Well, a year afloat. Yesterday, the 31st of October, marked 12 months since we pulled away from Heyford Wharf to begin our new life. And this blog is therefore over a year old! It seems hard to believe. We've travelled over 400 miles and seen things we would never have been able to see otherwise. We have chatted with people over locks, learnt canal history, seen industrial history, seen the real deprivation next to wealth in the countryside, watched the regeneration of community after community as they cluster to revive canal sites. We have also managed to keep working (on some exciting contracts) and make new boating friends.
As we write, we are still on the Coventry canal, having moored up last night in what felt like the middle of nowhere with fields to both sides and not a building in sight. It feels good to have that confidence now. We know we have everything on board and much sorted so we know we can be far from roads or buildings and be fine. We did the Atherstone locks today, the first of November, having been concerned that we might not make them in time for the stoppages there on the 10th. But we got there with lots of room to spare, so can relax now into our winter travelling.
Except for the locks at Hillmorton which never are closed (because they are parallel singles, so if one is closed for repair, the other can be used), we are now lock free until the end of March. It doesn't mean we won't travel (!) but it does mean that our travel is limited to Atherstone on the Coventry to the west, Snarestone on the Ashby to the north, and Napton on the Oxford to the south until all the lock repair work is finished in the Spring. Braunston Locks open again the end of February, but we couldn't really get too far after them, so we'll just consider them off limits. All that said, that's a good 60 miles or so we can still be travelling and certainly hope to do the Ashby canal before winter is out.
We are floating quietly to the west of Nuneaton now, planning on working our way south of it to continue to Hawkesbury Junction (http://www.canaljunction.com/canal/coventry_ashby.htm) for tonight. We just pulled in to a little marina for kindling and are off again. We'll now go slowly back to Hilmorton for the end of November when we hope to have Bella's blacking done. This is the black protective paint from the gunnels down over the hull. She'll have to be out of the water, so Josie and we will have to have a few nights away. In the meantime, we're enjoying this wonderful autumn afloat. And we are truly enjoying this life afloat. If you have not already been to visit, please do!
