Long day to the Ashby

We have had a good couple of days here at All Oaks Wood and Del picked up his prescription from the doctors after taking a video call from the doctor himself..
We knew the weather was good again today so we left early (7.00am) and made our way to the stop gate at Rose's narrowboats..

It was lovely and cool for the first two and a half hours as we made our way up to Hawksberry junction.

When we arrived it wasn't that busy and we got straight onto the water point but the tap was just so slow..

We stuck with it and Del polished the side while we did it.. we then did the small one foot deep stop lock and then took the turn onto the Coventry north, the cruising was amazing and very relaxed.

Again it was an easy cruise and you just notice how green everything is.

We then turned onto the Ashby canal and remembered how much we like it on here.

We knew a good mooring at bridge three and luckily it was free, and a wide towpath area, so we moored up and Tooty was off in a flash to explore his new territory..

 

We were soon chilling in the sunshine which got up to 40 degrees at one point.

We had no option but to get the BBQ out and of course a bottle of beer, wine and whiskey, in that order!!

When the evening finishes like this it reminds us of just how lucky we are and how beautiful our countryside is!!

Fitting it all in

Del was up at 5.30am and teas were made before we set off quietly..

It was a beautiful morning and we planned to make the most of it.. We passed Clifton marina which again was chocker with hire boats with just enough room to pass through, god help you if you meet anything..

We then made our way up to Brownsover which was one of our objectives.. It was busy here and we wanted to top up with water so we used the spot to suss things out..

Our plan was to get a food shop done very early in the morning and Al would go round on her own and get it in the trolley. While Al was doing that Del filled with water and then put Derwent6 on the otherside of the canal so it was easy to load.

This all worked as Al had no problems around the Supermarket and was soon texting Del to say, meet her halfway to help push the loaded trolley back..
Next was Tooty. Due to the lockdown he had run behind with his vaccination jabs and we needed to get him up to date in case we have to put him in a cattery for an emergency.. We walked him down and then waited in the carpark till we were instructed to go in and see the vet.. He had to go in on his own and we waited for his return, £71.00 lighter..
We then made our way up towards Newbold and passed some lovely blue fields..

At Newbold itself it was still very quiet and the tunnel was empty.

At the Armada boatyard they have worked hard over lockdown with its new look, we loved the shell sign..

We pushed on to All Oaks Wood where a fallen tree was making a bit of a hazard but we could just squeeze through..

There we a few moorings available so we picked one where we knew we could get a tv signal.

So we were sorted for the day, all moored up by 11.30am and water, food and Tooty sorted.. We did spot this fella today!!

A late afternoon cruise

We had a very heavy downpour overnight and the whole day to ourselves, so Al did some washing and Del went over his brasses again..  We enjoy listening to "the sounds of the seventies" on a Sunday aftrenoon, and we did just that before we made the decision to make a move.. I know it seemed a bit irrational but we had our reasons as we had a lot going on tomorrow. It also made the most of the longest day as we like a bit of evening cruising.

It was still very warm and we made our way towards Hillmorton Locks, the weather looked iffy though..

We were surprised how fast again the housing is going up in these areas..

At the locks it got quite busy with boats and people walking around but we seemed to avoid them alright..

At the bottom lock it was so nice we hardly got off tickover just taking in the scenery and thinking how lucky we were..  We moored at our old favourite at Clifton which was empty. We .have started to notice a bit of graffiti on the bridges here so things are changing with the houses all going up..

It was busier than normal on the towpath, but we felt it was still fine..
We watched a film and then took an early night as we had an early start in the morning..

Moving for water and heading north.

We woke up to that horrid drizzle this morning which when cruising you get so wet, so we thought we would wait until it had passed over.

Clive and Jackie on n.b Jacana were moving off today and they left an hour before us. We were both going into Braunston for water and they planned to stay as they had company coming up on Saturday..

We however wanted to move on from Braunston so we might just get better signals for our weekend Zoom chats we have with the family..
We filled with water and then reversed onto the pump out station..

Here we got two pumpout tokens as we hadn't had a good flush out of the tank since before the lockdown. We spotted Victoria who used to run the Clifton Marina and also her Mum and Dad who were running the boatyard when we first came on Derwent6, it was just so nice to see them all.

 We gave the tank a good rinse out and then just missed the boat cafe for a bacon butty. We said our goodbyes to Clive and Jackie and then set off north into the countryside towards Rugby.  We then stopped and just made the closing time of the chandlers so we could get a couple of bottles of Odourless to go in our now nice clean tank.

  It seemed busy here with boats when normally it has been very quiet, so we don't know why there are so many people about seeing there is a lockdown still.

We were invaded by these cows on a bridge, who weren't social distancing..

We soon got to one of our favourite moorings which was nicely over grown with wild flowers, and Tooty was in his element..

It had seemed a long day, but in fact we didn't leave till 1.30pm in the afternoon. At least we made the most of these long days before they start to get shorter..

We might sit tight over the weekend and watch the boats go by.. We did spot this Viking hire boat out and wondered why as it was very late in the day!!!!

Helping out..

We had planned to move after a few days here at Flecknoe but Clive and Jackie on n.b Jacana had a problem with their batteries and it was time to get to the bottom of it.. First we tested the batteries with a small battery tester Del had and it was checking all the charge rates from the generator and the engine alternators.. All these came up alright..
So we then carried out a discharge test to see if something was draining the battery overnight and when tested this also appeared all ok.. We then tried turning off the fridge overnight and on another night turning off the inverter, and the batteries were fine with the fridge off, until the fridge was turned back on..  The drain was horrendous and they were soon showing just 10.8 volts, so it was back to the batteries.. Another test was carried out but this time in a low state of charge and they all seemed even but very low..
The problem turned out to be when we took off the caps to each 2 volt cell the acid level was only just above the plates and it was in need of some distilled water.. Straight away we could see a difference as the batteries tried to recover and needed a good charge..
The following morning things were all working fine and the batteries were holding charge and running the fridge fine as they recovered after the fridge had got to temperature..   So fingers crossed that has saved a set of batteries and Clive can put on his music and other appliances without any more problems..

We have had a lovely time with them both and the wildlife hasn't let us down with owls and the swans keeping us all company..

We also had a takeaway for the first time since the virus and ordered it from the Olive Tree pub in the village.

The landlady dropped it down to us in a box and we met at bridge 102, it was delicious, all this including pudding and drinks for ten pound...
Oh and we did see Timothy West and Prunella Scales with their son out on a day trip which was nice to see.

We have been here a week now and loved every minute of it, but we need to move tomorrow for water as we have got a bit lax on water use as we had it so easy during lockdown..