Up and away

May, in case you'd forgotten, was wet, cold and horrible. With no heating in Erin Mae, it was not the time to be boating. In June, our GP kept arranging extra appointments for my best beloved. In the end, it was not until the beginning of July that we could come up to Great Haywood and get settled in for some boating. And with all that needed to be transferred from home (think: guitar, accordion, contents of larder and fridge, tools, etc, etc.), it was more than one car trip. I hadn't realised was how much we had forgotten about life aboard. Basic things like how much food do we need, faced with no freezer and a fridge much smaller than the one(s) at home. And trying to remember what there is to worry about.

On Monday we drove over to Streethay Wharf to talk with the boatyard about sorting out Erin Mae's chimney. I'd talked about this with the proprietor in November 2019, and he's a glass-half-full person. Monday we didn't see him, and the visit was rather different, but at least we were told we could bring the boat across and see what could be done. I'm hoping the proprietor will be on site when we get there.

So yesterday we finally emptied the waste tank, filled the water tank and left the marina behind. Over the last year and a half my best beloved's body has been playing up in various ways, and our first concern was how we would manage the locks. As it happened, we had help at the first two we negotiated, and they went fine. We sauntered gently to Rugeley for the night, did a quick shop this morning in Morrison's and Rugeley's excellent fruit and veg emporium, and then cruised for about 3 hours towards Fradley. Tied up just above Wood End lock.

Yesterday, the rev counter I'd fitted a few years ago was behaving erratically. That's not a major problem, partly because I know how to judge engine speed without it. However, it also has an integrated engine-hours counter, and I'd been using that for my log. It's all going to get horribly out of sync. I know what the problem is – the connection between a couple of wires in the engine compartment. Unfortunately, since Maplin went out of business last year, it's become more complicated to get the bits and pieces for sorting it out.

More seriously, today I noticed that the engine was overheating. There are only a few things (I think) which can cause this. I'll check the oil and the anti-freeze mixture once the engine has cooled. It might be the thermostat, as it was once before, and that's not expensive to replace. But it was interesting to be back in worry-worry mode. Jesus said: "Why do you worry about tomorrow? Today's got enough worries of its own!" But it's today's worries I'm worried about!

I'm rather hoping that, when we get to Streethay Wharf tomorrow or Friday, we find lots of glass-half-full people saying things like "No problem!", "Not a hassle!", "Give me a minute and we'll have it fixed!"