Yesterday reminded me of why we moved to the boat! We had a fantastic day! The marina can get a bit claustrophobic depending on your personality. I don't like being too close to people all the time, so I occasionally have to go somewhere quiet and have some 'me' time. The best place for that is the sea basin at the end of one arm of the canal. You have to go through six locks which tends to put a lot of people off.
We had a great trip down. We hooked up with some holiday boaters and shared the locks. They asked us if we had been down these locks before and were very relieved when we said we had. They deferred to us as experienced boaters and that made me feel a little nervous.I assured them that we weren't that experienced, but we did seem to do pretty well!!
The way we do the locks is that one of us takes the bike and sets the locks while the other steers the boat and this works really well for a seamless flow through:
I think we appeared on lots of photos as it was a Sunday and a nice day and lots of people were out walking.
Half way through we swopped and it was my turn to sail the boat.
This is the view from the bottom of a lock!
I tried to take an 'arty'picture of our chimney in the foreground with our now local pub in the background, from lock number 5:
I was quite nervous about taking over the helm as I haven't sailed for many months, but I soon got into my stride and negotiated a bridge with perfect space each side of the boat.
I was approaching lock 6, when I saw Phil cycling madly towards me. The lock gates were still shut and I thought he was coming to give me some guidance, but he cycled past at speed muttering something about leaving the keys to the gates at the last lock. I realised that he would be gone a while and that I would have to bring the boat into the side and moor up - all on my own!! This time last year I would have paniced, but this year I just gently brought her alongside the bank, stepped off, got hold of the central line and pulled her over. I then tied off at bow and stern - WOW! I was impressed with myself! Building on that success, we brought her into the jetty like pros! We are a good team! I brought her alongside which involved a 90 degree turn into the space and Phil stepped off the bow and tied up while I brought the stern round. We felt quite proud, since this time two years ago we wouldn't have had a clue how to do these kind of manoeuvres.
This is now the view from our galley window:
And out of the open duck hatch:
And here we are moored up:
The jetty feels quite exposed though!
I sat out on the stern and put my feet up in the sun, because we have now taken the canopy down.
The swans and their cygnets soon found us and blagged some bread off us:
We have both caught the sun, my face is now bright red! We were also very tired, it is such a workout shifting lock gates and raising and lowering paddles.
It is very fresh up here, being so near to the sea, so I opened all doors and windows and let the air through the boat. While I was at work today, Phil swept through, dusted and cleaned the fire and chimney and the boat is now lovely and fresh and clean, even the wardrobes!
I was a bit stiff at work today, especially climbing the stairs but it was lovely to be back after so many weeks away doing other work. I would however like to have some more time to enjoy our new position on the canal. I could sit on the stern all day and just relax and watch the wild life.
I am away again next week for a few weeks and we really should get down to the allotment and weed it so that it is not too bad after another 3-4 weeks away. We will see how we get on. I was hoping to do something with it on my one free day (Wednesday), but I had a call from an ex-pupil. He has been made redundant, at a moments notice from his job and wants to come and talk through his future, so I must make time for him. What an awful thing to happen, but it seems to be happening to more and more young people in this economic climate.
It is now 8.45pm and the sun is shining brightly throughout the boat. An early night for me and it is very strange to be going to bed with the sun still shining!
:)
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