We're on the move

Really the title should read 'We've moved.' However, I thought I would get you all excited thinking that we had set off on this autumns jaunt. Not yet, more about that later.

No, it’s just that we’ve moved Polgara from Pillings Lock Marina down to Bugbrooke Marina, near Northampton.

On May 30^th, I set off to move the boat. The Captain couldn’t come with me this time so I recruited another crew, my brother and sister-in-law, Brian and Ann. The only problem was that they could only help over the weekend and had to get back home on Monday. No problem, I had it all worked out so that if we set off on Friday afternoon, by Monday I could drop them at a convenient bus stop, and continue alone to finish by pm Tuesday. Simple.

Except that when we went to get a temporary canal licence we found out that the river was in flood!

Nothing on the internet said anything about flooding – I had checked – and I checked again – river levels all normal! What to do now? We had a Monday deadline and we couldn’t even get started!

Well, we went for a walk, had supper in the Marina, turned in and waited to see what Saturday had in store. Amazingly the river had gone down overnight – seems it was localised flooding in just one stretch of the river. So, cast off, take on diesel and full speed ahead (all of 4mph). We managed to get into Leicester and find a mooring at Castle Park – not the quietest of places to moor on a Saturday night! Sunday, an early start and we managed to get to Foxton Locks, back on target for the bus stop drop on Monday. But, and there’s always a but, at the pub that evening – and no, I didn’t ply them with drinks first, Brian and Ann casually asked how many hours would it take to get from Foxton to Bugbrooke. Foolishly I blurted out ‘13 hours in all.’ They decided that if we set off at 6 in the morning we’d be in Bugbrooke by 7 in the evening! And that’s exactly what we did. Even with an hours delay at Watford we still managed to complete the journey in 13 hours. Supper in the pub, a quick car ride to collect their car from Pillings and then fond farewells – and an extra day for me to sort out the mooring on Tuesday. Thank you B&A for all your help.