a Carry On film!!)) then down the Coventry so we will hopefully hit it right for the Oxford Canal being open again; if not it will be a change of plan.
We moor up for lunch as all this cruising and being in the cold has made us hungry. I cook the veggie sausages and Chris gets the fire going to get the boat toasty as just before we cruise we decide to use the washing machine for the first time not being plugged into the mains! It works very well and once done, hung up to dry and coffee made it’s back on the stern to cruise again. We don’t meet many boats but the ones we meet are naturally where other boats are moored on near bridges – basically anywhere where there is a tight space.
We eventually find a nice mooring spot as I have an online meeting at 4pm and tomorrow’s weather looks terrible, so we might stay put and cruise on Wednesday. It means I can have time to work on freelance stuff and get this weeks vlog created and uploaded signal permitting. We also promised ourselves a day of baking bread and banana and blueberry muffins! Day done until tomorrow. x
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C.L. Peache 