Toilet talk

Friday 22^nd July; Sutton Cheney Wharf to Bosworth and return

Maybe we had been naïve to expect Bonjour to have had a pump-out when it went on brokerage, but it had become obvious that it hadn’t.  Rather annoying, but it wouldn’t be boating without an occasional toilet issue, would it? There is a perfectly sized bucket in the galley which was pressed into service for overnight use.  We slept with the doors open for extra ventilation as it had got quite pongy by bedtime.  When I decided to use the CRT facilities once it had got light I discovered it had been raining so things were a bit wet.  But the facilities had just been cleaned and were a pleasure to use – including the elsan hose to rinse the bucket round.  We weren’t up late, and after Meg had had a disappointingly short walk up to the woods we were off towards the pump-out at Bosworth marina.  There was a lot of very shallow canal and we made very slow progress, enlivened by an unusual bather.

Wooo  it's cold!

And the second one of these we have seen.  Is it some sort of wind generator?

The service wharf at Bosworth marina is well placed, quite close to the entrance with enough space to manoeuvre and use it easily.  We’ve never done a self-pump-out before – when you have a share-boat or a hire-boat, someone else is paid to do it for you.  So we had a lightning-quick lesson and were left to get on with it.  It turned out to be quite straightforward and the toilet now seems to be back to normal – for the time being at least.  We moored just outside the marina for lunch, and then I slogged up the hill to Market Bosworth.  Sadly there are no buses now …

I bought a couple of things and called in at the Pharmacy for advice – I have a really nasty cough which definitely isn’t Covid, nor hay fever which the pharmacist diagnosed.  But if the cough mixture she said was all I needed for a decent night’s sleep, we will both be very pleased!

On the way back I saw this remarkable hedge.  I thought there were two tortoises and a twiddly bit like a gargoyle, but the owner says he just tries to make an interesting shape.  A local teacher thinks it’s a dragon.

And just across the road was another point of interest 

 

When I got back, we cruised along to the next winding hole and turned.  The boat seems a lot lighter in the water with an empty poo tank, but we still struggled to turn – a supposedly full-length winding hole seemed to be only just over 60 ft.  The stretch of canal we found very difficult this morning, as regards the bottom being too close to the top, was still very shallow, but Bonjour coped better with the rest on the way back.  We moored in the same place as last night, on the visitor mooring at Sutton Cheney Wharf.

Then the same thing happened as on our last trip – the engine would not switch off, so once more Dave had to lift the engine board and do it manually.

8¾ miles, a pump-out, and a nasty niff gone.