Wednesday 9 July 2014

A near stranding! But home safely in the end.

Saturday 5th July.

After last night’s rain the weather is again hot and dry.  Willowtree is a lovely mooring – there’s a large expanse of sports pitches and patches of woodland over the ridge.

willowtree open space 2

We started after 10 as we intended to get diesel at the marina wharf, but unfortunately today they are not opening till the afternoon.  I did finally get a good picture of one of the lovely mosaics along the canal though;

1 bling mural at willowtree wharf

Luckily as we pushed off we thought to check where the dog was – she had jumped off again and was sniffing around, totally unaware she was being left behind!  Here she is waiting for us. 

2 castaway at willowtree

However, what with the strong wind and the shallow edge it was several minutes before we could get back to her and she was very subdued once she got back on board.  Heaven knows where she might have got to if we hadn’t noticed her absence for a while.

We got to Packet Boat marina without further incident.  Luckily the wharf is sheltered from the wind and our mooring was very nearby, so Dave had no trouble getting us safely moored up.  We watched a coot we thought might be building a nest on the ladder at the end of the next pontoon.  It kept pulling the weeds around, slapping its blue feet on them – a very odd noise which alerted us to its presence in the first place – then calling, as if to advertise its wares.  We’ll see if s/he has had any success when we are back in the marina in a couple of weeks, when we will be starting our journey northwards – more new waters for us!

5 and a half miles

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