'Au Revoir.' Till we meet again

Saturday 9th September

 Today's temperature was predicted to be 30 degree plus. That's hot and not something any of us wanted to be out in. It was bad enough last night, sleep was almost impossible. All four of us were for once at one with each other. Up early and by 8 am we were on our way to Hillmorton. 

FS was lead boat, our plan was to wind below the bottom lock, stop at a mooring and help M&D up the flight. There was one last job for Ian to do before we could say our final goodbyes, reseal two of the port side windows. 

 

And heading toward us.....

The plan was to go on the offside between the locks and for Ian to complete the task there. What we hadn't bargained for was the tall undergrowth obscuring the sides and making it difficult to moor up to.

  It was achieved, though, by my throwing the centre rope to Ian and for him to position the boat in such way that the windows could be easily reached. (I had grabbed a lift with Marilyn at the last lock) Pins were knocked in and while cheese scones were made by Marilyn and also multitasking by preparing bread dough for themselves and us (thank you, Marilyn) Ian proceeded to remove the multitude of screws holding the windows in place.

David knocking pins in

David and I had a task too, fix the window catches to the hopper windows with double-sided tape. Gosh that was difficult! Have you ever tried peeling off the paper to reveal the sticky side that attaches to the catches. It was a nightmare, even with my nails I struggled to remove it. Ian heard my moaning, came inside, took hold of the paper, tore a small section off and the sticky part was revealed. Hmm... I could really hate that man sometimes!

 Tea drunk and Cheese scones devoured and pins pulled to leave for the lock. 

 

By now Waka Huia was at an angle. One big problem with mooring in between locks, the water starts to disappear from the pound every time a lock full of water is drawn. I walked up to ask the lockkeeper to let down a lock full of water, he agreed but said he wouldn't do it before he knew Waka Huia was ready to leave, Blast no phone with me...how to get the message across. David though, had it all in hand. With the boat pole against Waka Huia's bow, gave an almighty push and Waka Huia slid off the silt and into deeper water, righting herself with some force and making those on board hang on for dear life!

On the way to the last lock Ian took the helm, would he get it into the lock without touching the sides?

Apparently yes!! David gave him a 10 out of 10.

So this was the time for them to leave. Having ascended the last lock, Ian brought Waka Huia to a standstill at the first available visitor mooring.

Then out came the scissors and a quick tweak to the haircut Marilyn had given me a few days ago (the back needed more off) The hugs were long, a few shed tears and we watched and waved as they sailed off into the morning sun.

Our footsteps were heavy as we returned to FS, although plans on returning to England some day to see family are in the pipeline and we still have plans to view NZ in the winter. Quite when is still up in the air so we didn't say goodbye, just 'Au Revoir' or until we meet again. 

Once back at FS we moved to where we thought was a nice shady spot. Well it was when we arrived but the sun didn't disappear behind the hedge as we thought so by 4 pm we were sweltering! Anyway Marilyn as a parting gift had given me bread dough to cook in the oven. In it went for 30 minutes and came out looking amazing.

 

 I went outside to for a brief moment, hoping it may be cooler and noticed a hire boat right across the canal. Speeding boats ( and we had many) must have dislodged the cladding pin because when we did eventually manage to bring it back to the bank, it was still attached to the rope.

We had talked about leaving really early...doing a Marilyn and David...what we had forgotten was our diesel tank had to be topped up.  At Clifton Cruisers the price was a £1 a litre, silly then to sail right past at that price. So now we plan to leave by 8.30 am, get diesel and make for Old Oaks Wood as tomorrow's  stopping place...with shade of course as the outside temperature will be one degree less that today!