grendel

Well after using 7gb of my 20gb data card, i had a whole 3gb left, so i thought i would add another 20gb to the sim, no dice, the o2 website said it was barclays declining payment, barclays said o2 were not putting the request through. so eventually i wandered to the o2 shop and managed to buy a 12gb top up with new sim card, lasting 12 months for £20 less than the online top up of the same amount, oh and video data, still downloading, plus i have had to order extra hard drive storage as i am rapidly filling my last 500Gb of storage, so i have ordered an 8Tb diskstation, which for important data i will set up as a 4Tb Raid array so that the data is backed up, if one hard drive dies the fact it is a raid array allows a replacement to be fitted with no loss of data.

yet all of my 11 days aboard, from what i could see everyone was behaving and maintaining social distance generally, conversations were had boat to shore or respecting distancing. the only issue i did have was driving home, where half of london seemed intent on visiting margate and ramsgate by the volume of traffic headed that way. many of the families i chatted to thouht that boating was the ideal way to have a holiday while maintaining distancing.

thats pretty much what i did last week, any public staithe i moored up at was full after midday, though i was generally trying to find nice quiet wild moorings most of the time.

when I was at Womack staithe there were 3 boats that had engineers out, 2 of those were battery related, and a 4th boat was saying how their battery only showed 5% full almost as soon as they had stopped, they werent bothered by it though. I guess the first few weeks are always going to be busy, with batteries that are not holding charge after the winter lay up, which has been extended this year. One I believe was a starter battery.

I chatted with the lady at the door on Lathams, and apparently they have a set number of shopping trolleys (and no baskets), so if there are no trolleys available you have to wait until someone comes out, they clean the trolley handles and let you in, far more subtle than some of the bigger supermarkets. it does mean that even if you only want 1 item you have to have a trolley (which also achieves separation from the person in front when queuing.

despite being outside jayne actually has a bigger wc/shower than some of the others

janet is also a nice boat as are the judiths, they are pretty similar

still downloading, all the photos are done, but the videos, i have one video camera downloaded, but there are 2 more with 64Gb cards, and 2 full 32Gb cards that were swapped out of the cameras, then i have to get them onto youtube.

thats the aweigh app

well after i had packed up, it was a quick hop round to the boatyard, I had to circle while the boat that had preceded me was shifted forward to give me room, then it was unloading the boat and loading the car, the snagging list was past on, basically the jabasco toilet wa pumping out, but not sucking the river water in, I just used the shower, that did the trick. that and the wardrobe door where a glued on edging holding the hinges parted company with the rest of the door, this was quickly dealt with when someone from the workshop came dow to sort it out and repair it before the next hire. then I bumped into someone who had come to say hi and had been reading this tale, sorry I didnt catch your name, but it was good to meet you. Next job, download photos and videos.

breakfast was the last 5 eggs scrambled on toast, followed by the last 2 slices of bread toasted with the last of the marmalade in the jar, 3 less things to pack, just the fridge to empty and the coffee essentials to pack, over the 11 day holiday I managed to get through 1 1/3 bottles of rum in coffee. half an hour left to get that done, put all the bags abnd crates on the bed and sweep the floors and clean the surfaces down , signing off now as I have to unplug the wireless mifi and pack that too.

Well the last morning has arrived, so far I am awake, I have had coffee, nearly everything is packed, and if I wasn't going to be back on Thursday, I would be starting to miss it already. I have a couple more hours, breakfast will be finishing some things from the fridge, then a final clean throughout, ready for the ten minute cruise around the corner to the boatyard.

enjoy Griff, as one tale ends, another begins, I am back in less than a week down south on water rail.

there is also a mooring directly opposite the pub too.

no i have a suitable container for that eventuality, or just lots of comfort stops.

its like the dragons in the south, myth, just that, I have taken hire boats up there, Robin has, so yes you can take hire boats up to the locks and moor up, you cant take hire boats up the leg to the mill (or any other motor boats either, its too shallow.

i believe it only ever goes live for the 3 rivers race.

i am just glad of the shade from the tree, the floor where the sun is shining on it is too hot to stand on barefoot.

i managed to moor Jayne there last friday, to get some shopping from tesco, there isnt a lot of space and you might struggle with a 40 foot boat, as the space thats left bends around the corner.

usually its a case of, I need the bathroom, just hang on to the steering for a minute will you, three hours later...

No, I wont be, tonight is the last night so handing back over in the morning, so I am in Candle dyke on one of the key headings, under the shade of an oak tree, only 10 minutes run from the yard in the morning, the rest of today will be spent slowly cleaning and packing. today after leaving catfield staithe, I cruised down hickling, saw that someone had already nabbed white slea, and did a left down meadow dyke to horsey mere, did a circuit around that, then came back, no white slea still occupied, so I headed down river and have moored up in this shady spot, there is 1 post here, and I have a stern line around that, and let the boat decide which way around she wanted to lie with tide and wind.

so come 8.30 and its time to get under way, after casting off, its off up hickling towards the pleasure boat, when I get there, there is a saily reversing out of the dyke, so I spin around and reverse my direction heading back down hickling broad, at the yellow post I hang a right and have a lovely slow meander down catfield dyke to catfield staithe, time for a comfort break and a coffee, so I moor up, being the only one on the mooring. I turned before mooring to make exiting easier, much bigger than a 30 foot boat and you will need to be turning on the ropes and careful at that. still its a lovely sheltered staithe, and shielded from the sun, which is already hot, by some willows. If I had done more than 1 hours cruising I might have considered this spot for overnight, but no, I want to get another few hours cruising in.

i may have video of a kingfisher flying down the river.

those kingfishers are tricky to photograph, all i have seen this week are blue streaks dissapearing upstream or downstream, never seen one sitting, except for last year, a cheeky kingfisher was sat in the wetshed at stalham, it disappeared when i tried to get the camera, and after five minutes looking I turned to find it sitting on the pulpit rail of the boat behind, just 6 foot away, of course as I turned it was off again.

note, this is also why I prefer and end mooring with no other boats behind me, it saves them from a sight that no mortal eyes should be forced to endure.