Lived on-board Hadar

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Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Shackerstone to Marston Jabbett

Monday 8th September.

Shackerstone to Battlefields Moorings, Shenton. 13.2 miles.

It was time to say goodbye to Shackerstone and head for Snarestone to turn at the Canal terminus, where we would empty the toilet cassettes. Like us other boats were leaving and it was not long before we found ourselves behind the steam boat Emily Anne.
Onboard the Emily Anne was Dan and his family. There steam boat has a certain grace through the water, and it is wonderful to hear the steam whistle, with its haunting toot toot. They allowed us to pass at an appropriate place and we continued on to Snarestone tunnel. Where we found ourselves behind a Canal time hire boat, which was going so slowly towards the tunnel, we thought they must be waiting for a boat to come out the other end, but this was not the case, they were just going slowly. Infact they were going at a snails pace through the tunnel, Keith had to put Hadar into reverse at one point because otherwise we would have been pushing the Canal time boat through the tunnel. That would of infact been far quicker. Once out of the tunnel they did allow us to pass and we headed for the terminus. The countryside along this part of the Ashby canal is very picturesque, with wonderful views across the valley. We arrived at the terminus and winded in the winding hole with two other boats, who moored up for water. Having winded Hadar we also moored up to empty the toilet cassettes, it also gave us the chance to get rid of all our rubbish, which we had gathered over the week at Shackerstone.Having moored up Emily Anne arrived and winded behind us. We spent a few moments chatting to Dan and his family, before we were off again heading back to Shackerstone. Coming in the opposite direction was NB Pickles No2, with Pete, Lisa and dog Sam onboard. It had been wonderful to meet Pete and Lisa and we really hope to see them again sometime.The weather had been pretty good, we did have a couple of light drizzly showers, but it soon cleared to give us a really nice day. Just a shame we know it will not last. Our cruising for the day ended when we reached the Battlefield Moorings, near Shenton. We moored up and took Paddy for a walk up to the Bosworth Battle Centre, we did not go into the museum part this time, but enjoyed the walk to find out where it was. We will go and pay them a visit another time. Back at Hadar, we got out the chairs and sat outside enjoying a coffee. Marmite and Paddy enjoyed playing off of the boat, before the temperature dropped enough for us to call it a day. We have enjoyed a lovely day, and a great weekend.

Tuesday 9th September.

Battlefield mooring to Marston Jabbett bridge 3 near Bedworth. 12.1 miles.

It has been a day of strong winds, rain, with the sun briefly putting in an appearance. There is little to say about today's jaunt. We did not set off until 11.10am, as it was raining hard when we got up this morning. we decided there was no point in getting soaked, so waited until the weather improved a little. There were plenty of boats moving in both directions, and by the end of the day we were in a convly of four boats. Unfortunately we seemed to have got behind the slowest of the other boats, and for what ever reason they would not let us pass. The gentleman was in and out of the engine room, so clearly had a problem, but he was not for budging from the centre of the canal, so in the end we decided to moor up at 3.40pm. So we are now moored up and enjoying the warmth from our back cabin stove. We will spend the night here and move off in the morning, so I will post when our signal allows.

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