Under way

When I began to read boating blogs, I came across the one by Peter, aka "Old Salt", of NB Futurest. It was one of the more enjoyable and a bit quirky. I subscribed and read all his posts, including those written by the boat! Sadly Peter died at the end of last year – who wrote the final post I don't know, but it struck just the right tone. Imagine my surprise when, as we were mooring up this afternoon, Futurest came by – I'd never seen her when Peter was the owner. We had time to exchange just a few words with the new owners as they disappeared off towards Great Haywood.

It was good to be under way again, though we had time first for a good natter with our neighbours Steve (on one side) and Adrian and Dawn (on the other). The prevailing wind at the marina makes getting away from our jetty very difficult when it's breezy, blowing the bows in the wrong direction and pushing Erin Mae onto the reeds. Today I thumbed my nose at the wind by reversing out and up the channel, and putting to positive use what it was doing to the bows. The wind went into a sulk and quietened down and we haven't seen much more of her all day.

What we saw too much of was the queue at Colwich Lock.

I think we were 6th to go down. On the way there I remembered to slow down for a photo of the cottage you pass shortly before.

The cottage itself is nothing special (except, I suppose, for those to whom it is "home"). It's the plaques on the wall that have made us smile ever since we first saw them four years ago.

We've come on to Wolseley Bridge, and are tied up a little closer to the traffic than we would prefer.

When we've moored here before, we've usually been the other side of the bridge. But it's brighter here and we're conscious these days of pampering the solar panel.

So that's the first bit of cruising since the middle of July. It's good to be back.