19
- 20 March 2005
Calcutt to Radford Semele & back
(16 miles, 40 locks, 17.3 engine hours)
Our
first overnight trip with guests! It was fitting that Des & Liz should
be our first overnight visitors - we have shared enjoyable boating holidays
with them over a number of years, initially on hire boats and then on
Scimitar, the shared ownership boat we bought into with them.
For a change,
we turned away from Calcutt Locks and
headed towards Stockton - we were planning some serious lock practice
over the next couple of days. As usual, Ian and Des took turns on the
tiller whilst Liz and I worked the locks. The plan was to get as far towards
Leamington Spa as we could - I had plenty of food on board, but if we
saw an inviting pub we could always test it out.
Liz and I soon
got back into the swing of things with the locks - well we had 8 to do
one after another. We made good progress through the day and reached the
winding hole between Bull Bridge and Radford Road Bridge late afternoon.
We decided not to press on into Leamington itself for the next turning
point so moored up for the night.
A
convivial evening was spent on board. Ian and I were pleased to be back
on board after nearly two months without any cruising. We have both been
ill with flu, which turned into a chest infection for me - I had nearly
three weeks off work, which is more sick leave than I have had in the
last 10 years put together. Daughter Kirsty has been even more poorly
with several stays in hospital. We hope she is on the road to recovery
now.
Sunday saw us
on the way back to Calcutt. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with
me when we went through the staircase lock as we actually managed to cross
with a boat coming down. Would have made a great picture.
The
weather was kind to us and we made good progress. We stopped at the Blue
Lias for lunch and, well fortified, Liz and I tackled the eight Stockton
Locks. For some reason we had forgotten to take the fenders up and by
the time we got to the top, we had lost four of them. We were going up
the locks with another boat and Des and the other captain decided that
they would come out of and go into the locks together - fenders fell off
on entry and exit and sank without a trace. We have learned our lesson.
Per Angusta performed
well over the weekend and the interior layout worked out how we had planned
for 4 people on board. We are looking forward to spending as much time
as possible on her in the coming months.
Return
to top of page
|