Well, we were blessed with the weather today! Not as bitterly raw as yesterday and plenty of blue sky dotted with clouds. I am realising that the daily weather reports are essential for our decision making as to how far we move the boat if at all. Our new best friend, Ra, a delightful and chatty companion along the way shared most of the locks with us today. So in sync did we become, we actually entered two of the locks tethered together! We had had to wait as another boat, a widebeam, went up the lock before us (twice) and as space was tight, the safest option both times was to wait parallel to Ra’s boat, tied together. The boats get rocked around by the flow of water coming out of the lock when it is emptying and this can prove to be a bit hairy if there is also a weir close by as I found to my cost today. R was operating a lock and I was waiting, holding the boat by its midrope, at the canalside. However the force of the water was pulling our boat away from me and I had to exert a lot of strength, on a muddy bank, to prevent it drifting not only in to the middle of the canal (a potential disaster with neither of us aboard) but also into the boat moored just a little further downstream. A passing jogger came to the rescue as he helped me pull the boat safely to the side in the nick of time! I am discovering muscles I never knew I had! All became well with the world when Ra appeared, having left his boat briefly as we were waiting for the lock to clear, to buy four jam donuts. Not an indulgence I normally allow myself but today it was just what I needed. All that jammy loveliness!
We moored outside the Fishery Cafe, which I mentioned in an earlier blog as a great place for al fresco dining up until 3pm! Having got my hopes up for an excellent takeaway coffee in the morning, they were dashed by a lady telling me the cafe is closed until the end of January!
Oh the joys of boating life! One end of the boat is damp with condensation, leading to a damp mattress, whilst at the other end, we heard a loud rattle this evening and saw that several tiles have come away from the bulkhead, probably caused by the heat of the stove over many years leading to dried out tiling glue. Am hoping it won’t prevent us being able to use the stove as I am not sure the radiators alone are effective enough for 1°temperatures! These are just the normal challenges of being on a narrowboat mid winter!
We met the street entertainer, P, again as his widebeams are moored nearby. He had spent a lonely couple of days over Christmas and had hoped for some good TV but said he was disappointed, so I think it was not a very festive time for him. When we last met he was hopeful that he had managed to sell one of his widebeams but that has fallen through and he is not able to find another purchaser until we come out of T4 . All very worrying for him. As Ra’s boat was moored next to P’s I introduced them to one another and went off in search of a postbox. I saw they were still nattering (socially distanced!) on my return 15 minutes later. Good to know I haven’t lost my networking skills amidst these restrictive times!
Travelling garden 
Heron on the bank
NarrowboatTLC 