Come hell or high water…..

Come hell or high water (and I think the latter is a distinct possibility!) we are leaving for our summer cruise the day after tomorrow! 

We had planned to get away a couple of weeks ago, but delayed so that we could see our daughter’s new home and lend a hand with some of the work involved in moving house.  Then we planned to get away early this week, but the weather has been so awful that we decided to delay again for a few days.  But we are just about ready to go now, boat mostly victualed up, just a bit of shopping to do and clothes etc to put on board and away we go.  We could sit here waiting forever at this rate, so we’ve decided to get a shift on, regardless of the weather.

The Webasto is fixed, costing us somewhat more than we had bargained for – not much spent on parts, just some new seals, but a good 10 man-hours involved in finding and fixing the diesel leaks – plural!  The fuel has been turned on now for over a fortnight and no sign of a leak so far, which is promising.  So now we can have hot water for our morning showers without waiting until after 8am so we can turn on the engine to heat the water.

The ‘plan’ is to head up the GU, N Oxford, Coventry, T &M to the Macc and the Peak Forest, as far as Bugsworth and maybe further.  We then plan to turn around and retrace our steps onto the T & M, and go to the Shroppie via the Middlewich Arm.  All things being equal, we will then return home via the Staffs and Worcs.

Rog has an appointment at the Eye Clinic at the hospital in early August, so we plan to be home by then, but with the option of him getting the train back to Northampton if we feel we’d like to stay out for longer.  All depending on how Mum copes while we are away, of course.

We have an Autumn cruise planned as well.  When the kids are back at school we are going to head off again, not sure where yet, but the cruise will end at Brinklow Marina just north or Rugby, where we plan to moor the boat.  We’ve decided to move it as we are getting fed up of having to do the Buckby Flight every time we want to go north.  The advantage is that it will also get rid of the necessity of doing the Brauntston Flight and the tunnel.  An added bonus is that it will cost us £400 a year less than Gayton Marina, but still be in easy reach of home by car during the winter.

So, watch this space, the blog will recommence sometime over the weekend.