Welford

Tea in bed and no plans on venturing far today. We managed breakfast before joining the Geraghty zoom, subjects included ants (a recurring topic), 3 cranes, wrestling, puppetgate and season tickets.

We pottered away the morning as did Lizzie on NB Panda whilst Tilly kept herself busy in the friendly cover. The ivy twitching every now and again kept her on her toes.

Lizzie started to give Panda a wash, followed by some polish. I got on with giving the new bits of model a lick of paint and glitz. I’m hoping that any time now I get the thumbs up that we are in budget on panto so I know I can put my model making things away for good, rather than having to dismantle one end of the dinette to get a couple of things out time after time.

So many boats came past, a mass exodus in the morning, then the next batch of hopeful moorers arriving. At one point there was a short boat heading towards the basin, another following behind (keeping themselves back) as another came from the basin. This down hill boat kept going, no reducing it’s speed as the short boat was trying to pull into the offside and step off to pull themselves out of the way. The wind caught their bow which headed for the gap between us and the boat behind, all the time the downhill boat carried on ploughing on, comments of ‘Doesn’t he know you pass on the right!’ This chaps wife suggested he stop and wait, thankfully he did as he was told otherwise there’d have been carnage in Welford.

We’d offered to help Lizzie back down the lock and because of the wind Mick also offered for us to stay onboard and help her moor when she got back to North Kilworth Marina, extra hands on ropes may come in handy.

So once the second coat of polish on the port side had been polished off Panda Lizzie took her to wind and we headed to the lock. We managed to swap with an uphill boat so could leave the gates. With all three of us on Pandas stern it was quite cosy. As navigator I gave directions and beeped the horn when we arrived at the junction and the entrance to the marina. Of course here there was little wind and Lizzie chose to back into her spot so that the starboard side could have a wash and polish next time she visits. All this washing and polishing puts us to shame, but then Oleanna has cruised over 600 miles this year with many more still to come. One day the lid on the bottle of polish will get cracked open after at least two years onboard.

North Kilworth has a nice layout to it. Access roads weave around the basins with plenty of shrubs breaking up the view and wind. We spotted several boats that had been out for the weekend and at least one widebeam!

Lizzie gave us a lift back to Welford there’s already a date in the diary for next year when we hope to meet up whether it’s by boat or not.

Roast chicken for us tonight.

Brian from NB Harnser has been concerned that one of us would forget to switch our Nebolink on to record our journeys. Well it turns out that yesterday I ended up turning it off twice, therefore turning it back on. So overnight Oleanna’s progress has been recording none stop, eventually as she hadn’t moved after an age I received a report and map of where she’d been. What a lot of blue!

Another aside. Well done to those boats who made it to the gathering in Birmingham today. If we’d been heading northward on the west side of the country we’d most certainly have been there with you all. NB Freespirit had their stern in view on the local news last night.

If you’d like to sign the petition showing your support for Fund Britains Waterways here is a link.

1 lock for Panda, 2 milesish for Panda, 2 rights 1 left for Panda, 0 miles for Oleanna, 2 coats polish, 6 hours! 1 annoying woofer, 1 bratwurst day, 4 model pieces painted, 1 roast chicken, 1 lovely weekend with boaty friends.