Back again!

Thursday July 21^st; Willow Park marina to Sutton Cheney Wharf

We had a straightforward journey back up to the boat, although the traffic was heavy at times, and arrived at the marina shortly after 2.  This is a great little marina, with good rates for visitor mooring, and very accommodating.  Bonjour only had 4 anodes, which the surveyor noted were 85% worn – but the boat was blacked not long ago, so why on earth they weren’t changed when the boat was going on brokerage, who knows?  4 is apparently not enough for a 60’ boat anyway, so they fitted 4 new ones for us while we were at home. 

It must have been after 4 when we left the marina, and turned left towards the terminus although we weren’t certain we would go that far.  We ran aground in the first 5 minutes – an oncoming hire-boat was passing some moored boats and we just drifted into the mud on the offside.  It was very slow going the whole time – pointless trying to go faster in this canal.  Perhaps we shouldn’t have topped up the water tank!  Pretty canal though.

There are some imaginative arrangements on boat roofs around here ....

Coffin, boat or roof box? Note the scythe pretending to be an oar

As we neared Sutton Cheney Wharf, we saw what could have been smoke drifting across the water – but it wasn’t.  There was a tractor going up and down a field where the grain had been harvested, and looked to be pulling a disc cultivator, if there is such a thing.  The ground is so dry that the tractor was creating a plume of dust behind it.

There's a tractor there somewhere

We tried to moor before we got to Sutton Cheney Wharf, as we weren’t sure the pontoon mooring was back in operation, but couldn’t get the stern in closer than 6’.  We went on under the bridge, where we were delighted to see plenty of space on the visitor mooring a little further on from the café.  It was quite difficult to manoeuvre across, as there was shallow water just before it, but we were soon tied up.  It didn’t take us long to decide to try the evening fare at the café (thanks for mentioning it in your blog Neil (NB Herbie). It was very pleasant eating delicious ‘small plates’ by the canal.  And it left us plenty of time to take Meg for a cool evening walk through Ambion Woods to the Bosworth Battlefield Centre.  The Centre itself was closed by now, but there are plenty of paths that remain open, including to the sundial which we remembered from our last visit.

Crown on the sundial's gnomon

Richard III's badge

There were 2 large clearings in the woods, presumably logged, and a lot of replanting had taken place – I squinted down the tree guards and saw a mix of very small trees tucked inside.  Oak, birch and hazel were more or less surviving.  But all the baby Scots Pines I saw looked dried up and dead.  I do hope the rest survive until there is a good drenching of rain.

 

Back at the boat we realised we have a problem with the toilet.  When we first came on board a few weeks ago, there was a dirty tidemark around the inside of the bowl, which was easy enough to clean - a bit of a puzzle, but it seemed to be working fine for that first week.  But when we got back today, the bowl was half full of some very dirty water.  There was no light to say the tank was full, but there was no smell, although we did think a pump-out would be advisable!  (no such facilities at the marina).  It seemed to be working fine after that, till we got back from our walk this evening – now it’s half full again, and a bit niffy too.  It was clear something is up – was the tank full?  No warning light,which we had been told was installed.  Perhaps a seal had failed, which meant a call-out for an engineer.  We clearly wouldn’t be able to use the loo tonight, but luckily there are outside toilets back at the café.

2 slow miles, a battlefield walk and a bit of a loo issue ….