Day 4 – Saturday 1^st September. Well, firstly, where’s all the sun they promised? Last night we walked to the pub but found that they didn’t have Wi-Fi so back to the boat for an improvised chicken casserole. After that we slept like a log. Today we set off through Zouch lock and made our way along to Kegworth. This stretch of the river is very popular with rowing eights and we were overtaken by both a ladies team and a men’s team.

At Ratcliffe on Soar the river is dominated by the power station. You can just see the village church to the right of the trees and the cooling towers to the left.

After that we turned left at the junction of the River Soar with the Trent & Mersey

and stopped off at Sawley Marina to purchase a canal licence for one month. We only have a river licence where we are on the inland waterway system which works out much cheaper than a full canal and rivers licence. Brigid then went for a swim. It wasn’t planned but she slipped on a lock gate and ended up in the water and wasn’t too happy about it. Whilst she showered and changed and sat with her feet up I pushed on to Shardlow so that we could have a reasonable period of time to recover our composure with toasted sandwiches and buckets of tea. This evening we shall renew an old acquaintance with The New Inn

which is right next to The Malt Shovel

– guess what, another favourite of ours. We felt that after an unscheduled swim cooking was out of the question. Toodle-pip.

PS Covered nearly ten miles today!

Day 3 – Friday 31^st August. The day started well with the sun shining in a clear sky. We packed up the car leaving bits and bobs behind that we hope won’t be needed on the boat. Car keys left with Jane in the marina office and then a pootle round to the pump to fill up with diesel. Luckily I remembered to put in the additive that prevents diesel bug and all other nasties that you can get with this ‘new’ red diesel. (If you want to know more just search for diesel bug and all will become even more confused)

Then we set off! Whooppee! The first part of the journey was past all our usual haunts on the way to Loughborough – mind you a bit of excitement at the chain bridge where there is a T junction to go either left into Loughborough basin or right toward the Trent & Mersey canal, just as we tipped up two other boats were coming through.

Seeing as they were breasted up (tied together side by side) and bigger than us, I had to give way. Never mind, since we were only just popping round the corner anyway to stop for lunch at another favourite pub of ours, The Albion Inn. I had Boboti which is a South African dish and is best described as curried lamb and looks a bit like moussaka. Brigid had Cottage pie.

The Albion is a family run pub, no internet, no card machine and, according to the landlord, they’ve only just got an electric till. After lunch we pottered on through Town Lock and Bishop Meadow Lock through Normanton on Soar and moored up at 3:30pm at Zouch opposite another pub we like, The Rose & Crown. Might pop along later just to see if they have Wi-Fi available. Will let you know.

Anyway, Brigid decided to wash the roof of the boat – don’t know what’s come over her!

So I got out a few tools and started attacking the rust around the base of the chimney. After that we both felt a little weary so a cup of tea and a sit down helped to sort things out. Have just checked the map and we have covered nearly six miles today – life is all rush & hurry on a canal boat!

Day 2 – Thursday 30^th August. Well, we have spent today sorting out the boat, packing away clothes, topping up the water tank and, most important, buying in supplies. We went into Barrow upon Soar to visit our favourite butcher. The sad thing is that he is going to retire next year and unless he can let out the business, we are going to lose one of the best butcher shops in the area. One of the problems he faces is that his cold room is accessed through the flat that he lives in. Also, the electrics are not clearly shop or flat – which doesn’t matter too much if it’s your home and livelihood but if he wants to let it out as a business and a separate flat then the wiring and location of facilities will need to be sorted. Another problem is that business has been tailing off with people not buying as much meat as before and the weather this year not favouring barbecues. Anyway, we have until next year to enjoy his meat, after that we will have to see what happens. Perhaps yet another village will lose its local butcher shop.

After the butcher, off to the supermarket for the bulk buy items, then to the chemist to stock up on pills and potions.

Quite a bit of rain today and still chilly. Let’s hope it’s going to warm up for the weekend.

Day 1 and we set off in rain for the three hour journey from Bradwell to Quorn. But halfway there the skies cleared and we arrived in bright sunshine. Here you can see Brigid getting everything onto the boat.

It has ended up a clear but chilly evening.

The only problem is that I can’t connect up to the internet so I will have to wait until the morning to see if I can upload the first day’s news.

PS - as you can see I am on-line today but spent an hour or two trying to get the computer to link up to the marina system - at times I really love computer technology!

Retirement starts here!

Well, at last I have retired from working at the Retreat House in Pleshey. Nearly ten years of meeting and greeting both Christians and non-Christians and making sure that the house was ready to receive them.

So, what now?

Well, for the next month we shall be poodling about with Polgara just going where the wind and tide take us. Mind you, not many tides on the canals but I think you know what I mean.

If we get an internet connection we will let you know our progress - if not, you will have to wait until we come visiting so that we can bore you all with photos of locks and weirs and ducks and swans ... etc.

Watch this space.

What happened in 2010

When you read our blog you must be thinking that in 2010 we did nothing - stayed at home - put our feet up.

Don't you believe it!

Early in the year we visited Polgara only to find that we had problems with the water system. Over the winter, one of the original copper pipes that runs tight against the bulkhead had split and we were without running water. Not a problem since we were in the marina and showers and toilets were all readily available. But, what to do next? Well, as usual, I set to work to find out where the pipes ran. After removing the corner cupboard and half the forward bulkhead I soon realised that to take out the old piping to replace with new would mean taking half the boat apart. So we decided to cut our losses and bypass the old by running flexible piping along the boat at floor level.
 

This meant that the sink had to be removed along with the worktop and the gas stove.

Once the under sink piping had been exposed we found the plumbing equivalent of spaghetti junction with pipes going every which way but the way you would expect.

Never mind, plenty of scrap copper coming out and a shorter length of flexible piping going in. And, WOW, what a surprise when we switched on for the first time - water flowing really fast and hot water gushing out of all the right places. Another good job jobbed!

In June we managed a long weekend away and, after visiting our favourite local pub, stopped overnight just a short way away from the marina.

Lovely to be out on the cut away from the hustle and bustle of Pillings.
Later in the year in August we managed to get away for three weeks and tackle the Leicester ring.

There was something nostalgic about this particular trip since our first ever canal holiday started from Welford and we completed the Leicester ring - mind you we did it then in a fortnight but taking three weeks is much nicer.



Welford - where it all began



Ever since buying Polgara we have had a problem with the generator and keeping the batteries topped up and with the fridge not keeping everything cold enough. And there was no difference on this holiday - flat batteries every morning.

Well, we arrived a Braunston and happened to wander into the chandlery there and what did they have on display but a 12 volt fridge and not the 240 volt type that we were trying to run. They were quite happy to sell us the fridge and even happier when we enquired about the gas stove standing nearby. They even arranged with Justin next door to fit them both for us.

Don't they look good?

The following day, and indeed until the end of the holiday, all you could hear from me were squeals of delight since the batteries were still fully charged every morning and a days travelling just topped them up nicely.

The following are some pictures of the rest of our holiday.

Brasswork all nice and shiny

During the year we have tried to visit Polgara once a month. It hasn't always been possible but we have tried.

Our last visit over Christmas saw another pipe split (even though I had drained the system in October) but a quick visit to Wickes and all was fixed again. Mind you, it was so cold that even the Portaloo was frozen solid when we arrived. Anyway, stove fired up overnight and the following day everything was back to normal.

A working holiday

Earlier this month we managed to take a week off to undertake a few repairs and improvements to the boat - and to pop out for a couple of trips to the pub, of course.

One of the easiest jobs was to put new covers on the bed together with a couple of cushions. It's amazing what a difference just changing the covers makes. You walk into the cabin and think "Wow"!

The next room to get Brigid's attention was the shower room. Now I do confess that I saw a bright red venetian blind in one of our local shops and immediately thought "Polgara".

That, together with a touch of paint changed the whole feel of the room.

Now, you're probably wondering "What's Laurie been doing while Brigid's been doing all this hard work?"

Well, I was turning my attention to the main cabin.

Now we loved this cabin as soon as we saw it - but look what I did to it!

I wanted to relace two spotlights that were ceiling mounted with two traditional wall lights. But I didn't know where the wiring went or how the walls came apart. I soon found out! As you can see, all the lagging got exposed and I discovered that the wiring was nowhere near where I thought it might be. So, the next task was to take the ceiling apart - even then, things were not as straight forward as they should have been. However, with the assistance of a Swedish fid (used to fiddle wires through behind wall studs) I relocated the lights, tidied up the tongue & groove fixings, changed the curtain rails for rods and put up new curtains. Once again the result was just what we were looking for.

As I've said in earlier blogs, Polgara is old enough that I can dare to take her apart and put her back together without worrying too much about getting it wrong. I know that if she were a 'new build' I wouldn't dare spoil the new woodwork by ripping the walls apart. I'd be too worried about scrapes and scratches to even point a screwdriver or pair of pincers at them.

I love my boat - we love our boat - luckily she found us last year just at the time we were looking for her. A partnership made in canal heaven!