The first day of July saw us going through the town of Berkhamsted, we were looking to do a restock of the food cupboards and get the laundry up to date. Berkhamsted is very much a canal town with the town centre very close to the canal, the town centre supermarket having its short-term mooring. As we went through the town we were very aware that as we approached the centre we had seen no vacant mooring 'till right in the centre a nice long-vacant mooring, just what we wanted less than a minute from two supermarkets, less than ten minutes walk from the launderette and fifteen minutes walk from a superb butcher. During the four days, we spent on the mooring we learned that Sue’s Uncle David was being kept in hospital. He had no care package at home and could not organise care at home because he was in hospital so we agreed to put the boat in a marina for a couple of weeks and go and stay at David’s home at which point he could be released to our care and then a care package could be arranged for him. We took the boat into Cowroast Marina on 8th July and during a phone call to brother Richard mentioned we were travelling to Basildon the next day, he asked how we were travelling and when we said by train he responded saying “Oh you are less than 50 miles from here, I’m not doing anything tomorrow so will pick you up and take you. What time do you want to get there” Well, with an offer like that how can you refuse? He asked when we needed to be back and when we told him he said it was our lucky day as his diary was also empty for that day.
Cowroast Marina is a very friendly marina with good facilities but has a large drawback for a helmsman with my skill level. It is so small, all the pontoons are very close together and the pontoon we were assigned was, we were told by a resident, rarely used because it is so tight.
We got in eventually with just the loss of a little paint off NB Fantasma and several other boats.
When Richard took us back to Fantasma on 18th July, David was home from hospital, his youngest daughter had travelled from her home in Australia to stay with him for a couple of months and his other daughter and his son were also regularly calling to help their younger sibling and a care package had been put in place.
Richard was staying overnight after driving us back so I asked him if he would object to us leaving the marina immediately and mooring outside so that he would be there to help us get out.
It took Sue, Richard, me and two residents to manhandle the boat out of a space that was simply too small for it. We were chatting to another boater some days later who had also booked into Cowroast Marina and had been allocated the same berth. They were eight feet (2.438 m) longer than us so they must have had fun getting in.
Wednesday 20th
It’s not often you meet a real gentleman on the cut but today was the day. We were approaching a lock and saw there was a boat in it and the gate was being closed. We tooted our hooter but the boater carried on closing the gate then walked to the other end of the lock and opened a paddle then walked over the top gates and started opening the other gate paddle, as he did so he looked up and saw us. He closed both paddles, reset the lock and opened the gate for us to enter. We negotiated several locks with the gentleman, whose name we learned later was Simon and travelled with him for several days. Of stark contrast was a couple of blokes at a later lock which when we arrived was virtually full so to save water, a rare resource at the moment (more of that later) when a boat arrived at the lock wanting to go down Sue continued filling the small amount of water lost by leakage, had the lock been empty (or nearly empty we would have allowed them to enter and then filled the lock. They weren’t happy with that and watched Sue complete preparation’s without giving or offering help. Simon and I entered the lock and Sue emptied it. As Sue opened the gate for me to leave they called to her and asked, nay, told her to close the gate for them after I had left. Not only did Sue tell them exactly what she thought of them but Simon decided (as a single-hander) he would pull his boat out of the lock on a rope. We had seen him do this several times while we were with him but had never seen him take the extraordinarily long time to do it as it did on that occasion - young people (i.e. anyone under the age of 65), best not to take the p**s out of us old folks it can be frustrating and cost you an awful lot of your time.
22 July
Slow TV - Five minutes in a typical day
Strange day today. The weather forecast was for light(ish) winds and after 11.00 am showers then after 12.00-noon heavy rain till early evening so we moved just 3/4 of a mile to moor a scant mile from a large Tesco which was next door to a large Aldi. After we had moored, set up the cockpit cover and settled down for a couple of days we discovered that the towpath between our mooring and the shops was closed so that Canal & River Trust can spend lots of money relaying a perfectly good towpath in order that cyclists can travel them even faster than they currently do.
As it was not yet raining we again got ready to cruise and set off to Tesco, wonder of wonders, when we arrived at the shop moorings there were two vacant so we spent an hour getting fully restocked and, as it was still not raining, set off again, this time we managed to get somewhat further, however by the time we moored that evening we had travelled three and a half miles in two and a half hours travelling time.
24th July, was a very sad day indeed.
Uncle David died. We have lost not just a relative but a very good friend.
In Portugal, one of the many visits David and Brenda made while we were travelling Europe.
David in Cómpeta, Spain 2017.
With Brenda. That week we had sun, rain and blizzards, but we were high in the mountains and it was February.
We will always remember them and the great times we had with them.
27th July
We have arrived at the village of Weldon Bec in Northamptonshire, it’s called a village but in reality, it is a small town as it boasts a large Tesco Express and lots of other shops, OK most are antique shops, several pubs, a motor home sales company and two Chinese takeaways. We tried one of the takeaways last time we were here and were looking forward to another meal purchased there. When we arrived it was closed, knowing they normally opened in the evenings only, we looked at the door signage to see what time they open only to find they were closed every Wednesday. We were so looking forward to a Chinese takeaway that we went to the other in the town. We had decided not to use this one previously as it seemed part of a fish and chip business and we thought a restaurant dedicated to one cuisine would be the best. We were wrong on this occasion the meal we had from the Chinese Chippy was every bit as good as that we had had from the other.
28th July
On this our last day travelling for this month, we travelled just 4.5 miles ascended 6 locks and moored below Buckby Top Lock. We spent the last 3 days of July catching up with domestic chores.
Our miles travelled in July was 61 miles in 45 hours transiting 57 locks at an average speed of 1.35 mph making our totals for the year 483 miles in 379 hours transiting 347 locks and 8 swing bridges, giving an average speed for the year of 1.27 mph.