English Canals part four

 July 2

This will be the last segment of our 2024 travel blog as we wind up our trip. The weather in the last few days has turned cooler, and rain showers happen without warning. This, in my experience, is typical UK summer weather: a nice week or two followed by a period of unsettled weather, which means making plans is hard, but the locals are used to it and enjoy moaning about it.

Before leaving our marina mooring, we filled the water tank and cleaned the outside of the boat well.  

We continued our journey back to our home marina near Rugby.  We embraced eight locks in a four-mile stretch, arriving at our pub destination before 1 pm.  We had a lovely mooring, so we decided to have a relaxing afternoon and evening.

TV reception is now restored, but that means suffering through the US election process and the UK election in a couple of days. This only lasts six weeks from the selection of election day to the actual election day. Wimbledon gets a lot of coverage in between the European Football tournament.

June 3

The weather forecast was for rain, and it was true to the forecast.   I turned on the central heating because the wheelhouse has a radiator.   I put my coat on to cast off, and then I was cozy as I navigated our next section of the canal.  Luckily, there were no locks or lift bridges, so we stayed dry all day.   

We noted the animals we encountered, including horses, cows, sheep, swans, ducks, pheasants, herons, magpies, and other birds.  

We had a sandwich lunch, and by midday, the rain had stopped, so we moored up for the day.   This area has no internet, but the TV reception is good.   

The boat traffic on the canals is directly proportional to the weather, so it was a quiet day.  Sunny days, especially at the weekend, can be very busy, sometimes requiring us to queue for the locks.   The school holidays start next week and will make the canals busier, so we are glad this is our last week.  

July 4

Happy Fourth to the USA, and happy voting to the Brits.  We start the day with eight locks in a row.  Merry chooses to be in charge of the locks, but it is starting to take a toll on her.  The prize was a return visit to a pub we liked on the way out for lunch.

We are close to our home marina, so we watched Wimbledon tennis after lunch. I walked to the little store in the nearby village to pick up a few things. 

Merry made a sandwich for dinner, and we watched a movie.   We avoided watching the news which is dominated by the British General Election.

Moving boats up hills was a complex engineering problem, especially in the 1700s. Their solution, locks, is elegantly simple.  

July 5

After 14 years of a Conservative Government, the Brits are sick and tired of the old Government, and the Labour Party finally won the election by a landslide.  The French elections are still in progress.  The never-ending US election is also big news here.  Enough of all that.

We had a lazy morning, then walked to the shop in the village for a simple but delicious English lunch.  Merry had warm bacon and cheese in a pastry wrap, while I had a Cornish Pasty [filled with beef, sliced potato, swede, and onion, wrapped in a shortcrust pastry].  We bought a homemade quiche for dinner. 

July 6

Today's sail will be very short.  Just one lock, assisted by a volunteer lock keeper, the two miles, posturing the boat to the last pub before our final destination, our home marina.  

Rain was in the forecast, so we waited for the rain to ease off before going through the first lock, just a few yards down the canal. The area on the other side of the lock was clogged with boats waiting to come up. I needed to squeeze through the gridlock, allowing the next boat to slither into the lock and the second boat to take its place in the lock landing.

Once through, it was plain sailing to our next mooring.  The wheelhouse roof made the oncoming boats jealous as they braved the rain, totally exposed.

We walked the quarter mile to the pub between the showers for a delicious lunch. The innkeeper recognized us from last year. We watched the downpour during lunch and waited for the rain to stop before ambling back to the boat. In the afternoon, we enjoyed watching Wimbledon tennis. It is fun to watch the local crown get behind the British players.

We are moored next to a hump-back bridge, just one lane wide, so the approaching cars honk the horn as they approach.  Not a problem for us.

In the evening, we watched England football play in the Euro quarterfinal. It was a nervous game, but England eventually beat Switzerland in an exciting penalty shootout.

July 7

Unfortunately, there was no church within walking distance.  We waited at the mooring to have Merry's favorite Sunday Roast at the nearby pub.  After lunch, we made the final trip to our marina.  This required three double-wide locks in the last mile.

We usually back the boat into the slip for easier access, but I wanted to head in first to give the starboard side a good clean and touch up the rub rail with paint from the pier. Avoiding boat contact with concrete walls is impossible, especially in the locks.  As the lock fills/empties, the boat gets jostled around, and there is no space for fenders. So, sacrificial rub rails take the beating, which is easy to touch up at the end of a trip.

The starboard side was all clean, and the rub rails were touched up; we retired for dinner and a quiet evening. Just our luck, a heavy thunderstorm came through. I could only cross my fingers that the oil-based paint was dry enough.  

An hour later, blue skies return for an exquisite dusk evening.  Note the thundercloud in the distance.

July 8

Closely inspecting the touched-up paint on the starboard side revealed no problems.  The first order of business was to drive the boat over to the fuel dock a short distance away and top up with diesel.  Sixty liters, plus the 50 letters added at the halfway point, totaled 110 liters for £165 or just about $200.  We also pumped out the toilet tank.  Now, the boat can return to the mooring, stern-in, and let the cleaning and touchup begin on the port side.  It was a nice sunny morning, but that is no guarantee rain won't pounce on us with little notice.  Wimbledon tennis had the same problem.

Meanwhile, Merry is getting on top of the laundry, clothes, towels, rugs, etc., and has started the final cleaning. My sister Pauline and husband Steve will arrive tomorrow at about noon to take over the boat and take us to nearby Rugby to pick up a rental car.

July 9

Today is transition day.   We were busy finishing cleaning the boat inside and out and washing bedding ready for Pauline and Steve to take over.   

They arrived just after noon and our luggage was taken out and they moved in there personal items.  

A final goodbye to The boat and off to the town of Rugby.  Even the swan family came to say goodbye.

We stopped at a pub for lunch and caught up on family matters, and then they dropped us off at the car rental place.  

In the next few days, we will visit family members, which I will not include in this blog.  The final episode will be our travel home and a final recap of our adventures over the past five months.  

Save this page and refresh it in a week or so for the final blog post.