Monday 7 March 2011

Like Baldric I have a cunning plan.

We have had a couple of short one-day-trips along the canal returning back to the mooring. This is to check that all is well on Rosie after the winter layup. Today, I topped up the diesel tank with fifty litres purchased at my local petrol station who also sell red diesel. The price was 89.9p per litre. There is no diesel available for canal side purchase along this stretch. So I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Last time I topped up the tank in September last year at the same station it was around 74.1p per litre. However, looking back I am glad that we avoided the option of a diesel stove. I so much prefer the solid fuel stove where we burn a bit of coal and the odd log or two.  The gas Alde central heating boiler on Rosie is not very fuel efficient. Therefore we don't use it if we can avoid it. Two 13kg gas bottles don't last long and at at £51 a pair its a consideration to make.

I am starting to plan for a possible two part cruise this year.

The Memsahib is still working (until July) and her annual leave entitlement is at a premium this year. So we will be a bit late in starting out. Easter, seems to be start of the traditional boating year. However, we will be at a family wedding on Good Friday which would have been our expected starting point. But with the usual weekend to follow plus Easter Monday and Tuesday as holidays. Then the royal wedding the following Friday, plus the second weekend. For two days of annual leave the Memsahib gets a week off. Then there is May Day, the following Monday which is another public holiday so for a further four annual leave days we get another full week.

So where to go and what to do.

We don't intend to go chasing the boating miles, but we do intend to have a very relaxing time. So we have been studying the canal maps and we thought we would do a return trip as far as York. However, we plan to have a number of stops along the way just to explore the countryside and canal side hostelries. So I would not be surprised to find that we don't actually make it all the way. One further option is to do whatever we do. Then if we run out of available time me and the dog can single hand the boat back to our home moorings

Part two will be later in the year.

In late July early August we intend to have two or three months out and about before mooring up once again until spring 2012. Our cruise will depend on the unpredictable typical British summer weather, because if the main river systems such as the Trent are in flood our choices of cruising route will be restricted.

Later....



1 comment:

  1. hi we have just started out on the cut and we have a blog for others to follow to see what and where we are doing we would like you to join us and follow us
    many thanks
    colin and tina ( nb go for it )
    http://go-for-ithobbs.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

Please put your name to your comment. Comments without a name may automatically be treated as spam and might not be included.

If you do not wish your comment to be published say so in your comment. If you have a tip or sensitive information you’d prefer to share anonymously, you may do so. I will delete the comment after reading.