10th April '13

We set course out of the marina this afternoon. After a couple of nice days the weather is a bit dodgy but has warmed up enough to give us hope!

I have been very tardy with the blog over winter but to be honest we just hibernated, along with lots of other boaters. We got frozen in a few times and at one stage had both the zips on the cratch cover stop working (they froze up) and snow was being blown in. Not too good. We sorted them out by giving them a liberal coating of olive oil and being a bit careful. After that we made a move to a different jetty - moved nearer the shore from J19 to J8. It means that A. we are using the other zips as the jetty is on the other side and B. we are nearer to shore which is much better for carrying shopping etc and for visitors! We missed the bad snow in March as that was the week that John took me to the Cape Verde islands for my birthday treat!

Anyway that was pretty much winter so here we are off out again,

The send off we had was lovely, Karen and Jessie (our new neighbours) waved us off and then Lloyd and Helen with dogs were waiting at the marina bridge to ensure we were safely off the premises. I have some nice photos of this but am currently hunting the connector for the camera. Last seen when John was uploading photos onto his Ipad. I shall have to use the other camera until the lead is found.

The sun is pretty warm although it is very hazy and we made good time so got to The Bridge, at Branston. We've moored and been for a walk around the water park and plan to have supper then visit the Bridge for a swift half, just cos we can!

We are really glad to be out again and are plans are to head down the Coventry then the Oxford onto the Thames (not looking forward to that bit) and then head west to go down the Kennet and Avon so that friends and relations can get up to see us as we progress towards Bath. We've allowed ourselves 6 weeks or so to do that and then we have to return but go further along the Thames to Brentford (even less excited about that bit) and getting onto the Grand Union where we will hoepfully see more friends and then get to the IWA boat festival in July at Watford. Then back to the marina for August. I'll probably be glad of a cup of tea by that point!