Monday 11 February 2008

Has Spring sprung early???

Still moored at Hillmorton, Rugby

What a fantastic week-end we have had weather wise. Not surprisingly there has been a lot of boats out and about but hang on a minute this is only February isn't it? I thought the cruising season started about Easter time which incidentally is March this year. If the weather stays on track and not a repeat performance of last summer (flooding) it will be great.

Yesterday we went for a walk down the lane away from the village and through the railway bridge into the Hillmorton suburb of Rugby. From where we are moored this patch of suburbia is totally hidden by the high railway embankment. We didn't know that there was this much housing so close to the canal in this area. For all intents and purposes you would swear blind that we are miles out in the countryside but here we are only about half a mile from civilisation.

The following pictures are of the dry docks I mentioned on Friday. The first is of the bridge over the entrance to the first dock. The second is the open dock just after 2 boats had been removed.The last is of the covered paint dock with 2 boats awaiting repaint just visible through the doorway.

Today we had a change of neighbours as n/b Uccello set off for Rugby and n/b Maximus which we understand to be a shared ownership boat, arrived. While I was replacing a broken aerial pole bracket on the front cratch frame the skipper on Maximus, upon seeing our satellite dish asked if we had an problems with it as they also had one but couldn't set it up. Well this was right up Dot's alley, give her a problem like this and she's like a dog with a bone. I did my little bit with aligning the dish but without success so I left Dot to it while I carried on with fitting a security bolt on the rear doors. Over an hour went by and still no sign of Dot.

Ah well, get the fishing rod out but half an hour and no bites later it was time to batten down the hatches as the evening dew was starting to descend. Eventually Dot returned triumphant saying that the coaxial cable hadn't been set up properly and the digital satellite receiver box had not been set up with the English TV stations either. They have an identical system to our's but obtained theirs from Lidl's which was probably why all they could get initially was German channels whereas our's came from Maplins and set up for the English market. Initially Dot could only get German programs but eventually managed to tune the box into the English system making skipper and crew very happy chappies

Fantastic sunset tonight

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