Dredging the Ashby..

Yes they are! but only the bank side, not the middle bit where we all travel! We did our bit for the working boat gathering at Shackerton this week, and helped to shift the dirt in the middle to the newly dredged inside! With K2's 30" draft, we bumped and bounced our way up to the terminus and back again, with an overnight stop at Battlefields, and a superb mooring right in the middle of the canal! - nope the picture below is not K2 underway, but safely tied up for the night!!! Wouldn't like to be any heavier in a boat and butty arrangement! Still, it is such a beautiful canal, and Dad and I enjoyed the trip, and the views and history of this fantastic canal to no-where.

Wasn't the weather weird? Rain, and the faversham burning away, then hot and sunny, then cloudy and cold.... were never sure what to wear!

The top of the Ashby has been extended - by 50yards! A new stop lock has been put in, ready for the extension to be dug to connect a few more miles up, anyone got £14.2M to complete it? Of course it wasn't helped by the English Nature people, who insisted on a £125k ditch to be dug, and filled with water for "nature" to happen. (if you look hard you can see it to our st'bord) Hang on - the whole 20 odd miles of the Ashby is a "ditch" waiting for nature to happen - why dig a seperate one? Sometimes government quango's are a complete and utter waste of money, divorced totally from any reality of life, and as a result waste peoples money. (did I say "sometimes"? I haven't found a quango that hasn't been that yet - unellected, useless beurocrats, that waste our money on nothing.....)

Anyway, rant over - and so is the cruise. As K2 rests back on the timber of the pontoon she sits on, no doubt telling the tale of shallow canals, mud and odd moorings to Gleemaiden, Nerus and Helva. Arrival home via a refuelling stop alongside Ghosty Hill somewhere north of Sutton Stop, and superbly blocking the Coventry with three abreast, and Iain and Alisons real working boat sandwiched between two "customers" and a totally uneventful trip along the North Oxford. What next? K2 is back to being an office.

This is your captain - that's all...

Funny funny....

Strange going back to K2 these days.. Whenever I arrive there Gleemaiden is all locked up, curtains drawn and no flowers and plants bristling from her. No more the cheery greeting from her crew, and the yarning of trips out and marina happenings - instead the silence of a boat left for shore leave.
Oh well, it happens to us all, and the marina is now refilling with the boats that have been out throughout the summer, and are now venturing in, as the sun comes out....
Neil and Ruth have returned from their big ship excursion, raving about cruises, and promptly set off on one of their own. Have to say Neil, the expert return in that howling gale was a master of seamanship - you didn't see the 3 previous boats sailing sideways down the marina as they attempted to dock !!

Phew!!

July was a mad month! - I guess you know that as there have been no posts at all... for ages.

3 weeks on board K2 - using her as home base and office centre, whilst enjoying the boating life, showing the canal systems to Colleagues from New Zealand, and negotiating new contracts. Here's Jonathan enjoying the idea of steering K2 through the ditches, instead of a yacht out of Christchurch!

Finally, woosh - off to the sun. Well, I knew Andy was going out cruising, so decided to keep clear of the UK. Destination Cyprus for a couple of weeks for sun, sand and sea, and I worried about immigration control when arriving back home, as my skin colour didn't match the passport picture!

Great time though, and now after 5+ weeks, life can begin to settle back into reality again!! Who knows what August will bring! It started in the sun, homeless, and with an embryonic business, let's see how it ends.