Summer Tiiiiime and the livin is easyyyyyy...

Well we all know the tune but if not - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDOEsQL7lA but this one by Ella and Louis has gota be the best version. 

The xc weather forecast shows that we may expect cloud in the Atherstone area by Friday next week J

First me then Deb then the weather had the briefest of showers this morning  before the clouds started to burn off to leave a warm, blowy summers day.

First port of call was the water point about one hundred feet away to fill up the tanks. We have used less than half this week and haven’t been too careful with it which is good news. We cleaned the mud off the bikes at the same time as the water pressure was quite powerful and the wharf was paved. 

Water and bike cleaning point

We used the same water point last year on Sarah Louise and it still leaks! Disappointing really as this place could easily be one of the highlights of the Coventry canal. It boasts easy access to town, good visitor moorings and the old boat yard. Harts hill boatyard has some of the old buildings up for lease. With the canal and rivers trust now in charge of the system (British waterways is no more) there is a great opportunity for someone here. The wharf is looking sorry for itself at the moment though, but a bit of brickwork on the yards entrance, some heavy weeding and a spanner for the leaking water point should see it acceptable in no more than a long weekend.

Part of the old boat yard

Maybe I’ll email the charity and offer to sell them some hours of labour where needed for a reduction in my waterways licence! The area will look better, more visitors will arrive and I will save a few quid on fees, who is to lose?

It was a short voyage to an open sunny point between the edge of Mancetter and Atherstone. Quite quiet on the cut with only a few boats out, more expected later though as the hirers make their way away from the boatyards through the suburbs into the Warwickshire countryside.

Wider, more open parts of the Coventry - a contrast to the Ashby

A new day a new view!

We left the bongo clean and polished at the last mooring point with only a few miles to cycle back to pick up. The advert on eBay is getting a lot of hits (and a few watchers) but the only emails have been from scammers wanting to pay through PayPal. PayPal is secure enough to buy/sell something small but they are quite slow in responding if purchases have been made fraudulently. A buyer can pay using dodgy cash, as soon as you see it in your account, hand over the keys and V5 only for PayPal to put a hold on your account a day or so later! I’ve changed the listing to cash only on collection and deleted my email address. If we don’t get what we want for it this week it will have to go back in as a straight auction with a low reserve, either way we should be cycling our ten miles every other day or so away from the canal to really get to know an area not up and down the same bit to pick up the van. 

The next time we move will be down through Atherstone flight of locks so I will have to get the video camera charged ready. Eleven in total but spaced out towards the end so we might do an overnighter between the latter ones.