Friday, May 24, 2013

DIY (but not cooking)

We were up early as Al had to go to the hospital with her Dad to Denmark Hill. She caught the bus to Rugby railway station and went to meet her Dad... Del stayed with Derwent6 and got some jobs done.. He touched up some paintwork and did the brasses as always.. At midday we had some showers so it was inside jobs for the rest of the day.. He put up a plaque in the engine room given to Al on her birthday.. It reads "Work is for people who don't go Boating"   
He then put up some extra shelves in the cabinet for Al's Disney characters, which she has wanted up for a long time..
The only problem he had was cooking.. He tried to do a bit of toasting and nearly set Derwent6 alight! Good job he's not a fussy eater..

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Party Time!!!

Blimey! Where do we start!! We will try and make this quick....We went down to Kent for Al's 50th Birthday. She woke up in the bed and house she was born in, to some presents from Del, and more about that later..
For lunch she went out with her mum and dad to a local pub and then in the evening she had a party at our favourite place to eat, the Beeches Pub and Restaurant. It was a fancy dress do with a 70's theme, and there were 65 guests.
There was live entertainment and there was even seventies games for the kids. A big thank you to Maxine and Graham for hosting the show and to Terry (Del's Step mum) for making the cake.
Thanks to everyone who was there and making it such a fun night.. For most it was a night they won't ever forget...
We were up till 3.00am and we slept in a camper van in Maxine and Graham's garden and we met back in the pub for a morning coffee in our pyjamas.
On the Saturday we spent the time trying to recover and were treated to a nice meal by Bernie and Sarah in the evening and stayed the night with them.. Sunday we all went over to Del's Brother Cliff and Louise who also run a pub..(lucky aren't we). We had Sunday lunch there with them and friends to finish off the weekend..  We slept back with Al's mum and dad on Sunday night.
Monday we took the fancy dress stuff back and then made our way back to Derwent6 to detox. (Well so we thought). We arrived back at 3.00pm and was then met by John and Angela of n.b Ellen who invited us up the Red Lion pub for a drink.. We wanted a early night so we staggered back at midnight...
Tuesday we set off early (well Del did) and made our way out of a busy Crick which was moving boats around at 6.00am in the morning for the boat show next weekend. We got to the Watford flight and only waited ten minutes before the lock keeper waved us down.
We then met the armada of boats going to the show. We met four in Braunston Tunnel, but it made easy work of the locks as two boats were always coming up at each lock we approached. During the day we passed twenty boats. We stopped for water and then stopped off at the chandlers before heading out into the countryside for some peace and quiet.. We met up with friends Paul and Lynne of n.b. Piston Broke and had a chat for half an hour and then pressed on to find a nice mooring. It was nice to be by ourselves for a bit and Al went through all her cards and presents..
 Another big thank you to you all, our friends and family were so generous....

Friday, May 17, 2013

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Always jobs to do

We woke up to a nice morning and we decided to have a pump out and fill with diesel at Crick Marina. Before we went in Del always takes a sample out of the diesel tank and we were surprised to find water in the sample and the deisel a bit cloudy, these are the first signs of diesel bug.
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We can only think it must be condensation inside the walls of the tank which has caused it, due to the fact the water trap on the engine feed was clear.  We will have to check it again in a weeks time when everything has settled, we then set off...
It was windy and it made easy turning as the wind did the work. We pulled into the Marina and found they had just fixed their pump out machine. It has been very busy here with boat movement due to the Crick Boat Show. There are going to be 127 new boats in the show the busiest it has been, but the organisers weren't happy about the weather prospect again.
We got moored up and Del set to work on the toilet as it was now empty. We had had a problem with the valve and the water was coming back up in the pan. Del found the fault straight away and managed to change the valve for a new one..
The rain started coming down hard again so it put paid to the day. It got cold and damp again and we needed the fire, then of course it got too hot. Al cut Del's hair in the evening and we thought we would have an early night listening to the rain on the roof..


Cricking it

After a day of doing nothing (as the weather was pants), we had planned to move but we don't like doing wet. So the choice was to move in the morning, and it was going to be early.
We were up at 6.30am and Del was ready to push Derwent6 off at 7.15am as we had a small window before it rained again. We crept along so we didn't wake any of the neighbours. It is nice cruising early as you see so much wildlife.
We made our way through Yelvertoft and on to Crick, just in time before it rained.
Al was going to the doctor's with her dad and managed to catch the 10.40 am bus to Rugby station. Del cleaned of Derwent6 in the rain as it had got covered in blossom as it does this time of year and its a good chance to wash in the rain showers.
Al arrived back at 5.00pm and it was still showering and very heavy showers they were. We had to light the fire in the evening as the temperature dropped to three degrees.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Meeting South

We got up this morning and the weather was promising.. It looked like it was going to rain at some point in the afternoon so we pulled out of Welford and slipped down to the lock.. We then got out onto the Grand Union and turned south.. It was easy cruising until we got to bridge 31 where it started to get a bit shallow..
We passed another boat and we both grounded, so it was on idle for the rest of the way till we decided to stop at bridge 27..
We had just tied the ropes when we saw David and Lisa on n.b. What a Lark. They pulled over and moored with us and invited us on for tea. "What a Lark" is another Fernwood boat and was in the Crick Show last year..It was good to see them both as always and catch up with their travels. We ended up chatting for a few hours only popping back to Derwent6 for loo breaks.
The showers got worse in the afternoon but we also had a lot of sunshine, and Derwent6 was pointing under the rainbow again..
We left Lisa & David at 5.30pm and watched the FA Cup and the Wigan win.

Goodbye's

We had been battered about in the winds overnight but we still managed a bit of a lay in. We had some bacon butties before we decided to set off again back into Welford.. It was Sam and Tanya's last day with us and we had to get them back to their car...With a tricky maneuver we managed to turn Derwent6 into the arm with the help of the wind.
When we got to the lock the crew were out in force..
Windlass in hand Sam opened the paddles and Tanya opened the gates.
We were lucky as when we winded at the end of the Welford arm, the wind was sheltered and we turned very easily. We reversed back into our favourite mooring.
Al had cooked chicken and sweet potato and we had a lovely lunch before we had to say our goodbyes to Sam and Tanya. It was lovely having them and they were good company and good fun.. Thanks both of you!!
We then walked up to Pat ( Del's mum) and Keith, as it is Keith's Birthday on Sunday and dropped off a little something, with a cup of tea of course.. We said our goodbyes and made our way back to Derwent6.
We were going to move again this afternoon as we are a bit Welforded out but we decided to go tomorrow now.. Weather Pending!!

Battle in the Wind

The morning started very bright which was a surprise... The lovers hadn't surfaced so we decided to go for a walk to Debdale. Del wanted a longer bolt for the engine and we also needed a filter so it was worth trying to get it here. Foxton looked good in the sunshine as we walked the couple of miles..
We never managed to get either parts but they did make up a bolt from some threaded bar they had.. Not only did they cut it for us but they never charged us... Good old Debdale.. We then had a walk round to see friends Mike and Gerry off Fernwood boat n.b Tubbs and it was good to get all the local gossip.
When we got back to Derwent6 at 10.00am  the rest of the crew had just surfaced. The weather had deteriorated and the wind had got worse and it was cloudy with some showers, but the weather forecast was the same for tomorrow so we decided to go..
Well go sideways, the wind was taking us but as we were heavy with the extra crew it kept Derwent6 on the straight and narrow.. We spotted a tree down in the winds, so we picked up some wood on the way and managed to stop and load the roof, the wind has it's advantages. We got to the tunnel just when the rain started so it kept us dry for some of the way, and no one else was stupid enough to be out, so it was quiet..
We got back to Welford junction where the wind was so strong we couldn't get across to the arm, so we turned into wind and moored up.
It's a good job we did as the wind was so strong at this point it closed our side doors for us.. The waves were breaking down the cut as we rocked around a bit.. We lit the fire, Al cooked Fajitas, and we snuggled down, a easy task for Tanya and Sam as they had been doing it all weekend...
!!




Up to Foxton for a treat

The next morning we were ready to go at 10.30am after we had had some breakfast. We headed up towards Foxton Locks which is where Derwent6 had its launch party. Tanya supplied us with teas and coffee on the way..
We soon entered the Husband Bosworth tunnel and passed two boats on the way through..
 It was a pleasant day with some light showers but it didn't bother any of us..
We arrived at Foxton Locks at 1.00pm and managed to wind in the wind which was getting stronger. In the afternoon Sam and Tanya had a good walk round Foxton while we chilled out in the sunny periods we had..
In the evening we all walked down to The Foxton Inn just as the weather had started to turn..It had got very windy and had started to rain..
When we got there, we were treated to a lovely meal by Tanya and Sam with some support from their parents.. Thanks guys!!
We walked back in the dark and had coffee and chatted till we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.

Two Collections

It was a lovely day on the Bank Holiday Monday and also on the Tuesday.. We made our way back into Welford on the Monday evening as we had another Asda delivery to collect and also we were picking up god daughter Tanya and her boyfriend Sam. Asda arrived at lunchtime and we stocked up the cupboards.
Tanya arrived at 8.00pm just in time for us to go over to the pub and catch the last food order..
The beds were made before we went and we all fell into them when we finally got on board.

Monday, May 06, 2013

Watching the others

We decided to stay put this weekend as we thought it would be so busy.. On Saturday we had some really heavy showers but it never put boaters off . We watched as they tried to moor in the isolated showers some of which were heavy hailstones..
We did get some sunshine so we just relaxed in the cratch for most of the day..
On Sunday it was a blue sky day and a lot warmer.. Del set on the brasses again and then went out on his bike to watch the gliders taking off and landing..
 Al read her book for most of the day sitting in the sunshine..

Across the board

Today we got up to brilliant sunshine again.. So after breakfast in the cratch Del was adding some polish to the roof.. As we had to take everything off the roof we thought we would do some other jobs as well..
The plank we have on Derwent6 we have never ever used, that's right never been used.. We have always been able to get close enough to the bank to jump off.. The plank we got from going up the Lee when we first had Derwent6. We managed to find a old scaffold board by a lock.. Del cut it up first to fit on the plank supports and there it has stayed with all the old builders paint on it for the last four years and never moved.. As it had been removed we decided to paint it so it looks a bit more attractive. Lets hope we never have to use it..
Then there was the pole, guess what, we have never had to use a pole. We don't know if we are just lucky or Al has long arms but it's true we have never had to use it.. If you saw it you would see why. We found this at the top of the Watford flight of locks and it was broken but we never had one at all. So we put it on the roof just in case we needed pushing off of something.. Believe us we have never needed it.. So as it was off the roof and not covered by bags of coal or wood we decided to paint that as well...  We painted them in Red Oxide and they looked ok and it dried quickly..  Al managed to get all the sheets washed and dried today as well.
It got a bit chilly late in the afternoon so we snuggled inside and ended up lighting the fire.. It may have been because we had a bit too much sun during the day..