15 Miles, 10 Locks – for this week
Totals: 373 Miles, 377 Locks, 10 Tunnels, 9 Swing Bridges
We are back on the boat.
After a slightly longer than planned for return trip to Melbourne for Xmas and to complete the things that needed to be done before our full departure, we have this week returned to the boat to begin the next chapter of our lives.
Diane was very pleased to see the boat for the first time and happy with it – a great load off my mind, having been ensconced with the responsibility of selection and purchase.
We flew into Manchester and after an overnight stay in Chester – a city that we both love very much, it was just a short taxi ride to Tattenhall Marina and reopening the doors.
The winterising went very well – no damp, dank smells or leaks – in fact it smelled remarkably fresh; so just had to fill the water tank, close the taps and turn the pump on – a few spurts and we had the water flowing; checked the engine – started first time – the battery charger had done its thing and the batteries are fully charged from the word go.
Thursday saw us venturing out for a short trip down into Chester, with our now obligatory stop at The Cheshire Cat for lunch (the food as usual was very good), through the 5 locks (gee are they ever hard - nothing has changed with these) and moored up just before Bridge 123C.
Diane took the boat through the first two locks to get the hang of it all again and did exceptionally well - I was glad to be able to take care of the lock without worrying about the boat as well.
We had noticed a number of ex-working boats going through and then found out that there was a rally down in the basin – we declined the opportunity to go down to see them. We needed to do some serious pantry shopping and then move back to the Marina – which was all accomplished on Friday – sharing the load through the locks with Claire and Tim on nb Theddingworth.
Diane decided that the boat needed a little reorganisation in the manner in which things were stored – a task which I was pleased to leave to her.
Rob (on nb Hour Time) moored next to us and was in the process of doing some preparations for painting his boat which he had picked up just last December; such a good job he was doing of it that I was shamed into starting the same necessary work on our boat – so one side was sanded back and primed – now ready for top-coating, before that other side gets done.
Thankfully we have some public holidays to get this done.
In amongst all of this there was some time for me to get some paying work done; both of us to walk to and from Tattenhall village and also for a couple of other walks – all-in-all a bit of a busy week
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