RESERVOIR WITH NO DOGS

SUNDAY 12TH APRIL 2009

The forecast for the Easter weekend was that the best of the weather would be Sunday, but it started off wet, however when it stopped raining we did go for our planned walk around Draycote Reservoir. Jacquie made the sandwiches and we donned our long raincoats and our brimmed leather hats and set off in the car, ensuring that we had the £1.50 for the car park. It was great!! Not too hot but load of big midges, but the hat brims kept them out of our face. The walk is five miles and would be ideal for walking a dog, but as this reservoir provides drinking water for Rugby, no dogs are allowed. We detoured to the delightful village of Thurlaston, complete with a converted windmill and stocks. This must have added another mile and we had hoped that this little village might have had a pub, but as it didn’t we finished off our outing by stopping off at the Two Boats pub for the necessary refreshment.

WET NECK NO MORE

SATURDAY 11TH APRIL 2009

The really good news is that the new foam mattress is a great success; I really did have concern that a flat pack mattress could be an improvement on the old one, but it most certainly is.

The sliding hatch at the rear of the boat has always caused rain water to run down the back of my neck whenever I pull open the hatch open from inside of the boat. Do you remember those old black and white, war time submarine films, when the submariner who opens the conning tower hatch after a submarine has surfaced, well it feels just like that must have felt.

The hatch hasn’t got a lip on its rear edge to deflect the water and for a long time I had been considering how best to rectify this. Whilst wandering around Focus I found a slim plastic moulded strip for sealing the joint between a kitchen worktop and wall. I cut the strip to the required length and decided to glue it to the rear edge with contact adhesive. I masked of the area to be glued so that the adhesive wouldn’t spread onto the surrounding paint work and also spread glue onto the strip, after ten minutes I placed the moulding accurately in place and pressed down and removed the masking paper and that was it.

I masked off the slight indentation to the joint line to the rear of the moulding and filled the gap with mastic, again removing the tape immediately. I just need to paint the moulding to match the hatch, but already after the light rain I no longer get a wet neck.

MATTRESSES COME AND GO

THURSDAY 9TH APRIL 2009

We waited anxiously for our new mattress to arrive and when Trudy from the Marina office phoned to say it had, we scooted down to collect it. Our surprise was complete when we saw this box, about four foot long and twelve inches square., this couldn’t possible contain our new mattress.

I had originally made a fold out extension to the bed which allowed a twelve inch wide section of mattress quality foam to slot in under the gunnel when the mattress was pulled out onto the extension, this had worked really well, giving us a bed width of nearly five foot and still allowing just enough space to walk pass the bed. On Tuesday Jacquie had finally decided that she couldn’t sleep anymore on our old mattress, it was a coil sprung affair of between five and six inches thick and when you sat on the edge of the bed it went completely flat and when lying down, you could feel the coils trying to escape.

Jacquie scoured the internet for specialist mattress makers and settled on ‘Sleep Detox’, who say that they can provide a mattress in any size, thickness and density of foam and deliver it within forty eight hours. After speaking on the phone, to Keith at Sleep Detox, who was very helpful, Jacquie placed her order over the internet. The mattress had to be the same depth as the foam infill which was thirteen cm. So five cm., of memory foam would be bonded to eight cm., of high density ordinary foam, to give a soft but firm mattress. This sounded great and the mattress was indeed delivered within forty eight hours, but we just couldn’t believe that a mattress could be in this relatively small box.

Well it was, vacuumed packed and rolled up tight, when we cut into the plastic bag the air whooshed in and the mattress started to expand, in all it took about ten minutes to reach its full size. It is covered in a snug, zipped on cotton cover and is exactly the right size. Well done Sleep Detox, who can be found on www.sleepdetox.co.uk.

The old mattress we just dumped into the canal, so easy to dispose of unwanted stuff these days. No of course not, we managed to fold it in half and after lowering the roof of our little convertible car we squeezed it onto the back seat and took it to the local dump (re-cycling centre) at Daventry. Now I know where that is. I know where I can get rid of my old engine oil in future. Good days work, hopefully followed by a good nights sleep. I’ll let you know!!

PARSONS PASSAGE

TUESDAY 7th APRIL 2009

I forgot to mention, but last Tuesday, Jacquie and I were just about to leave SKYY to join the Southam walk group, when into Wigrams cruised PARSONS PASSAGE. In the bow was Janet, Peter her husband was on the helm and Emma and Daniel, daughter & son, were sitting on the roof. Janet was a client and a friend along while back and she left a comment on the blog last month, to say that they were on their way from the Kennet and Avon Canal to Wigrams Turn, but had been delayed by a sunken boat.

We were looking forward to meeting up again and we joined them for a while until their taxi arrived to start them on their return journey to Dorset. Good timing, if they had arrived five minutes later we would have missed them totally. Yes I know that the observant will notice that the picture shows PARSON PASSAGE leaving the marina, but that is because that as soon as they arrived they had to go to Calcutt Marina for a pumpout as unfortunately there was no one at Wigrams to provide this essential service.

On Sunday 5th we drove to Kenilworth and for £6 concessionary ticket we wandered all over the old ruined castle. The castles most important time was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st when she gave the property to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, whose Father had been beheaded at the Tower of London, but the then, Princess Elizabeth and Dudley had both been in the Tower at the same time and it is probable that it is then, that he became her favorite, although they never married, the rest is history.

The village immediately surrounding the castle is delightful, with white painted, thatched cottages huddled together complete with a sprinkling of pubs and a tea room where we lunched. The main high street of the town is by contrast very uninteresting. An enjoyable excursion and the castle entrance price is realistic compared to Warwick castle, where, I recall that the full adult price was £17. English Heritage certainly wins this comparison against Madame Tausauds

NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN

MONDAY 6TH APRIL 2009

When I started this blog just over a year ago, I had only the scrappiest knowledge of how to make it interesting, apart from just writing what I might like to read in someone else’s blog, or, as my original intention was, to have a permanent log book to remind Jacquie and myself, when this adventure is over, where we had been and what we had done. I am amazed and delighted to get comments left on the blog, even if it’s just my sister-in-law, Penny, demanding “We want more blog”.

However, amazingly, the last two comments are both from America, Christzee, a fan of lighthouses and Jess from Boulder, Colorado, who admits to being landlocked, not arf!!!. Many thanks for your comments and good wishes and in Jess’s case, thank you for the offer to ride Highway 77 and to ski. Who knows?, but in the meantime, I wish you both health and happiness.

To hopefully make my blog a little more interesting I have just found out, how to list ‘Followers’ of my blog, Julia and Mark on N.B. POPPY, good wishes to you and I will start to follow your adventures. At the same time I discovered that I could list the couple of Boaters Blogs that I have been following from the beginning of our considering the possibility of life afloat. Dot and Derek on ‘GYPSY ROVER’ and Sue & Vic on ‘RETIREMENT NO PROBLEM’ I appreciate their blog style and maybe you will, if not already. They are both much more immediate, time wise in their blogging than I manage to be, maybe that’s because they are both continuous cruisers and don’t get as distracted as I do.

We will soon be casting off and then, hopefully the adventure proper will commence and there will be more than mastic, paint, varnish and bitumen to blog about, keep your fingers crossed.

JUST LIKE RIDING A BIKE

MONDAY 30TH MARCH 2009

My big BMW motorbike had been languishing in our garage in Surrey for over a year now and I decided that it was unlikely that I would have the opportunity of seriously riding it again. The decision was taken to travel down to Surrey early this morning, leaving at six am., buying a new battery from the local BMW bike garage and hopefully getting the beastie to start. The intention was to get the bike back up to the Midlands, get it MOT’d and sell it to a local, interested dealer.

Fortunately it did start, first jab of the starter button. I thought I might at least have to put some fresh fuel in the tank. I climbed into my rather musty bike trousers and jacket, wiped the mold out of my crash helmet and headed down to the petrol station to fill the tank with petrol and the soggy tyres with air. Jacquie followed me in the car to ensure that I still remembered how to ride it, but it is a bit like riding a bike isn’t it?

All topped up, Jacquie headed off to visit her sister in law, who is recovering from a hip replacement operation, whilst I enjoyed a perfect, 120 mile, ride back to our marina. Having had such an early start and an exhilarating ride, it was definitely time for a nap whilst I awaited Jacquie’s return.

CRUISING WITHOUT A BRUISING

SUNDAY 29TH MARCH 2009

The weather for the previous days had been wet and very windy and we just hunkered down and relaxed, but this morning was calm and blue. A table for lunch was booked at the nearby Bridge Pub and we set off to give Joy a little taster of cruising. It was lovely to be out on this balmy spring day and surprisingly there were very few boats out and about, the hire season not starting until Easter. The last time we came this way we collected a tyre around our propeller, but all went well this time and we returned to our pontoon with our fresh paint intact.

Joy’s response to her stay and trip was “I could get used to this”. It was definitely time to put her ashore and wave goodbye at the railway station before she decided to move on permanently.