Lockdown Mooring 2 to Lockdown Mooring 3, Calveley Bridge 104
The water gauge wasn’t showing anything this morning, possibly the lowest it’s been since we moved on board. So only one thing for it, an essential journey to the services. No shore leave was allowed for Tilly and she soon decided to spend the morning on the bed with her eyes closed instead.
What now seems to be the weekly Geraghty Zoom conference call took place. Just about everyone had been to the National Theatre in the last couple of days. Next week it’s Jane Eyre, Kath said it is quite long, but we’ll give it a go at some point. Everyone looked well and with them we travelled to outerspace, various sound control rooms, the Starship Enterprise and a tour of Frans front room. Tilly also made a large appearance as we attempted to change our background too, but we both just about disappeared so gave up.
At just gone 11am we untied Oleanna and pushed off. I wonder how many times we’ll moor in this spot over the coming weeks and months, just how many holes will be before we are allowed to move further afield?
Down to the winding hole where we turned to face north. A short distance on we passed our nearest neighbours, Barry was chatting to the chap onboard NB Plum. NB AreandAre would soon be following us to Calveley to fill their water tank also
Out of the three water points on this pound, Calveley is the furthest from Lockdown Mooring 2, but this was chosen on purpose so as to give Oleanna a bit of a run and to top up the batteries. So we were definitely on an essential journey.
At Barbridge Junction a boat was just turning onto the branch, we pootled straight on and passed no other moving boats. The service moorings were free so we pulled in away from the pump out end should anyone else turn up.
The water point had a disinfect, so did our filler cap. The plants got the first minute of running water through the hose pipe and then the tank could fill up. Blimey it sounded empty as the tank started to fill. A washing load was put in the machine and turned on as soon as we reckoned we had enough water.
It’s been a week since I cleaned Tilly’s pooh box and until this morning she’d only used it once. Despite her attempt to stare us into opening the door, she wasn’t allowed out. Her four paws had been crossed for much of the morning, she finally had to give up and climbed into the box, I could almost hear her relief as I gave the shower a good clean.
NB AreandAre pulled in behind us and started to fill too. There was time and enough space for us all to have a bit of a chat, comparing notes on shopping etc. It’s nice to get chance to chat with people face to face rather than on the computer.
With our tank full we waved goodbye and pushed off, the washing machine still going. On route we’d decided to moor up by bridge 106 and do our best to empty the washing drawer so that we can make the most of Sundays fine weather for drying. There was plenty of space, so we pulled in leaving good gaps between us and the other inhabited boats.
I took a stroll back along the towpath to the garage in the afternoon in the hope of being able to get our Saturday newspaper. I was a touch surprised that the shop was actually open so you could walk in. The shop looked like it is usually reasonably well stocked with none perishable items. if you want porridge oats here is definitely the place to come. One large bag £1.99 isn’t such a bargain, but a box of ten would only be £10. I refrained from such a purchase as I’d not be able to get it back to the boat and if I did we’d have to adjust our ballast!
Sadly their milk had a similar use by date to the 2 pinter we’d got from Sainsburys yesterday. That’s a downfall with online shopping at the moment, you can’t return things once you’ve checked them over. But we’ll try at the garage again when we pass in a few days time.
0 locks, 3.97 miles, 2 straights, 9 Geraghtys, 4 moving boats plus us, 1 full water tank, 1 boat free of rubbish, 4 crossed paws, 1 load washing, 1 newspaper, 1 whirligig, 1 starter still a bit flat, 5 hours, 1 year since sentencing day.