Monday 10 March 2008

Amid the chaos.

5 locks and 4 miles. Now moored at Lock 6 Atherstone

In preparation for the arrival of our easy chairs on Saturday morning I had made a start on removing the old seating and shifting the water pump. The latter proved to be more of a problem than anticipated due to faulty components and having to completely drain the water tank as the stop cock was in the wrong place (stupid builder). This of course meant moving things around and in the process things like one laptop got buried under a pile of cushions hence no blog last night. At 10 am the delivery guy's arrived with 2 rather large cartons, 2 chairs and foot stools to be precise. The only place we had room for them was 1 on the stern deck and 1 in the cratch.

By mid -day the pump had been moved and everything was fine so we decided to leave  Hartshill and move up to bridge 41 at the top of the Atherstone flight but first we had to move up to the water point at the BW yard to refill our empty water tank. After putting some water in the tank the  plumbing was checked and found to be OK. It was fine but rather blustery as we set off for Atherstone travelling up to bridge 41 were we moored for the night. After tying up Dot went into the lounge to set up the TV and found water all over the floor. She then checked under the front deck where the water tank is placed and shock horror 2 inches of water sloshing around. DON'T PANIC, we won't sink. The problem arose from 2 faulty HEP 20 joint's, one new , one old. The first thing was to shift everything in the lounge to safety and mop up the water. Once this was done we then had to use the loo self pump out gear to pump out the water in the tank compartment and then finish it off with an old towel. I then had to try and  temporarily fix the 2 connections until I can get some replacements. By the time this was finished we were both feeling a bit weary and despondent but we still had not opened our 2 cartons to check that the contents were OK and no bit's missing.

Well the god's must have smiled upon us as the chairs were complete and relatively easy to assemble and it was nice to ease my aching body into one of them for a well earned rest as it had turned out to be a very long tiring day.

Sunday morning and the temporary repairs were still holding up thankfully but the weather forecast for the next week isn't looking so rosy. While Dot was disposing of the large cartons in the refuse she bumped into Myra and Iain of N/b Martlett last seen on the Thames at Lechslade 9 months ago, they were moving another boat that is for sale.  Great to see them again however short.  With the bad weather in mind we moved up to lock 6  where there is road access as Pete from N/b Pickles is coming to take away some of our superfluous timber and foam seating. This afternoon we were just about to walk into town as we had seen an ALDI supermarket close by when Iain and Alison on coal boat "Gosty Hill" appeared on the horizon so the shopping was postponed. Iain gently bought his 30 something ton boat alongside to dispense our 58 litre's of diesel. While waiting for a boat coming up through the lock we had a good chat with Iain and Alison who appear to be the most unlikely couple and found that looks can definitely be deceiving as Iain, who has a full head of dreadlocks is a very pleasant guy and Alison is very attractive when you look past her working apparel.

899 locks, 1281 miles, 38 Tunnels, 41 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006

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