Monday 10th December 2007
Location: Rugby, Warwickshire, Grand Union
Today: 9 miles, 3 locks. Total distance: 947 miles. Total locks: 617
Cold day. Good t-mobile gprs reception here.
Time to move again as we need to take on water.
Pulled the pins around 09:00 in quite heavy wind. Moved down to the water point and filled the tank up while Rhonda walked up to the village with the dogs to get the papers etc. It took the best part of 45 minutes to fill the tank as the water pressure was quite low. By the time the tank had filled, the wind had died down so moving on was much easier.
Headed up through Hillmorton locks and moored by the good stretch of tow path just south of Rugby. It’s quite a busy spot for dog walkers etc. but the path is clean and solid and it is close to the train station and Tesco.
Spotted some good dead wood just north of Hillmorton locks so pulled in to the bank and grabbed the bow saw. Good dead wood is scarce around this area so I was quite surprised to find it. It’s now on the roof awaiting the chain saw.
We have been spending quite a bit of time moored up recently as we can’t go very far due to the winter stoppages. It is actually quite nice to be resting up for 4-5 days at a time. As we have not been moving much, we have been running the generator quite a lot to keep the batteries charged. The best routine we have found is to fire up the generator around 18:00 when we turn the TV on for the news. We will also run the washing machine at this time as needed and the washing dries nicely over night. The generator is using about one litre of diesel per hour so it is much cheaper than if we had to run the main engine for electricity and battery charging. It takes around 2 to 3 hours to top up the batteries in the evening which is another reason why we tend to moor well away from other boats and houses so that the noise from the generator does not disturb anyone.
Wednesday 12th
We had a heavy frost over night, there was a thin layer of ice on the canal this morning – the first canal freeze that we have experienced this year.
A lovely bright and crisp morning – my favourite weather.
Fired up the chain saw yesterday and cut up all of the various lengths of wood that we have collected over the last few weeks. We now have a nice little pile of logs on the roof again.
Still no phone call from Sony about my laptop, they were supposed to phone me on Monday or Tuesday. It is now just over six weeks since my laptop died – thank you Sony for such great service!! The warrantee expires in a few weeks time.
Current mooring note good tow path here - most places it's a mud bath!!
12th December, thin ice on the canal this morning
13th December - another cold night
17th December
17th December
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Material Copyright © 2007 Ernie Williams
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23 April, 2014 4:16 PM