After one at week at home I am back on the boats, and its
bloody freezing!!! Early April has been wet, windy, cold and cold, and did I
say cold? This is not how I remember boating! It’s suppose to be glorious
sunshine, open doors and windows, shorts and tee-shirts, cups of tea on the
roof, instead I am wearing everything I own, including a ski jacket, desperately
trying to keep the fire lit and hoping we have enough fuel to keep the
Eberspacher running.
Now, the fact that it is wet is actually good, there have
been concerns that there may be closures on the canals because the dry spell
last year and this winter mean the reservoirs are very low, but I wish it would
rain at night while we are tucked up in bed all cosy, not while trying to
complete flights of locks during the day.
There was one very depressing
newspaper that reckons this will be the coldest May on record- ever! So all
those lovely white linen trousers and floaty summer dresses I packed optimistically
have been relegated to the back of the cupboard and I have raided charity shops
for more jumpers. Primark in Worcester was good as well, they had lots of woolly
tights on sale, some were peculiar colours, but I figured under six layers of
clothes, no-one would know.
So far we have cruised from
Warwick to Warwick, up through Birmingham, Warwick to Worcester, Worcester to
Worcester and Worcester to Nantwich. Except we didn’t go to Worcester as often
as we should have, but more of that later.
So enough about the weather, what
about this year’s crew I hear you ask. Well Debbie is from Bristol area, she is
25, tall, blond and keen to learn to boat. Brigitta is 27, from Hungary, small
and blond and was a hairdresser in a previous life. If you didn’t know this
before, one look in her bathroom cabinet would give you inkling. I have never
seen so much shampoo! We have challenged her that she will not use it all
before the end of season.
Debbie has hiking/camping
experience and is used to wearing sensible shoes, warm clothes and waterproofs
when needed, Brigitta comes from Budapest and is a city girl through and through.
We had to take her shopping for warm clothes, and after turning up her nose at
an angora jumper for £2.50 (Oxfam in Stourport) because it had a small hole in
it, I took her to one side and explained that it didn’t matter because no-one
would see it and she would not find anything warmer, so begrudgingly she bought
it, and has worn it every day since! Apparently, I am like her mum she says,
because I keep looking after her, hummmmm not too sure about that.
Our youngest crew member is Alex.
He has just turned one, has eight teeth, can crawl at lightening speeds, loves
sausages and has the cheekiest, cutest smile. Hanna said he would be safe
crawling in the lounge because the steps were too deep for him to climb. He
proved her wrong in about 10 minutes and all of sudden life became very
complicated. His favourite mischief is to crawl to the kitchen and pull all the
flour and sugar jars from the shelf, we are now very careful about making sure
the lids are on tightly.
For all those of you who have
been doing rain dances on our behalf, you can stop now! We had official word
from the British Waterways guys that the reservoirs are now fuller than they
were this time last year, and there is more rain forcast. The river Severn is
in flood and we cannot cruise to Worcester at the end of the Worcester ring and
are having to spend the turnaround in Stourport. It seems to be all or nothing.
We are getting set to leave
Stourport and have some American guests, Chuck and Suzanne, on board, who
cruised with me and Lauren two summers ago. It’s good to see familiar faces and
great to catch up with people. So far this season we have seen a lot of
returning guests and met some new ones as well.
Thats the news for now, I will
try and write more sooner rather that later, take care xxxxx
