Duties completed

 September 1st

 It's done....our grandparents 'babysitting duties' (more teenage sitting) are over for this year, next grandparent duties doggie sitting is yet to come, in October to be precise! But this will be a more one-sided affair. We tell the dog what to do and she does it with no questions asked! Shame we can't apply the same thing to our grandsons! A deaf ear is often shown especially when it comes to doing the chores! But wait...I'm being harsh....it was a joy to spend time with them and we had some very intelligent conversations with the eldest, (14) mainly about gaming but if that's what holds the interest.....  and the younger was excellent in playing games, he was ruthless when it came to UNO! I expect sooner rather than later we won't be needed any more, the boys are growing up rapidly and they certainly won't want to have two old fogies looking after them. That will be a sad day for us both when that time comes!

So with our daughter arriving back from work early armed with our shopping, we set off about 4 pm. Our plan was to reach Market Bosworth, a good two-hour cruise away. But conditions with low water, meeting boats at bridge oles and having to wait because of being told of a procession of boats all about to come through one after another, meant more of a delay than we wanted, and it turned out we knew the boat owners of the second boat. None other than Paul and Vivee Barber boat builders and repairers on the Erewash Canal.

So we waited and waited for the third boat to appear for what seemed like ages, as he came through he also mentioned a procession of boats, we groaned loudly enough for the skipper to hear but then said they were quite far back and if we got a wiggle, would have time to get through.

The fourth boat in the procession was well over a mile behind that third boat. Good grief...can you imagine if we had stayed at the bridge and waited we could still be wondering what had kept them.

  And finally the last boat arrived a good 10 minutes later. We asked if they were all going to the Globe, a nod to confirm, and we mentioned the moorings there were plentiful.  

Another hold-up at bridge 47 but this time the moored boats and oncoming boat caused a real pinch point. Reeds also encroached the channel, it was very difficult for FS to pass. What didn't help was the boat moored right by the bridge 'ole. Had this boater no sense?  But then realised this was actually a designated 48 hour mooring! Someone wasn't thinking straight when the mooring rings were put in all those years ago! Not a place we would have stopped, how much sideswiping could we have endured!

 

It was well past 5.30 pm when we decided to stop. Market Bosworth was 2.5 miles away, and dinner still had to be made, I didn't really want to start cooking at 6.30pm. There was a good length of mooring near to Congerstone so we pulled over not expecting to get anywhere near to the side, but surprise surprise we almost got in right next to the Armco. Hardly any silt issues so that did us nicely. It will probably be an early getaway tomorrow, we hope to be off the Ashby before late afternoon, 

And this cricket landed on Ian's arm, hopped off to land of the hatch slide where I rescued it and let it loose on the reeds as we cruised past.