Well, after publishing our plans for boating this year that has now all been blown out of the water!
We visited Leo on 13th March to finish the winter jobs and now just 2 weeks later we are holed up in Yorkshire under Government restrictions during the coronavirus scourge.
We did discuss weathering the coronavirus problem on the boat but finally decided that we would be better placed remaining on land in Yorkshire which is so far not as badly afflicted as other parts of the country, especially London. Given that Canal and Rivers Trust have now decreed that non-essential movement of leisure boats is forbidden, that was clearly the right decision.
So at the moment we don't know when (or even if) we'll be boating this year. It's back to doing a list of DIY jobs, so at the moment Ian is painting the railings in the garden and Helen was last seen spring cleaning. And Spring is certainly here. We are just back from our daily exercise walk and have seen lesser celandine, forget-me-not, white violets, borage all in flower. We've even had some small tortoiseshell butterflies in the garden in the last few days.
So be careful, stay healthy and we'll be back on the waterways when we can.
Saturday, 28 March 2020
Monday, 2 March 2020
Canal cruising plans for 2020
We're now into March and thinking of spring and summer after a month of lots of rain and even more wind.
Our plans were to set off about mid April and aim first for the Basingstoke Canal which so far we've not managed to get to the end of with Leo. This is due to its persistent lack of water in the summer. I say "our plans were" because that aim may be frustrated by the need to get some outside jobs done on the house all of which need warm and dry weather. At present we are at the stage of getting estimates and dates for these jobs but it may be that one or more of these jobs might frustrate our plans. We have to make a decision on this by the end of this month when our present mooring contract ends.
Assuming we get down the Grand Union and up the Basingstoke we will still be having a rest from boating in early June for a couple of weeks when Helen's brother arrives from overseas to spend some time with us, but not on the boat.
So we'll see what happens but there will be entries on this blog sometime this year, so keep an eye open for this.
Our plans were to set off about mid April and aim first for the Basingstoke Canal which so far we've not managed to get to the end of with Leo. This is due to its persistent lack of water in the summer. I say "our plans were" because that aim may be frustrated by the need to get some outside jobs done on the house all of which need warm and dry weather. At present we are at the stage of getting estimates and dates for these jobs but it may be that one or more of these jobs might frustrate our plans. We have to make a decision on this by the end of this month when our present mooring contract ends.
Assuming we get down the Grand Union and up the Basingstoke we will still be having a rest from boating in early June for a couple of weeks when Helen's brother arrives from overseas to spend some time with us, but not on the boat.
So we'll see what happens but there will be entries on this blog sometime this year, so keep an eye open for this.
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