Getting away

Typically, after a busy day yesterday, I slept well for a few hours then woke at half four and lay and worried about the data connection over on Yellowhammer. It was one of those classic early morning things, telling myself not to be daft but still ruminating about it.

Tried reading, helped a bit but not much. It gets light early now, of course, and Sheila woke at six. In the end we made an early start. When I told Sheila of my concerns, she looked resigned then packed me off after breakfast armed with the 3 phone and the iPad. I walked round to Y and downloaded the Independent that I now buy online.

On my return to the boat I found that Sheila had her virtually ready to cruise. We only needed to disconnect and coil up the shoreline, replace the bow marina mooring line with the cruising one and set off.

It was just after eight on a beautiful Spring morning.

We had a very pleasant three and a bit hours of it to Branston, crossing with Ferndale at Dallow Lane. This is the boat once known to the blogging community as Gipsy Rover, but now owned by Diane and Raymond, who also blog about her.

Since getting here, we've been relaxing some of the time (a short siesta made up for my broken night) and then shopping at Morrisons. We've also stowed the isolation transformer, the dehumidifier and the shorelines under the bed.

Finally, a word about our radios, the PMRs. We're very pleased with the Motorola TLKR 8s, but after three years the rechargeable batteries were no longer holding many voles. You can buy replacements, but they are quite pricey. For much less, I've bought an eight slot charger from Maplin's which came with four AA and four AAA batteries. Another pack of AAAs and I'm able to run the radios for a couple of days between charges.

What's more, the charger has a 12 volt plug, so can be run overnight from the boat supply without needing the inverter on.

Result, as Sally would say.

On the move

We're moving in two senses: tomorrow, we're definitely setting off for a couple of months. No very clear plan yet, Jo, except to amble down to Stourport and have a look at the state of the river. We might then head downstream to the junction with the Barge Canal and come back via Droitwich and the Worcester and Birmingham. We haven't done Tardebigge for a good few years.

On the other hand, we might do something else, that's the joy of boating.

So today has been about laundry, mainly, as well as buying an extra bag of Signal smokeless fuel and a bag of kindling from Midland Chandlers. And thereby hangs a tale...

We decided to get some exercise by walking the long way round the marina to MC. As usual this involved brisk walking (Sheila's feeling a lot better) and then stopping to chat to friends for a while. Included in that was going to see where Lloyd and Helen have now tied Alice on Xanthus pontoon. They were full of the joys of the mooring on that side of the marina, quieter, more room to park and so on and so on.

We walked along Xanthus and onto Yellowhammer where we chatted to Paul who also used to tie on Finch. He pointed out that there was a free space on the 70' half of Yellowhammer. We had a look at it, pondered for a bit and then went and saw Robert in the office.

When we return from the cruise, we'll be mooring on Y21 instead of G4. It's not just about a better view and quieter location: we'll also be much nearer the lodge for to-ing and fro-ing when we spend an odd night there or have family staying.

I've nipped back with the phones to check that there is both a 3 and a Vodafone signal, which there appear to be, if anything stronger than on this side. I'll just have to hope that it's good for data as well as voice, fingers crossed.

Bank holiday weather

We've been lurking in the boat quite a lot today, while the winds howled and the rain came down. Both were intermittent, but it's been unpleasant enough to justify relighting the Squirrel. Sheila did go out on a WeBS walk this morning, but those birds that weren't sitting on their nests were hiding in the bushes, so the only sightings of note were one grebe and one swallow.

I put some time to good use by washing one of the mooring lines liberated by yesterday's creation of the marina lines. Otherwise quite a lot of newspaper reading, crossword wrestling (or should that be wrangling?) and patience playing has gone on.

Elanor and Sally came over for a bit before the rain stopped enough to take Sal to the copse. That wasn't as much fun for the two of them as it might have been. There's evidence of someone camping in there, with a tent, several fire scars and a heap of human excrement.

That's CRT land, so I'll let them know about it as soon as the Fazeley office is manned again.

We've just managed a walk round the marina and stopped off in the office to check if there was anything else we should do about the copse. There isn't but it gave us an excuse for a natter with Sven and Jules who are holding the fort in there.

Best behaviour

The weather, at least, is on its best behaviour for the visit by Graeme and the boys. They've been able to get across a day early, which is why Sheila and I spent yesterday morning bustling about stocking up the lodge and then the afternoon relaxing whilst waiting for them to turn up.

It should be said that the boys, too, are being well behaved, although boisterous as always – it would be a bit alarming if  six and five year old boys were anything else. We had dinner together last night, Graeme put the boys in the bath where they can now largely be left to self clean, and then the adults had a very pleasant evening catching up on family gossip and Graeme and Cathy's long term plans.

Today, Sheila's gone off with the three of them to Rosliston Forestry Centre; it should be just perfect in this warm Spring sunshine. We'll eat together again tonight, then Elanor is coming across to see her brother and nephews in the evening.

It's a case of the women suffering this week, I'm afraid. Cathy can't be here because she had to use all her annual leave over Christmas whilst Graeme was away and I've just spoken to Elanor; she's stuck in an office looking out at the sun, poor woman.

Heigh ho, once I've despatched this, I'll shut stuff down in the boat and walk across to the lodge, taking with me my iPad ready loaded with today's Independent and part one of A Dance with Dragons, my book purchase for this month.

An odd Sunday

Weather mixed, activities very mixed. We begged a cane from Stewart and propped up a leaning miniature yew that's been planted outside Walnut Lodge. We're not at all sure about having yew trees near the lodge; they are poisonous and the lodge is specifically placed and fitted out to be attractive to families with small kids.

We've discussed our concerns with both Stewart and the office staff and hope that they are going to be relocated. (The yews, that is.) At the same time we hope to get the hebes replaced, as the rabbits have scoffed all the ones planted there.

There followed a very pleasant hot choc session with Stephen and Jayne in the Willow Tree, after which we went back to the boat and dog sat for an hour whilst Elanor went riding. She brought us some firewood in exchange which will be handy during these odd days. We need the fire first thing in the morning and sometimes in the evening, but let it go out during the day.

We pushed the boat across onto Geoff's mooring so that Sheila could wash the other side of the cratch cover; the whole thing is looking much better. Whilst doing this, a gang of characters turned up, launched a bathtub, put one of their number in it with an empty champagne bottle and took photos of him.

Apparently it's part of Willington Arts Festival, so here's a sneak preview, and world premier exclusive, in fact:

The sun shone brightly for us all, which almost made up for the fact that he didn't capsize, sink or otherwise fall in.

New Toy

I'm playing with my new iPad, hee hee. :)).

So this is just a trial post.

Today has gone very well; we can strongly recommend Western Cars as a taxi firm.

One of us will try and do a proper blog tomorrow.

/blur

Catching up

It’s been a very busy few days and I find myself still quite weary after them. It's the drugs, you know.

:))

Yesterday we took Jane into Derby which, as so often, proved a good deal more attractive than its detractors would have you believe. The morning was spent touring the Museum and Art Gallery, which contains an interesting mix of ceramic history, paintings by Joseph Wright, some archaeology and a room dedicated to Bonnie Prince Charlie’s doomed attempt to return the UK to Stuart rule.

It would really benefit from several repeat visits.

We then refreshed the inner person with a bit of a blow out at Wagamama. By now I was feeling pretty part worn so caught the 1400 back to the marina. Sheila and Jane stayed on in Derby for the afternoon, visiting the Market Hall, the Cathedral, the Arcade, Tourist Information, the Eagle Market and several other shops.

Jane takes a very American, all-inclusive approach to her sight seeing...

/blur.


A fairly quiet evening followed and Jane left us by the 10.25 train this morning, heading for Germany.

We’ve been pottering gently for the rest of the day, tidying the boat, taking a copy of our insurance certificate to the office, buying a couple more bags of solid fuel and a replacement gas cylinder and the like.

We also had a walk round the marina, bumping into Stephen and Jayne at the outset. This gave us an excuse to finish up at the Willow Tree for hot chocs and much nattering, which is why this post is a bit late, Elanor.

I’m not sure that I’m going to be able to keep up a steady once-a-day blog for the next few months what with one thing and another. I’ll show Sheila how to do it in case I’m too visually handicapped immediately post op to manage myself.

Basically, if I don’t blog on any particular day, don’t panic – there'll be one along in a while!

/nobigdeal

A promise of summer

What happened today? Err…

Oh yes, the Ocado order turned up just after ten (well done them) with a pack of Duchy Originals muffins we didn’t order (odd), one of the packs of Ryvita bashed in (drat) and no Budweiser Budvar for Sheila (oh no).

I’ve applied for refunds for the crispbread and lager and written an email to customer services. It’s unlike Ocado to mess up in this way so it’s only fair to let them know when they foul up.

I got pretty dopey yesterday and struggled to cook dinner, so we’ve decided I will have to take things a bit easier as long as I’m on these tablets. Accordingly, I stayed home whilst Sheila went off to help build hedgehog hotels.

You do this by getting two pallets and digging a square hole in the ground in a wood. Then you put the pallets in the hole, one crossways over the other, and pile the earth over the top, leaving an access hole at one side. The little hedgepigs find their way in through this hole and can make themselves all cosy and snug and safe in there.

The plan is to re-home some rescued hedgehogs in them.

After lunch we ambled round to the office with a copy of our licence, stopped for a natter about this and that with Jules and then came back to do some cleaning ready for Jane coming tomorrow.

This didn’t go as quickly as it might have as Geoff next door came out and we spent quite a bit of time in the glorious sun (it’s been almost summery) nattering again. It’s what boating’s all about.

He finally went off to watch the England/Wales rugby and we finally got on with some of the cleaning. Then we had a cup of tea outside, would you believe, clad in shirt sleeves.

We’ll have to finish up the cleaning tomorrow morning; Jane doesn’t arrive until after lunch, fortunately.

A bit dopey but stuff done

I’m feeling just a bit dopey today (OK, so some might say that’s an improvement…) so I’ll stick to bullet points.

• We’re sleeping better the past couple of nights; maybe the new drugs are knocking me out and that means I’m disturbing Sheila less; I can be very disturbing as you all know.
• This morning was dry but chilly and windy for a brisk walk round. We got the latest Canal Boat which this month has appeared in the shops promptly, unlike last time.
• After lunch Elanor and Sally turned up on the dot of one to take us to Findern. I didn’t do well; EWM have stopped making the excellent self coloured Oxford shirts, stocking Pringles checked horrors like my father-in-law used to wear instead. But Sheila got a bag of compost and some primulas and herbs to fill the troughs and pots.
• Elanor brought us our post which included our new CRT licence disks; they’d texted us to say that they were on their way which is a handy reassurance that all was well with the application.
• Back at the marina we left Sheila gardening and took Sal to the copse. Here she discovered a new game when I threw a windfall crab apple at her. Now she’s always ignored these in the past, but this time she not only ate it but picked another up from the ground. Elanor shouted at her and she spat it out, moving away from us. Then she picked up another, waited until Elanor was walking towards her and spat it straight at her, unchewed. Hah di hah di hah.
• I’ve suddenly started being bombarded with spam comments, so I’ve had to turn the Captcha word verification back on. Sorry about that, I’ll turn it off again in a couple of weeks when the spammers have lost interest.

Tomorrow, an Ocado delivery and building hedgehog hotels.

Sunny recovery day

First off, a heartfelt thank you to one and all for your good wishes, both expressed as comments here and in personal emails. They are really appreciated and a great support. I seem to be tolerating the new meds, so that’s one thing to be grateful for, and of course having a routine op is nothing like the grief that some of my fellow bloggers have been through in the past year.

Today has been a  good day, though it got off to a late start as we overslept and didn’t really get going until nine. It’s the first time we’ve missed almost all of the Today programme for a long time. Desert Island Discs was entertaining as so often, though we’d never heard of the castaway Mairi Hedderwick, our kids being too old to have read the Katie Morag books.

When we did get out, it was just in time to join Stephen and Jayne for hot choc in the Willow Tree, after which leisurely break we went back to the boat and pottered for an hour until lunch.

We’ve been much more active since then, walking down to the surgery to hand in the copy of my new prescription and to ask for a repeat straightaway; we’ll be away for around four weeks starting next Friday, so I’ll need a refill before we get back here.

Then it was the solid trek out to Betty’s Farm , where I got a serious piece of silverside beef to roast tomorrow, along with a load of other bits and bobs including two jars of a new brand of home made curry sauce. We’ll try a jar of that with chicken tonight, eating it with the chapattis that were also available.

By the time we got back to the boat we were well weary and quietly collapsed with a cup of tea until it was time to do this blog.

Tomorrow, Elanor is running us over to the Findern Garden Centre. A census of my winter shirts showed that several were only fit for boating and one was a write off. I bought them several years before we moved on board Sanity ten years ago, so they’ve done very well. They are Edinburgh Woollen Mill solid cotton jobs and as Findern has an EWM outlet we’re hoping they’ll be having a sale…

/wahaha

Good quiz, not so good eyes

It was a good quiz last night, even though we didn’t do especially well at it. The questions were entertaining and challenging, but seldom of the dreaded “so what” variety. We’ll miss the next one in April as we’ll be out cruising, even though we’ve had to drastically alter our plans in the light of events today.

Travelling to Derby Royal by bus turned out to be straightforward, though as we caught the 9.25 V3 we actually had to pay a fare for the first leg into Littleover. From there we walked round the corner onto the ring road and caught one of the frequent buses into the hospital. We arrived in very good time, so went for a coffee/hot choc in the cafe.

It still meant that I checked into the clinic with half an hour to spare and (for the very first time ever, I think) was seen bang on time by my new consultant. After that, things were not so good. No problem with Mr Tildsley, who was one of the better ophthalmologists I’ve encountered in 24 years of having my eyes checked, but because of what he found, which was that my pressures are way up, threatening my sight if left like that.

All the long term medication options are now exhausted, so he’s started me on some stuff by mouth that can be used short term but which would have unacceptable side effects if persisted with for more than a few months (acetazolamide for those who know about these things), as well as yet more drops. I’m going back in six weeks to have a visual fields test and a recheck of the pressures, but then will almost certainly have an operation (a trabeculectomy) to one eye the next week.

The other will be done four weeks later, which means no Crick Show for us this year, the first time we’ve missed working on the Braidbar stand since 2004. It’s a blow, but of course going slowly blind would be much worse.

The upside is that if all goes well, I won’t need to use drops any more.

And there’s always the Open Day and Owners’ Weekend to look forward to in September.

So the plan for the next few weeks is to stay here for a week; my sister Jane is visiting from Monday to Wednesday, Sheila has a screening appointment on Thursday morning and then there’s the residential moorings meeting that night.

Then we’ll escape for a few weeks, taking Sanity Again down to Calcutt to get her Hurricane fixed and returning in good time for my fields test and subsequent op. After that, we may well get a brief further trip out before the second op. We’ve not made any plans beyond that except to get up to Poynton in September by hook or by crook.

Bustling about

As this busy week carries on, we’ve had another good day, the spring weather sticking around to make taking the boat over to the service wharf a pleasure. On the way there, Sheila managed to get some photos of the oyster catchers strolling around on the visitor pontoon:

Get a load of those beaks!

We pumped out and topped up the diesel tank whilst Sheila took the opportunity to discuss some stuff to do with lodge rental rates with Jules, who’d come over from the office to work the fuel pump.

Back to the pontoon we went; making the final turn, I was very aware that we now have an extra audience in the shape of the workforce on the building site. Next autumn we’ll have the bistro customers out on the boardwalk, of course. It’s a great encouragement to keep my boat handling skills up to scratch…

Having got Sanity Again safely berthed, we walked to the marina office the long way round so as to get some exercise in the sunshine. Debts paid and newspaper bought, we ambled back to the boat. Soon it was time to go out again to meet Stephen and Jayne at the Willow Tree for our team lunch before the quiz tonight. We were just finishing up when Martin and Anna off Braidbar 140, One Day, came in accompanied by Jack their three year old grandson.

This gave us an excuse to hang around yet longer before taking a second perambulation round the marina with the Dolce crew. Finally, we popped back to the shop to order a couple of bags of solid fuel for delivery this weekend and one to take away with us as we’re pretty well out. That last cold snap meant keeping the fire blazing away, especially as we’re managing without the Hurricane.

Tomorrow, into Derby for an appointment at the eye clinic and another lunch out.

It’s all go...

Spring Monday

We’re now just hoping that the bit about March "coming in like a lamb and going out like a lion" won’t be too true this year; it’s been another lovely day today, a frosty start and calm sunny weather for the rest of the time.

Most of the morning was spent in Derby; I had a routine hearing aid check (all part of the Boots service) and we got there in good time. This meant that we were able to visit Wilko’s, WH Smith and Lakeland before I was seen.

Afterwards we had quite a bit of time to kill before the 1300 bus, so spent it checking out the Market Hall and taking a walk along the river bank in the spring sunshine.

We’d not actually managed to visit the Market Hall before; it’s quite a classic Victorian construction, smaller than the Eagle Market alongside the Westfield, but with loads more character.

There is a particularly good newsagent (Poyntons)with an enormous range of jigsaws; if it’s still there in the Autumn we may well invest in a couple more for the lodge. If that doesn’t persuade Sheila to spend the occasional week on dry land, I don’t know what will.

Sally’s with us tomorrow, as she said yesterday, but that may well be her last visit for a while. My sister Jane will be visiting Monday to Wednesday next week, and we want to show her Derby on the Tuesday. Later that week, if the weather holds and the creek don’t rise, we’ll make our escape.

/please

A different dinner

We’ve got Sally with us, but she’s presently pacing about wondering where her Mummy’s gone, so isn’t in a mood to blog, I fear.

Instead, I’ll give some feedback on last night’s dinner. This was Highland Wild Venison stew from pouches, purple mashed potato and green beans, followed by fresh giant mango. It was all quite experimental (except the beans) for various reasons.

Ocado don’t seem to do basic tins of stew which is a bit of a problem, as I like to have a couple in the cupboard in case of emergencies and we’ve just scoffed the last ones. They were out of date by some years, not that that makes much difference to tins, I know.

Instead I got some “Look what we found” pouches. They are much more expensive than the tins, but were very high quality; tender pieces of venison in a tasty and complex gravy. I’m not sure that they are a substitute for the tins, though, too pricy and we’d be too tempted to eat them.

The purple potatoes were just weird. In terms of cooking, they were a floury, quick cooking variety which mashed up well but they were indeed very purple, all the way through, so that the effect was of mashed potato died with Ribena or Vimto. They were a free trial pack, so nothing lost, but I won’t be getting them again.

The mango was a challenge. Ripe on the outside, the inner part near the stone was still quite hard, making it even trickier than usual to prepare. I managed to get it into quarters eventually and in the end we just picked them up in our fingers and guzzled them. Very nice but extremely messy and quite laxative…

/blur

Never mind, though very cold this morning, we’ve had a good day otherwise; shame it’s going to rain again tomorrow.

Different shopping

Oh well, I guess I invited this change in the weather after blogging about the pleasures of the early signs of Spring. It’s been cold and cloudy, mostly, with a biting edge to the wind. On the plus side, the Ocado delivery showed up in good time and we were able to get in a walk to the village this afternoon to post a set of porthole doilies to one of Sheila’s customers.

The delivery had some unusual items; I didn’t need a lot of the regular stuff and wanted to broaden the range of fruit and veg we’re eating. Most strange are the purple potatoes, a freebie with a bag of my usual Rooster spuds. They’re supposed to be rich in anthocyanins and therefore good for you; I’m going to cook some tonight and will let you know how we get on. Apparently, it’s not just the skin that’s purple, but the flesh too.

Purple mash, anyone?

I also got a giant mango, which we’ll have for dessert as a change from oranges, and an “Organic Bio pineapple” from Fyffes. George, if you are reading this, we’re wondering what a non-bio pineapple would be like?

/wahaha

This afternoon we popped into Midland Chandlers. The most recent edition of the Tillergraph had a 10% off voucher as part of the MC ad on its back page. Hilariously, it says on it that it’s for all their Waterways World customers, but it worked so we’re not really bothered.

I got a new stove door glass (the current one is intact but the inside surface is all roughened up and can’t be cleaned), a bag of kindling and some rust inhibiting Owatrol oil. This last was recommended by Mike Carter, you may recall, and I’m planning to use it first when I repaint the well deck floor.

If we ever get a long enough spell of warm(ish) and dry(ish) weather, of course.

Good and less good (again)

It was a good meeting last night; Mercia meetings tend to be successful social events as well as getting stuff done. We discussed the further development of parts of the site with the creation of a wild flower meadow, a contemplation corner and an orchard, and agreed times to take some of these forward.

I’ll blog the actual dates when I’ve seen confirmation from the note taker.

Less successful was my attempt to resurrect the Hurricane. The aquastat didn't need resetting (so hadn’t overheated) and opening the fuel return cock half a turn and attempting four sets of three starts had no effect, implying that the problem wasn’t an airlock in the fuel line. Still, these are useful dodges for us to know for other times.

We have deployed our small oil filled radiator in the bedroom and bathroom to get us through the last few weeks in the marina and will call in at Calcutt as part of our first cruising schedule. We don't use the Hurricane very much when cruising, of course, as the calorifier and radiators get warmed from the engine.

On the plus side, the weather is still definitely spring like, even if a dramatic hail shower at lunchtime led to hail ricocheting off the roof, into the mushroom covers of the ventilators and so down into the cabin:

Drip catcher earning its keep

Hail piling up everywhere

The steel framework for the Boardwalk is growing apace. They’ve erected the central section and will now work out sideways to the ends, presumably keeping their fingers crossed that, unlike Braunston and many another canal tunnel, the surveyors have got the alignments correct:

It's grown even more since Sheila took this shot

There's good and there's bad news

Good news and bad news…

As always, Mike Carter made our BSS exam as painless as possible, passing Sanity Again without difficulty and handing out just a couple of bits of advice, one regarding improving the cover over the batteries and the other about keeping an eye on the Squirrel flue where it passes through the ceiling boards.

There’s a brass looking ring covering the junction, which should be dropped down just occasionally to make sure that no overheating is happening behind it.

We also had a good chat about this and that. We all have a very positive impression of Richard Parry, the CRT CEO, for example. Mike also recommended the use of Owatrol in restoring paintwork. Sanity Again is still looking very good, of course, but there are areas like the bow flashes that are both getting just a bit faded and have needed touching in here and there. Owatrol will rejuvenate these, apparently, even helping to blend the newer touch-in paint into the existing stuff.

We celebrated our further four years of legit boating by having lunch in the Willow Tree; unfortunately they’d had a bit of a run today and were sold out of both jacket potatoes and quiche, so we had to settle for pasty and chips.

Less good is that the (until now) completely reliable Hurricane central heating boiler has gone on strike. So this afternoon’s job was to do a service on it to see if that helped and of course to check that the fuel and power supplies were all ok, which they were.

I had a conversation with Peter Mason at Braidbar and at his suggestion called Chris at Calcutt, the importer. Chris was very helpful and suggested a couple of things to try. I’ll do those tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

In the meantime, we will rely on the immersion heater for hot water and start showering in the afternoon, when the back end of the boat has warmed up with heat flowing through from the Squirrel, rather than taking the usual first thing shower.

Tonight we’re off to a meeting about volunteer work in the marina and tomorrow actually have nothing planned – apart from me cajoling the Hurricane, that is.

An odd day

It’s been an odd sort of day, though generally very pleasant weatherwise. The marina power supply has been off (still is, in fact) whilst they upgrade it to take account of the extra load represented by the Boardwalk development. So we’ve been in cruising mode whilst not going anywhere.

I turned the inverter and central heating off after the first thing burst of email checking and the like and we’ve been avoiding using electricity unless essential. As it’s been quite sunny, this actually meant that the solar panel kept the batteries fully charged, so we could have been more extravagant if we’d wanted.

The juice was expected come back on at four, but there’s no sign of it as I type this.

Poor Elanor, meanwhile, has been stuck at home having left her car at the garage for the final sorting out of its electrical problems. She’d hoped to get it back at lunchtime and come over and see us, but they didn’t start work on it until after lunch, so she’s pretty fed up.

Sheila went into the village for a last hair cut before we start cruising (hopefully) and I’ve been busying myself doing the bits of tidying and sorting needed in advance of the BSS exam tomorrow.

Fingers crossed; can’t think of any reason why Sanity Again would fail, but you know how it is…

Could be Spring

Dare I say it, there’s a distinctly Spring-like feel in the air today. We had a mild and mizzly start which soon dried up. The wind continued strong for a while, but has now moderated. I’m sure that there’s more bad weather to come, but it’s always good to feel that sense of the year having turned.

Similarly, checking the EA river levels website shows that the Trent is back to its usual levels at both Kings Bromley and Drakelow, so Alrewas is probably open again, not of course that Central Shires will tell us.

We’ve had a pottering sort of day after yesterday’s dramas. Sheila’s been doing the washing and I’ve been emailing and sorting stuff on the computer. We’ve had two very pleasant walks round the marina; the sun and wind are drying things up nicely, so hopefully we’ll be doing some towpath walks again soon.

Elanor’s had to take a day off tomorrow as part of sorting the ongoing problems with her car’s indicators (it’s nearly there, but has involved a new motherboard), so we won’t be seeing Sally.

The marina’s having a planned power cut, to replace the main distribution board, so we’ll be running on battery power for most of the day. On Wednesday, Mike Carter is coming to do our Boat Safety exam; we don’t expect any problems, but I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed all the same!

Man saves dog in dramatic rescue

Well, there I was, all set to write an exciting piece about the problems of peeling celeriac* when a real life drama emerged this morning, another episode for Mercia Mayhem, the soap opera about the boating life in a big marina.

I was on my way up the pontoon this morning and had stopped to chat to Geoff off Black Pearl next door when a small dog, mostly like an undersized King Charles spaniel, came running down Heron pontoon, closely followed by a man who proved to be her owner. She’d obviously escaped from his control and was making a bid for freedom.

Nipping past Geoff and I, she carried on towards the island at the end of Finch, seemingly trapping herself in the dead end at the gate onto the island. Her owner walked towards her, she looked at him and…

...jumped into the water. From there, she swam right round Grebe and into the lagoon between Heron and Ibis. There she swam up and down, defying the mobbing gulls and the threatening Canada Geese, at first wagging her tail as she went. At this point Mr Owner was joined by Mrs, who explained that she was a rescue brood bitch from a puppy farm, they’d only had her five weeks and that she’s very man shy, not to say phobic.

Several of us spent quite some time trying to entice her to come near enough to be rescued, but each time she turned tail and swam off again. Things were looking serious; she was swimming lower in the water and at times rolling over when she tried to turn.

In the end, Gary off the seven dogs boat (it’s got an unpronounceable, Native American name) took off his jacket, put his mobile on top of a bollard and, otherwise fully clothed,  jumped in off the end of a pontoon. He was able to swim up to Gypsy, surround her with his arms and guide her to the end of a finger where I was waiting with a handy long shaft for him to grab.

I fished the dog out and returned her to her mistress whilst others heaved Gary onto the pontoon.

It was a brave act if perhaps foolhardy; after all, the first rule of all rescues is not to endanger yourself in turn. The water in Mercia is very deep, unlike the canals, and is, of course, extremely cold at the moment. On the other hand, Gary was able to complete the rescue without severe distress and the dog would almost certainly have drowned in front of our eyes if he hadn’t done what he did.

What was needed was a small boat to use as a rescue craft, but this is the first time I’ve seen the need for one here; most of the pontoons have an emergency station with a fire extinguisher, a life ring and a rescue ladder which are normally enough to cope with the occasional emergency.

With lots of us available to help with the rescue, Sheila was able to enter journalist mode and take some photos:

Gypsy swimming for freedom

Gary in hot chilled pursuit

Casualty secured

*Peeling celeriac or celery root: accept that you are only going to be able to use about ¾ of what you’ve bought and peel it very thickly, having first cut the top and bottom off to make it stand stably on the chopping board.