Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 19:15:20 +0100 From: Ann Harvey Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Amos's August hols - Part 1 [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] As everyone seems to have been away and those with laptops and mobile access have been keeping up the list for the last couple of weeks, now might be the right time to begin my trip report too. I'll try to keep it brief. (I know - that'll be a first :-) Thanks to those who have been sending reports of their trips, I enjoyed them and look forward to the rest. FRIDAY 11 AUGUST The weather has become hot and sunny and humid ^Ö Harvey weather! We left home at 3.00 pm and after a quick detour to the butcher in Wallheath we unpacked and started the engine at 4.20 pm. We tried towing Koinonia (our friends Patrick and Penny's boat) backwards out of the marina, but inexperience made a hash of this, though we got them halfway out. They had to do the rest by themselves by the tried and tested method of poleing. At Greensforge lock we all took on water, and then stopped at Swindon for fish and chips. We were just finishing our tea after this meal and getting ready to move on when Lost Diamonds came toot tooting round the corner. They proposed to join us for the weekend, so they came on up to the Round Oak with us. We all spent the evening in the pub garden and when it got late and cold we retired to the family room in the pub, which was heaving upstairs. We had a really good time and a good omen for the holiday ahead. SATURDAY 12 AUGUST I made tea for 7.30 am on a misty morning. The weather forecast is for another hot day, so when the mist burns off we can expect to be rather warm again. It was difficult to wake Ken. We set off after bidding farewell to Pat and Tom (Les and Ann still asleep) on Lost Diamonds, at 8.30 am. We got split up (by other boats setting off between Koinoina and us) but waited at Compton for them, where they had a loo pump out and took on diesel. We then continued and arrived at Calf Heath at 4.30 pm. The visitor moorings were full so we moved across to the other side of the bridge on the towpath side. During these manoeuvres, Patrick^Òs parasol took off in a gust of wind. I was holding onto the centre rope of Amos and couldn^Òt help. Ken struggled with the pole and made heavy weather of navigating my lounger on the foredeck but he managed to rescue the parasol. The weather has been glorious and we sat out on the towpath eating our meals and drinking bubbly. We now rather prefer to be this side rather than on the visitor moorings. Later on we crossed by the footbridge and spent the evening in the club/pub on the marina site, enjoying ^Óhappy hour^Ô double gins, which made the bridge sway a bit on the way back. Regards Ann ---