Final Trip For Us And Lois Jane (hopefully)

Day one

Well Ernest is far from finished but we have, due to COVID, stayed an extra 6 months and moved on with the next stages of fitting.

Predominantly fitting a solar array and getting the webasto central heating system up and running. More of that (possibly, on NB Ernest blog with a bit of a catch-up "how the build went"

We were lucky enough to have been offered a lift by Peter on his monday off to get the car shuffle sorted to Weedon, I no longer politely turn down offers but avert my gaze from the mouth of the gift horse and accept.

Peter wanted to (was under pressure from his family to) get an early start so a schedule was set at 8am for us to leave and a little later for him to follow on to give us time to sort the car out. In the interim few days we set about filling the workshop up with too many things that we really haven't got the need of nor space for. Second sort out next week methinks.

With Tuesday's forecast looking dire we decided that, if we could, we'd leave monday afternoon after sorting the car and packing a few bits to take on our final trip. Just a few essentials, some clothes, some beer and some tools. After all LJ has only been started once every other month and only been over to the service point across the canal twice in fifteen months so anything could happen.

We stemmed water briefly to say hi to Jim and Sheila and exchange some multicoloured strip lights that I'd advertised on FB marketplace that Jim wanted, for some dosh and coffee, probably the last time we'll see tham this year as they're heading for Llangollen (or the Welsh as it's also known)

After an early start we were pleased to get as far as Hawkesbury Junction. Our longest day's cruising for several years at about 8 hours.

Oh and zero beats missed by LJ

Lock 11 on the Atherstone complete with heavy bracing after it fell apart (I reported it in 2018 and 2019 as well rotted)

Nearly at the top. We went further than expected but it was great weather

Some of the pounds were really low. I only got stuck in one, probably because we were full of water, light on diesel an about 3 tons of our possesions had been taken out

Lots of bailing before tonights/tomottows rain

Tied up before the pumphouse at Suttons, just before 8