Pete is preparing Goldeneye and partner for today's dredging. He would be out managing water as ever, but last week Hilda's registration plate took a swim in the River Nene. Whilst she (the work 4x4) was on the road. It's just that the Nene decided to move to further shores, as have so many UK rivers in the last month. So whilst Hilda waits to be legal again, Pete's driving the boat whilst his colleague dredges.
With Pete's van off the road for a few days, he has resorted to taking this 90 footer home instead.
We woke up with our home on quite a lean this morning. So so much rain! There is so much water that the ropes have held us fast and pulled our starboard side down toward the bank. Auto close on a few doors!
On rivers where this is expected with the usual rise and fall of the river, ropes are tied to rings which slide up & down poles. The mooring bank isn't ground, but floating pontoons with bridges to the land. So our river boaters are still level. But then they can end up settling on a field if their ropes pull off...
Canals don't usually rise this much, so the first thing Pete will race out to do after breakfast is to let the water out. Flood paddles open, wier boards off, we should be level later today.
Here is Mr or Mrs Swan. His/her partner is just along the bank ahead of Bella. With the careful arrangement of grasses a few moments ago, we suspect nest building and eating up are in progress. If so, we'll keep you informed!
Another nice thing about this new home mooring (as if there weren't enough) is that we have a lovely level place to sit outside on the bank. It felt like early Spring today. Wonderful!
It's been a long time coming, this winter. This is our first serious frost of the season and it's already January. The delightful frazzle got a bit thicker than usual overnight and we heard the familiar ping sounds as Bella started to move a little with our morning.
2014 starts our seventh year afloat. It's hard to recall living in a house! We were this cold inside a house on winter mornings, but it never seemed as easy to bring up to good heat. A few minutes with Squirrel and we're toasty again.
We had fun doing the stats for 2013. We managed to travel just under 300 lock-miles in the year, just a third of our busiest, 2010, and just 60 lock-miles more than our quietest, 2012. But it felt that we travelled more than in either of those years. Well, we experienced more. Rather than as in 2010, covering the miles but not really seeing anywhere, or 2012, packing in trips in the little time we had, in 2013 we slowly lived through Pete's patch. From May through September, we lived a week here, two there, a night over there after just an hour or so travelling. We took in scenery and wildlife like never before. We were treated to wonderful weather, sightings of otter, mink and kingfishers. We got to know new communities and pubs. We now have new garden furniture, multi puposing as extra dining room chairs and a cruising chair for Elizabeth.
It's been a good travelling season in 2013 and we hope to do similarly in 2014. In the meantime, Happy New Year and happy Winter!
