Day 53 - when Hattie knocked a full mug of tea over the carpet!

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0 locks, 275 in total.







This is our last lazy day. Tomorrow we set off again after enjoying another scorching day here and listening to a thrilling Men's Final at Wimbledon on Radio 5 – doing my best to blot out the extremely rude Mr. Inverdale!







Many boats were on the move though and I think several boaters will be suffering severe sunburn now – they looked red even at 10am in their skimpy tops. Some boaters had rigged up large umbrellas as sunshades which was a great idea until they reached a bridge.







My apologies if the blog is light on substance again but we really haven't done much at all – just enjoying summer whilst it lasts. We are able to take things a little easier now as we've decided to bypass the Llangollen and this has saved us about 16-18 days. I was having doubts before we left home as I'd seen comments about collisions on that canal as the stream runs so fast. There are also many hire boats on there and they have a slightly cavalier attitude to paintwork. Talking to a few continuous cruisers on this trip has reinforced my attitude. They say that the water level is very low too and this causes problems in tunnels. All in all we've decided to hire a boat sometime rather than risk damaging our own.







Thought you might like some idea of our day to day arrangements on this trip.




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Filling up with water – every 2-3 days.
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Pumpout – every 8 days or so.
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Rubbish disposal – daily if possible - skips provided at many yards but not always for the travelling boats.
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We started off with 2 full propane cylinders and we're still on the first one.
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Shopping – every 2 days – only a small fridge as it runs off the 12v batteries.
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Charging electronic gadgets – we have a 100w inverter that converts 12v battery power but we only use it when the engine is running as it is obviously a huge battery drain. So I can charge my laptop and tablet, the Dyson battery vacuum cleaner (and what a lovely item that is), and the wifi dongle (for internet access). For mobile phones and iPod I have an in-car charger that I've wired to a 12v plug which has a negligible effect on the 3 leisure batteries.
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On sunny days we air our bedding and Hattie's on the roof.
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The plan was to cruise for about 3 hours each day with one day off each week – we didn't stick to this for various reasons for the first 5 weeks or so but we're now able to go at a more leisurely pace – breakdowns and canal stoppages excepted of course.
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We tend to cruise in the morning when most others are also on the move – arriving too late in the day may mean that there are no decent moorings. When the school holidays start there may be no moorings anyway!

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