Gamble

We wanted to visit Atherstone for some provisions – they have an Aldi and a good Co-op within walking distance of the towpath. But at that point the canal rises through a flight of 11 locks, with mooring space limited. The maps indicated that there was a stretch of 48 hour moorings near to the best access point for the town. But designated moorings are designated for a reason (they're convenient and popular) so you can never tell whether they will also be full up. There were some earlier sites, but they would have entailed walking much further in temperatures pushing towards the 90s.

So we took a gamble on the 48 hour having space. If we lost, we'd have to go up the remaining 5 locks and find somewhere beyond – but that would be out of range of the town centre. Fortunately (!) we won.

Throughout the afternoon other boats pulled in. I'd been feeling a bit guilty about leaving a potentially unusable space between Erin Mae and the boat behind. But then someone came in with a boat about 30 foot long, which fitted just fine!

It's a noisy spot (car traffic on the A5 and trains), so I don't think we'll be using our 48 hour allowance. But we're in better shape than what my best beloved snapped as we came through.

Polesworth

As we came through Polesworth, we saw a notice across Bridge 52 – Polesworth Abbey was a 5 minute walk from either Bridge 52 or Bridge 51. Well, for us that's quite a lot of what the boating adventure is about – encountering things you never would in the normal course of events. So we pulled in just after Bridge 51 and set out to find the Abbey.

It would have helped if I'd looked at the map first. Then we'd have known to go downhill from the bridge. Even without the map I should have known. Think "Abbey": river, fishpool, mill, water meadows, etc. Instead I was thinking "city set on a hill" – stupid! So we had a longer walk than necessary, finding our way all around Polesworth until we got there. It was rather impressive from the outside.

It said "Open for private prayer", and we thought we could live with that. But the lock on the door to the North Porch hadn't been told about the notice, so whether the Abbey is as impressive on the inside remains to be seen. That's a shame, because the Christian witness on this spot dates back to Saxon times, and it would have been nice to have seen some of things linking us all the way back to them.

As can be seen, it was a hot day, 30˚ this afternoon, so we were glad to find a shorter route back to the boat. It involved crossing a bridge over the River Anker, and some of the locals were using the facilities to cool off.

We were tempted, but not for long. Back at Erin Mae we found we'd tied up just in front of Liz and Graham (NB Reeve), who are also members of the Boaters' Christian Fellowship. Liz brought out some excellent home-made fruit cake as we brought our multiple glasses of water out to the towpath and sat down for a natter.

Friends

In Fazeley, on the outskirts of Tamworth, live David and Mary, longstanding stalwarts of the Boaters' Christian Fellowship. Their boat, Kew, is old, long and traditional, and like nothing else we've ever come across.

Fazeley was our target for today. We tied up opposite David and Mary's house, and found that John and Jane, also BCF members, were moored just below Kew. So we popped across and had a very merry cuppa with them all in David and Mary's garden.

We had some other little successes today. We survived the heat, and managed to process a load of washing. We were able to purchase a cylinder of gas in Fazeley Mill Marina – apparently one side-effect of the pandemic had been a national shortage of standard 13 Kg containers. And the engine's overheating was held within reasonable limits. All in all, a good day.

Streethay Wharf

A new owner bought Streethay Wharf not so long ago, but it still retains the feel of a traditional boatyard.

(Photo courtesy of the internet and A.Non)

After a sandwich on the move, we called in as planned to follow up on conversations about sorting out the water ingress that had caused the chimney of Erin Mae's solid fuel fire to corrode. Today's chat was really helpful, though the time frame for fixing everything is still longer than we would have liked, and it looks as though we shall cruise the Ashby Canal before any heating issues are resolved. If the weather stays like it is, that will not be a problem!

We also discussed yesterday's overheating engine. Nigel thought it was probably a slightly sticky thermostat taking a while to wake up after 20 months inactivity. Monitor it (he said), and it will probably sort itself out. We shall see. At least there is no shortage of hot water for showers at the end of s sticky day!

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!"

Maintenance visit

We actually managed a visit to Erin Mae this week. We'd been in Wales for a few, very enjoyable, days, sharing an AirBNB farmhouse with our London grandchildren (and their parents!), just making it before the Covid19 rules prohibited it. From the Brecon Beacons it was quicker to get to Great Haywood than to go home, so up we went. Erin Mae is still "winterised" from a year ago, and was not suitable for staying overnight, so we booked into the Premier Inn in Rugeley and went over in the morning.

The main task was to check that the covering I had over the chimney was still secure – Storm Dennis has been and gone since I set it up. I put an extra layer of plastic on and secured it with my favourite Gorilla tape – it's great stuff. The other thing was to put the pipes attaching to the top of the calorifier back in place. When I drained the water system a year ago I'd removed them to syphon water from the tank, and couldn't get them back in again. We were in a hurry to leave, so I'd left them … and it's now a year on. It should have been a very straightforward task, but I just could not get them to screw into place. In the end I asked Marina Engineering to do it and we left. Today I've had a message that's it's all been done, and relatively cheaply.

So now there are just two main jobs that will need to be addressed in the spring – assuming we're able to be back on board. Sealing around the cast iron chimney collar and replacing the flue from the stove turns out to be more complicated than I thought, and really beyond my expertise. I've had a chat today with the engineering department at Streethay Wharf, and we shall almost certainly take Erin Mae down to them as soon as we're afloat again. I also need to check that the central heating system doesn't have a leak. If we manage to get up in April, we'll need some sort of heating, and the fire won't be operational until the chimney is fixed.

All in all, we were really pleased with Erin Mae's condition. The inside was dry and smelled sweet. The work I've done on re-siting windows has clearly paid off and rain has stayed on the outside. Hopefully we will actually be able to do some travelling when the winter is past.

Bird chat

We went for a walk in the New Forest today, from Burbush car park near Burley. Just 4 miles or so from our front door – aren't we fortunate!

Instead of walking along the old railway track towards Brockenhurst, which we've done once or twice recently, we headed northwest over the road. Here there is a mixture of heath and conifers, pretty sandy under foot with the land undulating in the general direction of Ringwood and the A31. In 34 years of living here, we can't remember having walked this stretch before. Not that we went particularly far – maybe two or three miles.

We saw just one other person about a mile away, and a glimpse of someone a bit nearer on the way back. What we did see, and hear, was a lot of birdlife. There were notices at the car park and one or two other spots about the need to take care, because of there currently being unusual numbers of rare groundnesting birds – one of the fruits of the pandemic. The air was alive with song. I'm no "twitcher", but it seemed obvious that a small bird complaining at our presence from a stubby tree should be called a stonechat. Then we heard a curlew that sang very persistently. Once in the shade of some trees we checked and confirmed our conclusions with an app my best beloved has recently put on her iPhone.

Curlews are apparently becoming increasingly rare in the New Forest, so it was very good to find at least one trying to pick the trend!