Left Or Right? That Is The Question. 21St March

Park Bridge

Odd Socks for World Down Syndrome Day 2018

This month is going to be an expensive one. Firstly our licence, shortly followed by our insurance, hopefully our batteries and now one of the showers in our house has decided to play up! Because the previous owners put in a super fancy body jet, two shower headed, massage setting large shower it is going to cost us more than a months rent to get it replaced. Good job we only got four boxes of wine yesterday!

During the Beast from the East (the first one) our fourth third lithium battery was delivered to Finesse in Sheffield, the only thing to arrive that week. It has been locked away with the others until they can come out to us. Because of the bad weather they ended up having to catch up on quite a bit of work as they had several boats to launch, trials and hand overs, so we have been waiting for a date to be set for them to come out to us. Having identified a good place for them to meet us we have been loitering a little on the Shroppie. When we reach the end at Autherley Junction our planned cruise would mean turning right and heading towards Stourport, but a good rendez vous location would be to the left at The Fox and Anchor.

Which way should we head today? We have engagements to keep which are all to the right, but getting our batteries would be so good. If we loiter too long then we would have to crank up our cruising rate to reach the first of our engagements. So instead of making a choice we decided to stay put for the day and wait to see if we heard from Finesse.

With it being a fairly nice day, Spring?, I got the buckets and cloths out, time to give Oleanna a wash and spruce up. One morning when were moored at Norbury a cruiser came past us sideways. His engine had failed and he was just short enough to be blown down the gap between moored boats. We didn’t realise at the time that his bow fender bumped it’s way along our cabin side and had left four streaks. Would a good wash and polish help get ride of them because a bit of spit didn’t!

First, half the roof had a good scrub and rinse down, I have to say that under the plank and poles possibly hasn’t had a wash since we picked her up, nearly a year ago! Then after lunch I washed and rinsed the cabin sides. The marks were still there. A polish helped with the scratches we received doing the Ribble link, but sadly the streaks are still there, better but still visible.

In the days of washing NB Winding Down, Mick would help on a Friday afternoon. But now I have the job all to myself, there’s always something else he’d rather be doing that is very important. He also doesn’t see the point of having a clean boat, as it will only get muddy again. We’re not shiny boaters, this was the first time I’ve given Oleanna a polish and Lillian was only polished before we sold her. But I’d like the paint work to last so the occasional polish should help with that.

What a day! A quick run up and down the towpath ,which had been vacated by most of the boats this morning, then it was time to have a really good look around for some friends. There’s a big field of tasty grass, great for horizontal pouncing around and sideways running (like a loon!). Then a long line of sideways trees with a good soggy bit, excellent friendly cover for inclined pouncing. There are a couple of very big trees too, here I practised my climbing skills, however my descent still needs more work (my front claws are a little bit sore from taking all my weight and swinging on them several times). Every couple of hours I would return back to the boat for a bit of a spruce up before going digging again.

The plank and pole rack had a clean up. Mick did this, I really should have removed the masking tape from it months ago, at least it kept him busy. Having taken everything off the rack we could see that one of the supports has fractured, we’ll look to see if we can buy just one instead of a pair. The chimney and our toilet vent mushroom also had a clean. The mushroom for some reason has tarnished a lot for a chrome fitting. No matter what I used it wouldn’t come clean. Maybe it is it’s proximity to the chimney or something to do with our diet!

Only a few boats passed us today, one being NB Faulkner who waved and said hello. I think they were at Audlem when we were. From the good vantage point over looking the field I could keep an eye on our looney cat, occasionally calling her trying my best to stop her from discovering the joys of the wood at the end of the field half a mile away. The evening on board has been a very quiet one, hardly a peep out of Tilly!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 decision postponed,1 new shower required, 8 hours! 4 asymetrical branches, 8 sore claws, 2 buckets, 4 cloths, 5 streaks, 1 break, 2 readers, 1 tarnished poo vent, 40% shiny, 60% filthy, 1 more day waiting.