June Start

A somewhat more complicated return to the boat than ususal. Alice and Jess, the two younger grandchildren, had been staying with us for the half term week. Mike took them back, as he collected them a week ago, by train to Reading. Having handed them back to their Mum he caught another train up to Birmingham International. Here he met up with Christine who had driven up the motorway. Despite a couple of sections which were rather slow, she managed to arrive at the station just a few minutes before Mike.

Half an hour later we arrived at Barton Turn Marina and immediately set about unloading onto the boat. Whilst we had been away, the engineering company had fitted new batteries, a new domestic supply isolator and replaced a worn out engine cooling water pipe.

By now we were unkeen to set off and decided to stay put. Before long the mooring warden arrived - he was well aware that our existing deal ran out today and promptly charged us another £8 for the night (no electricity). However, we were quite content with this as the first lock was only just around the corner and good mooring spots less certain.

If it had not been that the previous evening we had eaten out at The Falcon, near home, with the two girls and Brian a vistor who regularly stays with us for the Royal Cornwall show, we might have been tempted to eat out at the Waterfront, part of the marina development. As it was we settled for our pasta and chicken in a mushroom sauce with green salad as planned!