New Mooring for Epiphany

This a long post as it covers 3 days! No pictures today because I am on limited mobile Internet connection!

Arrived at the Marina on Thursday lunch time – looked to see if Epiphany had been moved to her new mooring and no, she was being moved in the afternoon! I off loaded, we always seem to have a boot full of stuff to bring up and began to potter.

The sun was shining, no wind and everything was how it should be! It was so lovely to be back and my sister was joining me on Good Friday. Alex (from the marina) and I moved Epiphany to her new mooring. I was quite proud of myself, as it was the first time I had manoeuvred her in the marina. It is a tight squeeze to get past the residential moorings and I managed it without touching at all. It took a few backward and forwards to get her into the new space, but again I managed without bumping. There was no wind so I didn’t have to worry about the boat acting like a big sail.

I moored her bows in, as I did not want to tempt fate and reverse in. We plan to be bows out once we have been out after the weekend as then we have a view of the marina, not the bank and the chandlery!

I gave up on positioning the sat dish, as it is more difficult without someone inside telling me what is happening on the TV! So I spent a relaxing evening cooking and reading and turned in fairly early.

I planned to be up to see the canoes pass the marina. So Friday morning the Webasto came on at 6.20. It acts as an alarm as it is quite noisy when it starts up! I kept a look out but must have missed the race passing, as I was ready for breakfast by 7.30! So no photos, but I gather it did start and must have passed at some time. I decided I wouldn’t bother for the Saturday start!

My sister, Lois, arrived Friday lunchtime, having got stuck in the traffic caused by a pile up on the M3. By which time I had swept and washed the floor, washed the windows outside, cleaned of the bird s***, and wiped off the paintwork. All was looking spic and span to show off!

The weather was so lovely we took the car to the Caen flight and walked down and up and then down to the café again. I was surprised that there were so few boats. Only 2 going up and a broad beam Dutch barge going down. Maybe the hire boats hadn’t arrived yet or most were being picked up today for the Easter week. We got the sat signal sorted and had TV in the evening. So we can watch sport and Dr Who. I am the Who fan – David Tennant is my almost best Doctor! Actually probably equal with Hartnell and Baker!

So to what we do today! The weather is a bit cooler, but still sunny. We decided to go into Marlborough to do some window-shopping and have lunch. It was fairly busy, no room for on-street parking, but lots of room in the car park.

Lois is looking for curtain material and we popped into Laura Ashley. I spotted some I thought would be great in her new flat. Expensive of course, but reduced in the sale. It was too busy to ask an assistant so she will look again in her local shop. Anyway there may be other materials she likes.

We were both rather tired so decided that the call of live Davis Cup tennis was too strong and came back to watch it and relax! Maybe the mix of old and new players will get us back into the World group we dropped out of last time. So here we are talking to the telly – ooing and aahing. Both of us were keen tennis players in our “youth” and played for our school. The last time I played tennis was about 6 years ago. BJ has played more recently but at a more sedate pace than he used to. He has a terrifying serve being so tall!

Talking of BJ. He is coming up tomorrow so we will be off out of the marina either in the evening or more likely on Monday morning. Lois is off home tomorrow. Now shw knows what a narrowboat is like, next time she comes we will give her a real taste of life afloat out on the Kennet and Avon canal. I will blog again once we get out cruising.