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PSSCB 2010

A blog by Janet S in General

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About this blog

The BIG one!

Entries in this blog

DAY 18

Tuesday 18th May – Clattercote to Lord's Bridge   09.00 - 20.45 24.5 miles, 20 locks   We were a bit late in rising, despite setting alarms. Alarms are brilliant, aren’t they? You can just switch them off and carry on with your dreams…doesn’t work well on work days, but work was far from our minds today!   After a rather tasty breakfast of toast and Marmite, with black pudding and mushrooms, we cast off and began our day’s cruising. We had a lovely clear sky and sunshine to start, althoug
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 17

Monday 17th May – Aynho Weir Lock to Clattercote   09.30 - 18.00 12.1 miles, 11 locks   What a fabulous day today. Brilliant sunshine from first light and it stayed scorching hot all day. As usual I was the first to rise, but I didn’t bother with fishing, just sat on deck with a cup of freshly brewed tea and soaked up the atmosphere. Carling don’t make days like this, but they should!     R.J. was still dozing after the stress of last night’s PC crash, so I left him to dream whilst I
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 16

Sunday 16th May – Thrupp to Aynho Weir Lock   11.45 -19.30 14.7 miles, 8 locks   A nice leisurely start for us today. This was a GOOD thing following our mini banter last night! We had to wait until Terry and Hazel came to pick Christine up at the end of her holiday. We were slightly sad to see her go, but were consoled by the delicious croissants that Hazel brought us for breakfast! The day started off overcast and drizzly, but stayed warm and despite a few rain spats it turned out to be
Janet S

Janet S

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THE RETURN OF THE BLOG...

Since coming back from our holiday at the beginning of June, I've been faithfully typing up the cruise diary and editing photo's to catch up on what was missing after the laptop died mid-way through the cruise.   Whilst it was still a work in progress, it was going well - until disaster struck! My files are now stuck in some sort of computer limbo and I can't access them!   I couldn't decide what to do. Start again and do a full cruise log for the Cruise Diary section, or continue with the
Janet S

Janet S

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SCARY!

Despite warnings about the Thames, I wasn't expecting this...     I never thought I'd see waves breaking over the bow of a narrowboat, despite some of our epic missions!   Not the best of images - just a quick screenshot from one of the videos I took as we traveled on the tidal Thames from Limehouse to Teddington.   R.J. was with Christine on steering duty - I was at the pointy end trying to document the trip with a camera/tripod and I think it's 50/50 as to who was the most scared.
Janet S

Janet S

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NOW I KNOW WHERE THE MONTH WENT...

It appears that the whole of May was stolen...at least that's how it feels, as it went so fast! How can you just lose a month like that? I put it down to simple absent-mindedness...I'm rather hoping it's going to turn out to be like one of those moments when you lose your glasses, then find them perched on top of your head. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and find that being home and back at work is just a nasty dream....? Well, maybe not!   So, the final statistics for our grand cruise?   Well,
Janet S

Janet S

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WHERE HAS A WHOLE MONTH GONE?

Thank goodness this has been a long weekend, as I'd never be ready for w**k if I'd had to go back today! Despite getting back on Saturday afternoon, I'm still unpacking bags and boxes! I have however managed to clean my shoes, but that's my only concession to the nine to five. Tomorrow should be fun, as I've completely forgotten all my passwords for all the computer applications I need to use. I guess it will be some time before I'm on the phones!   I needed a long lie-in, but that didn't happ
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Janet S

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I'VE GOT MY ANKLES BACK!

Yes, you read that right! For the past few weeks I seem to have mislaid them, as they vanished...   I guess standing on deck for up to 12 hours per day isn't good for the circulation, as my ankles swelled and disappeared. R.J. says it's water retention, and all down to my age! No sympathy there then! I've never noticed it before, but then again, we've never cruised for a month before.   I'm still unpacking bags and boxes and the washing machine is working overtime. I'm pleased to say that I
Janet S

Janet S

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THE END....

Well, that's the end of another cruise...we're both safely at home in our respective abodes and wondering where the hell we managed to lose a whole month....is it just down to carelessness?   I know that we carefully looked after and nurtured all those days, but they have been totally ungrateful and have now left us high and dry and have vanished without a trace. If I hadn't kept a cruise log, neither of us would have a clue as to where we've been or when...it's all sort of blurred into one...
Janet S

Janet S

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ONLINE AGAIN!

We are currently on the canal bank at Marston Farm Hotel - Curdworth (Minworth flight I think).   As you can tell, we have the laptop back and have finally plucked up the courage to start playing with it again. The BLOG will be updated as soon as we get it typed up onto the new Open Office software that has been kindly loaded on by Mr & Mrs Tawny Owl. The Laptop was delivered back to us by Sue & Richard night before last at Kegworth shallow lock on the River Soar. They have both been e
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 15

Saturday 15th May – Abingdon to Thrupp   09.05 – 16.30 16.4 miles, 10 locks   Not having set an alarm last night, we slept rather later than we intended, but still got away at more or less the usual time. Breakfast was bacon and mushroom sandwiches on the go, but they always taste better in the fresh air anyway.   Cruising was, as on the previous days, pretty uneventful and painfully boring at times, but there were a few locks to distract us and one or two villages to look at. The locks
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 14

Friday 14th May – Reading Tesco to Abingdon   09.00 – 18.15 30.5 miles, 8 locks   We didn’t set an alarm this morning, knowing that the Thames lockkeepers don’t tend to start work until that time, so there was time for me to nip into Tesco for some fresh baked croissants for breakfast and some nice crunchy rolls for lunch.   Setting off at nine, we were on our way in nice sunshine, but with a chilly wind. It wouldn’t have been too bad if it was just blowing in one direction, but it change
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 13

Thursday 13th May – Bovney Lock (Windsor) to Reading Tesco   08.15 – 17.30 27.9 miles, 10 locks   R.J. made one of his famous specials for breakfast today – sausages, bacon and tomatoes in a sort of scrambly eggy omeletty type thing, topped off with cheese melted to a crisp topping under the grill. He really is quite domesticated and excellent at using up leftovers!   It stayed warm and sunny for most of the day, only clouding over towards the end, and the cruising was pretty uneventful.
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 12

Wednesday 12th May – Hampton Court Palace to Bovney Lock (Windsor)   09.00 – 17.40 21.7 miles, 9 locks   We were all up early this morning, long before the alarm went off. It was a fabulous morning too, with blue clear skies and sunshine again, although a layer of frost on the roof showed that the temperature had dropped overnight.   I took myself off for a little wander with my camera, and was surprised to find that much of the grounds of Hampton Court Palace were open, so I was able to
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 11

Tuesday 11th May – Limehouse Basin to Hampton Court Palace   09.30 – 15.15 25.5 miles, 2 locks   There was no danger of any of us having a lie-in this morning, knowing what lay ahead. We were all up, showered and dressed in plenty of time. It was lovely to look out of the windows and across the basin seeing that we had brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies. The weather forecast for today had been less than good, so it was a pleasant surprise.   Alan Fincher turned up at the appointed ti
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 10

Monday 10th May – Ballot Box – Limehouse Basin   08.10 – 16.15 16.5 miles, 12 locks   Off just about on our scheduled time this morning. The weather looked lovely, with clear blue skies, fluffy clouds and sunshine, but there was a bone-chillingly cold wind which means we were all wearing several layers. I was glad that there wasn’t too long before we were off the Paddington Arm and on to the Regent’s Canal, which was much more interesting and scenic.   It was nice to see Little Venice aft
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 9

Sunday 9th May – Common Moor (L79) to Ballot Box   08.00 – 17.20 19.4 miles, 10 locks   We set off at eight o’clock this morning as planned. Luckily we weren’t grounded on the silt as we had feared last night when we realised that the rudder was stuck solid! Breakfast was bacon, egg and mushroom butties on the go – very welcome in the chilly morning, The weather was pretty overcast with several squally rain showers, but luckily they died off by lunchtime and it remained dry for the rest of
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DAY 8

Saturday 8th May – Bankmill Bridge to Common Moor (L79)   09.10 – 17.45 11.6 miles, 24 locks   Up a bit later than we intended this morning, but then we were absolutely shattered after eleven hours cruising yesterday, so we figured we deserved the lie-in.   Debbie had some fun at the swing road bridge, scoring a total of 14 points. It’s always fun to see how much traffic you can stop. We score it at one point per car, two for a van and extra points for a cars that turn round and head in t
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 7

Friday 7th May – Globe (B111) to Bankmill Bridge   08.00 – 19.00 16.9 miles, 30 locks   Thanks to our reasonably sober and early night last night, we were up at six, and had managed to neck a fried breakfast before both boats cast off at 8.00 on the dot after Allan had emptied the dogs.   We had another duckling problem at one one the locks (don’t ask me which one – I’ve had two pints of Guinness and the day has sort of blurred round the edges!) Luckily this time they all survived, despi
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 6

Thursday 6th May – Bridge 63/64 (Cosgrove) – The Globe (B111)   09.30 – 18.15 19.4 miles, 6 locks   Another rather late start this morning, but still time for me to get an hour’s fishing in before R,J, was up and about, It was really rather silly – bite after bite, non-stop. Absolutely no skill involved – just hook on a bit of bread flake and cast in. I ended up with six rudd, including a very decent one, the same number of skimmers and a couple of nice roach. Amazing fishing for a canal –
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DAY 5

Wednesday 5th May – Landing Spinney to Bridge 63/64 (Cosgrove)   09.45 – 17.30 18.1 miles, 7 locks   A rather late start today, as I didn’t wake up until nearly eight o’clock. It was a brilliant sunny morning, so I made a cup of tea and sat on the stern deck for half an hour of rather half-hearted fishing. I was too busy watching the family of ducklings swimming around to really concentrate on my float, so I managed to miss the one and only bite I had. Oh well, there’s plenty of time yet!
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 4

Tuesday 4th May – Hungerfield to Landing Spinney   09.45 – 19.10 20.7 miles, 16 locks   Another beautiful start to the day today. I was up and wide awake for 7, so decided to have an hour fishing in what looked like a perfect spot, An hour later I decided enough was enough, as I’d lost the feeling in most of my extremities! It was brilliant sunshine, but a biting wind. Besides that, the fish weren’t playing!   After a leisurely breakfast of sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms and egg, we set off
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 3

Monday 3rd May – Bridge 50 (Coventry Canal) to Hungerfield   09.00 – 19.45 23.3 miles, 12 locks   Sunny start, but a distinctly chilly breeze. It’s been very strange weather today, alternating between blazing sunshine and squally showers. We even had a tremendous shower of large hailstones as we left Atherstone Top Lock, which left the full length of the boat white, making it look rather like Christmas!     I loved Atherstone Top Lock - it was like stepping back in time...    
Janet S

Janet S

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DAY 2

Sunday 2nd May – Bridge 68 North of Rugeley to Bridge 50 (Coventry Canal)   09.00 – 18.45 26.7 miles, 5 locks   Early start today. We were a bit late last night, so deliberately hadn’t set our alarm, but we were still wide awake and raring to go at quarter past six. The weather was looking good, although chilly, but with every minute the sky cleared to brilliant blue and the sun became progressively warmer. I managed a spot of fishing whilst R.J. cooked breakfast, and we finally set off at
Janet S

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DAY ONE - WE'RE OFF!!

Saturday 1st May – home to Stone and onwards!   11.00 – 20.00 13.6 miles, 8 locks   Well, just for once everything went to plan on the first day of our marathon cruise. I was up at the crack of dawn to finalise my packing and R,J, arrived bang on time to pick me up. He did go a bit funny coloured when he saw the amount of stuff I had ready to pack but fair play to him, he resisted the urge to scream at me, That will no doubt come later on during the holiday!   The journey was uneventful a
Janet S

Janet S

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