Off once more

We had quite a busy morning, with Mike having a PCC Standing Committee meeting as well as several other last minute matters to attend to - including sorting out contact lenses. However, we were off before lunch and called at both Homebase and Asda Filling Station in Bodmin before really being on the road.

Leaving there just a couple of minutes before 1 pm, we had an excellent journey up to Lower Heyford, with traffic levels sufficiently low to allow cruise control for all but a couple of short sections right up to the turn off from the M5. We has a short comfort break at Michael Wood Services and arrived at Lower Heyford before 5 o'clock.

David was away but we were able to establish that the tiller repairs had been completed - although Mike soon discovered that the stop tap on the water tank was still missing. However, a quick application of Blu Tack meant that we could avoid the problems of air ingestion that we had encountered last weekend.

Not in the blog, but we did have a short trip last weekend to take the three girls down to Kirtlington Quarry for a lunch time BBQ and campfire, with an outdoor evening meal with Joanna and Adrian as well. Andrew, on way to Worcester Beer and Cider Festival, helped out and stayed overnight. We returned on our own to base the next morning.

Back to today: we managed to fill the fuel tank before the boatyard closed at 5:30 and then also took on water. Unloading the car did not take very long as we only had immediate supplies to bring with us.

We set off soon after six o'clock with black clouds overhead. (It rained very heavily so we waited until the worst was over)

Although the rain abated it was back again by the time we arrived at Dashwood Lock - Mike did most of the lock work, but Christine emerged in time to take the boat out of the lock at the end. Shortly afterwards we opted for a good mooring even if there was no chance of TV signal and most of the mobile phones failed to respond! (Vodafone did work, however!)