On Saturday 28th October, Powys was purchased by a couple who already live on a smaller boat on a London mooring. The sale has been a long protracted affair due to hull and rudder work being needed to be done after initial purchasers survey report.  They then pulled out of the sale at the beginning of September when the work, delayed by illness, was almost completed. On Sunday 29th October Graham went up to Rugby boats and did a hand-over to the new owners before they sailed off in a Southerly direction just after 1pm. I hope they enjoy her as much as we have.     Today, Powys ..read more

was today delivered to Rugby Boat sales at Stowe Hill to be placed on brokerage. We arrived at the boat at about 9:30 and spent a couple of hours doing essential jobs, cleaning and clearing out all of the remaining items that would not be included in the sale and getting them into the car before setting off for the final run through Weedon. On arrival, Graham went off to fetch the car and then we emptied all of our stuff out and gave the boat a final clean. Then we handed over the keys to the brokerage staff, signed the sale document and headed home with very mixed feelings.   After ..read more

Monday 3rd July 2023 We arrived at Barby moorings at 10 o’clock. We have our neighbour Margaret as passenger for today’s journey as she loves going through tunnels and we plan to pass through the one at Braunston today. The weather was sunny but a little breezy as we manoeuvred out of our mooring and made our way around the central island in the moorings to find the exit. Hard to port and immediately under the M45 bridge towards Braunston. We passed a lot of boats heading North and also met Brian aboard Autarky just before the A45 bridge who warned us of a boat towing another following him. It ..read more

When Jannock crossed the aqueduct on Wednesday 24th May we had Paul from Worker Drones UK visit and take stills and video footage for us. The pictures are below:- The two videos are at :- Pontcysyllte video1        https://youtu.be/H0Cc9oHnRd8 Pontcysyllte video2         https://youtu.be/461SPRXP9Kk Enjoy ..read more

Wednesday 7th June 2023 A short hop back to Barby Moorings today. Still grey today but the warmth of the sun could be felt through the clouds. We turned into the marina and the wind helped us across onto the service area where we pumped out the loo tank – not bad, 26 days and only 66% full. Because we had the Di Blasi on board as well as the old starter battery on the rear deck, we hadn’t even noticed the list to starboard that normally accompanies and tank of more than 50%. Getting off the service area to get to our mooring was another story as the wind was quite strong and broadside to us. F ..read more

Sunday 4th June 2023 The day started cloudy and cold but only one of us experienced it. Brenda stayed in bed until it was time to serve croissants for breakfast to the steerer. As the day wore on the cloud disappeared and it became warm and sunny – we have been very lucky with our weather over the last 3+ weeks now.   From Fradley we travelled down through Streethay and Whittington to Hopwas where we met a day boat being steered by a pirate at the main road bridge.  The Red flags were flying on the ranges and the sound of gun-fire could be heard.    Through Fazely, past ..read more

Saturday 3rd June 2023 Planes of the day – a Spitfire and a P51 Mustang. We left our overnight mooring in Tixall Wide in gorgeous sunshine, making the reeds, water lilies and pastures look superb. Sadly we were not able to eat either last night’s dinner or this morning’s breakfast outside to appreciate the views – it been a very cold wind that is no-doubt responsible for keeping us dry. That’s been a blessing. We turned right at Gt Heywood junction and found ourselves third in the queue for the first lock, first in line was a day boat that was being tutored by an Anglo-Welsh staff member. We s ..read more

Friday 2nd June 2023 Last night we had a lovely meet up with Ian and Steph at ‘the Star’. It was good to have a long overdue catch-up over a nice meal and hear their plans for Ian’s pending retirement and their move to Litchfield. We hope it all goes well! We left our mooring below Star Lock and made our way out of Stone to Aston lock where we found ourselves third in a queue with only room for one boat on the lock landing. Trying to hover between moored boats and the traffic coming out of the lock was fun. All the time, a swan sat on her nest alongside us was busy making the nest build better ..read more

Thursday 1st May 2023 Firstly, I missed an important bit from yesterday’s blog – after Brenda had crossed the canal and walked up the road to visit the Wedgewood seconds centre, she found that it had closed and the car park was full of travellers. Not a lot of money spent there then. Last night was a rare ‘two pub’ evening, not happened since last May when we stopped in Etruria. We like to eat at the Toby Carvery as we enjoy a roast dinner and we always try to visit the Holy Inadequate pub & brewery just down the road. The beer selection in the former was poor and in the latter was superb ..read more

Wednesday 31st May 2023 OMG! – last day of May. That is why an adjacent bush has dumped all it’s pink flowers all over Jannock last night – May’s out. Roof looks like there’s been a wedding.   We awoke to a grey sky and a chilly wind which has stayed with us most of the day – except in Harecastle tunnel. We set off and ascended three locks before mooring up at Red Bull to refill the water tank and dump our rubbish. Unfortunately, although these locks are paired, a couple of the towpath side ones appear to have broken ground paddles and so were very slow to fill. Better to use offside on ..read more