Friday 19 June thru Thursday 25 June 2020

So, living in a Marina is very different to living out on the cut. The marina gives you the luxury of everything on tap whereas out on the cut, you’re lucky if anything comes out of your tap! We have a home, it’s long and thin and there are compromises that have to be made but by and large, it’s pretty much like being in a house. We will, at some point move onto the canal system and travel but for now, we are loving the freedom of not moving anywhere – Marina Days.

Friday

We travel because we have the luxury of a car and went back to the West Country for a day, to collect a package that got sent to the wrong address. Friday was my non-working day, a luxury.

Saturday

Saturday saw me performing socially distanced queuing to get into Waitrose (yes, they let me in). I also spoke with the Marina regarding a small bit of welding that needs to be done. The water tank breather pipe has a hole that needs fixing, so I don’t have to sit there watching the tank being filled. Currently, if I don’t, the forward well deck gets filled with water. Someone will come along and evaluate it at some point.

Pirates loom heavily at the moment, as I’m attempting to write a story – The Tales of Silverdale – A Pirate Ship In Dark Waters (you can check it out on Ko-fi), we watched Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest. It’s research.

Sunday

Sunday saw me release Piece 3 of The Tales of Silverdale – A Pirate Ship In Dark Waters – you can read on our Ko-fi page. We then visited Wilton Marina Cafe for a Vegetarian Breakfast, sat out in the sun. Mu got the final quarter of the saloon masked and washed down in readiness for painting. We then walked to the local farm fruit & veg shop for provisions. I then managed to start my Lego Yellow Submarine. We finished the day watching Breaking Bad.

Monday

Monday I was back to work (remotely). I emptied the loo at the Elsan point. The hi-light of the day (no, emptying the loo wasn’t) was that the money for the Makita Multi-tool that wasn’t the Multi-tool had been refunded (see All the Gear, No Idea) – Hooray!

Tuesday

Tuesday was fully back into working remotely. I bought milk from the marina chandlery to support local. We went for a walk along the canal, to The Heart of the Shires, a shopping village outlet in the heart of the Northamptonshire countryside. It was hot, very hot. There was a little shade with the trees but not a lot. We bought a knife for cutting tomatoes and cucumber – Victorinox (ignore the fact that it says cheese and sausage – it’s great for tomatoes and cucumber) at the Abraxas Cookshop. I was fed up with using the bread knife.

We also had an ice cream from the Darlington’s Tea Room there. It had opened for takeaway. It was very good and there was lots of it. A good antidote to the sun. We walked back (no cooler) and had a cup of tea sat out on Silverdale. It had ended up being an idyllic day.

Wednesday

Wednesday. It was very hot again. We’re not complaining. It was another of those Marina Days but I went shopping in Daventry which required the car. It was 31 degrees. I complained about that.

Thursday

Thursday. It was very hot. I know, it’s getting a bit samey. There were ducks tho’. We had the windows open, the doors open, the parasol (which we found in the top box on the roof of the boat) up, water in the fridge and no hot meal. It worked. This was also the first week of work completed and it had gone well.

Marina Days – this is the way we roll in the Shire…

rp – peace and narrowboats