So on Friday night, we were fully expecting to be disturbed by those beasties mooing but they were good as gold. Not a peep! But early Saturday morning the farmer fired the tractor into life and those Heifers and Bullocks started up their incessant mooing again. No point in trying to get back to sleep, might just as well get up.
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| The first mooring opposite the farm on the left and we eventually pulled back to where the red boat was. |
This has to be a wind-up...doesn't it?
Our planned stop was to be at Leighton Buzzard but the heavens opened before we got there. Not a gentle drizzle but a sudden deluge and boy did we get wet! Managed to pull over but by the time FS was 'sort of' secure (tied up so quickly, ropes were that loose it's a wonder we didn't drift away) not an inch of us was dry!
Finally, the rain stopped and we could move on. Found a lovely rural spot not far from Tesco. No overhanging trees over FS, thank goodness, because looking up I spied a Heron. Can you imagine the size of poop on the cabin top if it had decided to evacuate its bowels and we had been in its line of fire! Yuk!!!
There was a downside to that mooring. It didn't have the best reception area for TV or internet so this morning we moved to almost the same spot we moored in a week ago. Must have been all of a quarter of a mile, not enough to even get the engine warm, but the bank height was good for work Ian wanted to do on the gunwale and I fancied exploring the area.
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| . Wyvern hire boats nearly all out. Far cry from last weekend |
Thought I'd make the most of the early stop and wash the sides and cabin top. Just rinsing the side when a wide beam came past with a canoeist following close behind. Then for no reason that I could see the canoeist just fell in!
Managing to get himself back into the canoe he headed in our direction. Of course, I had to ask what had happened. His reply was this was drenching number 3! It was a replacement for his old canoe but he wondered if he had done the right thing as he felt most unstable in it. I wonder how long before drenching number 4 will occur!
A quick question. These planes came overhead. Anyone know what they are? Ian thinks one may be a Hurrican. Thanks to a comment from Tom nb waiouru, the plane in front he believes is a P51 Mustang and the second is a Hawker Hurrican
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| Hawker Hurrican |
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| P51 Mustang |
Ian set to once I had finished to get rid of all the antislip. Scrapped the stuff from the gunwale and a massive amount of rust was found to be underneath so fertan used to neutralise it. At one point a loud expletive was heard when he dropped the scraper down the side of FS. Trusty sea magnet to the rescue and at the first sweep, up it came.
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| Fishing for the scraper |
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| Camera shy Kestral |
4 comments:
I agree with Ian's observation that the aircraft is a Hawker Hurricane. I think the second aircraft might be a P51 Mustang.
Thanks, Tom, I'll amend the post and put that on the blog.
Hi, my wife bought to my attention your Aylesbury Arm blogg 'Pain in the proverbial'. I raised this as an issue with CaRT and can post this feedback , received today;
"
Dave, thank you - I can certainly appreciate the concerns and the frustrations! The blog pictures are really very helpful.
I am taking these concerns to the team to assess the actions required – mainly re prioritising of budgets and winter plans to address the issues.
Now the teams are back out and about on planned maintenance I’m sure they can deal with some of that nuisance veg– like those brambles on the lock approach for instance that can be cut back on their way through.
Kind Regards Daniel Barnett, Contract Manager, London & South East Region"
Regards, Dave Chapman, Chair, IWA Chiltern Branch, IWA Deputy National Chair, Trustee
Thank you, Dave, for bringing this to CRT. We have travelled down the Aylesbury many a time in the years gone by and lack of water has always been a problem. The weed though had never been an issue and judging by comments from others, this isn't a recent occurrence. I appreciate that Covid hasn't helped matters and for the first 4 months (and the main growing season)nothing could be done but now social distancing on the waterways is doable. More weed cutters and scoopers would help.
I'm very glad that my photos have helped, just goes to show that 'seeing; the problems could be the way forward and maybe more should be sent to head office from different waterways.
Regards Irene
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