Hi everyone
Monday the 4 April the morning dawned grey and quite cold. The weather forecast did not look good neither did the sky line. Still we had decided to start our journey today and if you put it off just because of the weather you would never do anything would you . Having filled up with diesel, had a pup out and said our good byes to Alan and Danny with a blast of the Claxton we set off,
I new that the wind would be a the underlying problem for the day and it was, Rain you can cope with But wind is a different kettle of fish it tends to prevent you from going in straight line and getting Noreen on and off for the locks all becomes far more complicated than it should be. For the first hour the hazy sun tried to break through a milky cloudy sky we new it would not be long before it gave up and give way to the dark clouds that were amassing in the west and heading our way we were right, soon we were into high winds and driving rain we new from the outset that it was not going to be a good and soon enough we new why not only were we rusty in our boating skills but the locks were also very rusty. Even with the wind and the rain and our rusty boating skills we were still managing to make headway, that is until lock 5 where on leaving the lock with a broadside wind I managed to get us grounded by allowing the wind to throw the bow onto the far bank, it took us almost 30mins to extradite ourselves off the bottom the rest of the journey was; well all I can say is hard just a very hard slog. We eventually moored up at 15.30 at Dean Lock under the M6.
All the above sounds quite harrowing but now sat here having stripped out of our wet clothes, had a shower, dressed in warm clothes, a good fire blazing, a lovely Curry bubbling away on the cooker all the hassle of the days journey seems a long time ago. That’s the beauty of this live you are soon appeased and with all your creature comforts with you it never takes long to be (reet comfy )again.
It appears that the weather for tomorrow is the same as today so its just a case of getting the wet weather gear on again putting our best foot forward and getting on with it. Its more miles tomorrow but fewer locks with an early start we should be in Leigh before early afternoon .
Keep Smiling
Big Al
Buggerlugs
Monday the 4 April the morning dawned grey and quite cold. The weather forecast did not look good neither did the sky line. Still we had decided to start our journey today and if you put it off just because of the weather you would never do anything would you . Having filled up with diesel, had a pup out and said our good byes to Alan and Danny with a blast of the Claxton we set off,
I new that the wind would be a the underlying problem for the day and it was, Rain you can cope with But wind is a different kettle of fish it tends to prevent you from going in straight line and getting Noreen on and off for the locks all becomes far more complicated than it should be. For the first hour the hazy sun tried to break through a milky cloudy sky we new it would not be long before it gave up and give way to the dark clouds that were amassing in the west and heading our way we were right, soon we were into high winds and driving rain we new from the outset that it was not going to be a good and soon enough we new why not only were we rusty in our boating skills but the locks were also very rusty. Even with the wind and the rain and our rusty boating skills we were still managing to make headway, that is until lock 5 where on leaving the lock with a broadside wind I managed to get us grounded by allowing the wind to throw the bow onto the far bank, it took us almost 30mins to extradite ourselves off the bottom the rest of the journey was; well all I can say is hard just a very hard slog. We eventually moored up at 15.30 at Dean Lock under the M6.
All the above sounds quite harrowing but now sat here having stripped out of our wet clothes, had a shower, dressed in warm clothes, a good fire blazing, a lovely Curry bubbling away on the cooker all the hassle of the days journey seems a long time ago. That’s the beauty of this live you are soon appeased and with all your creature comforts with you it never takes long to be (reet comfy )again.
It appears that the weather for tomorrow is the same as today so its just a case of getting the wet weather gear on again putting our best foot forward and getting on with it. Its more miles tomorrow but fewer locks with an early start we should be in Leigh before early afternoon .
Keep Smiling
Big Al
Buggerlugs
1 comment:
Good to hear you got away.
Hope the weather picks up soon X R & M X
Post a Comment