Friday 6th July 2007
Stafford Boat Club - Tixall Wide (4¾ miles, 1 lock)
We had owned Sophie-Jane No.2 for more than two months and none of our children had seen her yet. Our main holiday in August this year will be with Lucy, Robert and Rosemary joining us for the first week around the Four Counties Ring and then Jen and I will continue down to Gayton Junction and the new Blisworth Marina.
We had invited Lucy and her boyfriend Ollie to come on the boat for the weekend so that Lucy could report back to her two younger siblings and try and persuade Rosemary that the holiday in August was something to look forward to. At fifteen years old, Rosemary is struggling to understand her parents' obsession with narrowboats - while we struggle to comprehend her love of horses, although we grudgingly admit that it's the best way to see the deer and other wildlife in the New Forest.
Lucy and Ollie came with us to a concert on Thursday evening and we travelled up to Stafford afterwards thinking that the traffic would be minimal at that time of night. What we didn't realise was that several stretches of motorway would be closed for overnight maintenance, so we didn't arrive at the boat until about 1:30am.
We got up fairly late on Friday morning and battled against the gusting wind to escape from the Boat Club mooring. Ollie had never been on a narrowboat before and Lucy was trying to explain how to operate Tixall Lock, but he was confused by the ambiguous instructions from the loud woman on the hireboat coming up the lock. Safely through, we moored at Tixall Wide and went on our usual 4½ mile walk, stopping at the same old café for coffee and cake.
I set up the satellite dish so we could watch the Women's Final at Wimbledon, but the wind was now even stronger with powerful gusts and no matter how tight the bolts were I had to keep rushing out to re-align the dish. The joys of modern technology....
We walked into Great Haywood in the evening and ate at the Clifford Arms. The restaurant area was full, so we sat in the bar, which had been smoke-free for a whole five days. At last some action from the Nanny State that I actually agree with.
Saturday 7th July 2007
Tixall Wide - Sandon Lock - Salt Bridge (7½ miles, 4 locks)
Jen & I got up reasonably early and took the boat down to the water-point at Great Haywood Junction while Lucy and Ollie slept. They managed to drag themselves out of bed to operate Hoo Mill Lock and then we moored for breakfast. Ollie had announced a few days earlier that he had become a vegetarian shortly before the end of term at university, but the smell of bacon proved too much for him. I have no comment to make about non-meat-eaters.
We winded at Sandon and were back at Salt in time for excellent ploughman's lunches at the Holly Bush Inn. Then it was time to set up the satellite dish in time for the Wimbledon Men's Final.
Jen had prepared a delicious beef stew for tea, with plenty of extra meat for Ollie...
Sunday 8th July 2007
Salt Bridge - Stafford Boat Club (10¼ miles, 3 locks)
We had breakfast after a short lie-in and then it was time to leave to get back to Stafford, stopping past Milford to eat our lunch sitting on the towpath. The weather had been better than anticipated, bearing in mind that this is the wettest summer since the year 937BC.
We plan to return in three weeks time with Jeannine and Tony, Jen's sister and brother-in-law, who have spent a couple of weekends with us on Hawksmoor and Tanglewood.