Well, that was a short stint….

We sailed to Stone and then went a bit further to a little place called Barlaston, which has a pub (closed) and a small Onestop shop (Thankfully open). Whilst we were there the lock down was put in place. I phoned a few local boatyards and the news was not great – they did not consider themselves essential, and were therefore closing. That means we would not be able to get fuel or pump outs when our loo fills up. So, I made a quick call to Nick at Aston and asked if we could go back in! Luckily, he said we could but we’d have to get there that day! 9 Locks! Ho hum. It was not too bad as the canal was empty of other craft so we made excellent progress and arrived just after 13:00 and ended up back in the same mooring!

We have been here ever since, getting into the isolation routine. In fact, its great here as most of the boaters have left, it’s just us live aboards that remain, and there are not many of us. It is rare that we ever see anyone when we are walking the dog. There is a lot of greenery around us and we have a large field for Martha – so we do not have much to complain about.

I hope all of us stay well and get through this unscathed. Lets hope it all comes to an end quickly and life can start to get back to normality before we all go stir crazy!

Back to the cut for a while

After spending some time with Ron in Clacton we returned to the marina at Aston to collect the boat and set off for a cruse along the canal. Staying in marina’s is quite an expensive way to do things. Of course, Covid-19 has put a very different spin on things and we are not entirely sure how things will progress. It seems, from all we have read, that the canal network will remain open. We hope so.

Our plan is to cruise through Stoke-on-Trent, stopping along the way until we get some dates for Lyn’s funeral (and if we can even have it, what with the social distancing) and Dee’s flat moving date, which is pencilled in for the 20th April. Once we have a date to work to, we can plan where to moor up and get the car and drive back. In the mean time, we are just going to enjoy the travelling and taking in the sights. The weather is looking good too – so I think we will be in for a nice short break from it all. I am sure Covid-19 will do its best to screw things up but we will just take each day as it comes.

So, the first stop is about a mile along the cut at Stone – we will be here a couple of days, then we will move along a bit for a couple more until we get some dates together.

So long Lyn, you will be in our hearts as we travel along.

Lynda Adams — Lyn died on the 11th March 2020 at 18:00

Sadly, after we got to Clacton-on-Sea Lyn died in the hospital, surrounded by her family. She was very ill, but I don’t think any of us realised just how ill she was. She was simply overwhelmed with complications and was not able to recover, even though she was placed on life support at the hospital. We will all miss her, especially Wendy who spoke with her all the time and chatted about everything going on.

Lyn had a very bad turn

We got through Alrewas when we got the news that Wendy’s sister is in hospital and is struggling to breath. In fact, she was so I’ll that the hospital or her into the intensive care unit and introduced quarantine measures! So, that put a whole new focus on things. The plan now is to get to the marina at Stone and then take Dee home then go to Clacton to be with Ron. We have no idea when we will be back on the boat and I do not know when the blog will be updated.

We are now moored at a very nice Marina whilst we wait for Lyn to get better.

1st March is cruse day!

Mercia marina was awesome! We loved it, but we did not get a canal boat to sit around in a marina all day – oh no, we got one to sit around all day on the cut! Especially if we can find a pub to help with the sitting around! Alone came spring and we set off again! What a day! – loads of sunshine and plenty of gusts of wind too.

This is a short trip which is a weeks holiday for Dee to spend some time with us and the canal. We are planning to end up in Stone which is just before you get to Stoke on Trent. We are provisionally booked into a Marina in Stone as we need to pop back to Swindon for some medical stuff. This post will track the week.

All set for the big day

Nearly on the cut! The canal at Willington

The 1st of March is nearly upon us and we’ve been busy getting ready to sail. Arty is sporting 3 new AGM 110AH batteries, as the other ones were knackered! We also had the battery monitor rewired so it shows the charging state of the batteries correctly – so hopefully that will help the new batteries to survive!

We also had issues with blocked drainage holes on the prop shaft cover at the back of the boat, so the rain water was flooding into the engine bay. Still, its not like we’ve had much rain lately. We also had a problem with the central heating boiler, which turned out to be a fuel blockage in the filter! Still I am glad this all happened when we were in the marina, rather than in the middle of nowhere!

The river section at Alrewas is currently closed 😖

So, basically we are ready to get going. Dee will be here on Saturday and then we are off on Sunday! Of course, right now Alrewas is shut – and there is a ton of rain forecast – so it may end up a short trip. Anyway, fingers crossed we can get through!!!

Not long now!

We are going to set off again on Sunday the 1st of March. Right now, of course the whole of Derby feels like it is under water and there is talk of more rain to come! The road in Willington is flooded and a large part of the A38, which is the main arterial road around here is under water. The river Trent is very high and has broken its banks in many places. The canal is somewhat sheltered from all this water as it is managed and has flood gates to prevent it from flooding, but there is the river section at Alrewas, which right now is closed. So, when we set off, if nothing has changed we will not get very far!

As promised, I will update the blog much more often when we get going. The first week we will have Damara (my Daughter) with us – so I hope we can get to our planned destination of Stone. We are already booked into a Marina there as we need to go back to Swindon for medical stuff (all regular checks etc, nothing serous). To get to Stone we need to get through the Alrewas river section, and that is a long way from being open at the moment – so we have to hope for less rain to give the river a chance to drop.

With all this rain and local flooding we do feel lucky that we live on a boat! Especially as we are on a canal section and not a river. Where we used to moor on the Avon at Strensham we would be under water and unable to get on or off the boat right now.

Waiting to get going again

Mercia Marina is great – really nice and a good place to spend the winter, but we are really starting to get cabin fever!! We will be setting off again in March and we are planning to travel up towards Leeds and Manchester via Stoke-on-Trent. Once we get going again the blog will get much more attention than of late – so watch this space!!

Say hello to Martha – our new furry crew member. She’s an 18 month old cross between a Belgium Shepherd and a Dutch Herder. She is very sweet and loves being on the boat. Her bum has been in the canal already! She looks just like a German Shepherd – just smaller . We got her from the RSPCA as a rescue dog. She’s spend all her life in a kennel and was very underweight. We’ve had her since December the 14th.

Some winter sun

A glorious beach near Simons Town in South Africa

So, as we are moored now for winter, we arranged to go to South Africa for 3 weeks to visit my dad and get some winter sunshine. This is the reason why I’ve been so quiet on the blog recently. We have been to South Africa quite a few times over the years, and we were there around the same time last year. This year the first thing which struck us was how much greener and more lush the place was. This is because last year Cape Town was in drought conditions and everywhere looked very dry and thirsty!

A little Damn near to where Dad lives – we walked around here quite a few times!

Watch this post as I will be adding some pages for the different places we visited during our trip.

All moored up for winter

Mercia Marina – a great place to sit out the winter months

We are moored now for the winter in Mercia. It is a lovely marina, and absolutely huge! There are shops and places to get a coffee and a quick bite, as well as a lovely looking Indian restaurant which we can visit. When we arrived, we stayed on the service pontoon and got pumped out and diesel. Everyone we have met here so far have been absolutely great and really friendly. As we arrived at our birth we got chatting to a number of the ‘locals’ who basically live here. What a helpful and friendly bunch! I can see we are going to really enjoy staying here. All the facilities are great and the place is very well maintained.