Well, we completed all of the things we had to do in Warwick. It's been a busy week, we saw lots of friends and ate too much food, as we always do when we go back to Warwick. But it's so nice to be welcomed back by friends who miss us, and to catch up with all of the news. Yesterday, we moved as far as Tesco, all of two miles. The plan was to shop and then go through Leamington Spa and moor up in the country. But whilst we were shopping in Tesco, we met another good friend, and she came on board for a couple of hours, by which time it was too late to start out again. So we stayed on the Tesco mooring overnight. We lit the fire, it was quite chilly, and we kept it in overnight.

Friday, 30th September
The last day of September. Phew! The days and weeks have passed quickly this year. The boat was lovely and warm this morning, with the stove staying in overnight. It's a funny time of year. It's too cold not to have a fire in the evening, but we swelter in the day. Trev went to Tesco for his mega breakfast and then we were off.

We got as far as Leamington Spa and then stopped again. I needed a new hot water bottle! Mine had leaked last night, and the bed was very damp this morning! I found a very natty little number at a chemists, in a snazzy check cover. I have a hot water bottle even in the summer.....

Saturday, 1st October
Our first visitor arrived today. It was Gail. She was our right hand when we ran the guest house. Without her help, I think we would probably have left the guest house sooner. She was so reliable and thorough, she made a great difference to our lives. She arrived with flowers and cake and kisses! She calls me her second mum, and she certainly feels like a daughter to me. She decided she would stay overnight, so we had a good day with her.

It's good to have a young person around, mostly we mix with people of our own age and so it was like a breath of fresh air. One thing we did was to cut Trev's hair! Well, I do always cut his hair, quite often out on the towpath if it's fine, much to the amusement of passers by! Though we always make sure we do that well away from anywhere we might meet someone we know! But I had bought some electric clipper thingies and was reluctant to try them, in case I gave him a Mohican! Between us we managed quite a presentable style, there's only one place where there's a bit of a hole! We started on the back, so that if it was awful he wouldn't see!

Sunday, 2nd October
Gail left this morning, and then Rachel and Nigel came for coffee. At lunch time friend Roger came to pick us up and take us to lunch with him and his wife Shelagh. We had a lovely lunch and passed a very pleasant few hours with them and their dog BenBilly, who thinks he's a person....... Shelagh said it was BenBilly who had chosen that we ate chicken for lunch, as it is his favourite! They brought us back to the boat, and we stayed moored up in the same place.

Monday, 3rd October
Isn't our progress slow? We shouldn't complain, the only reason it is slow is because so many friends want to see us, so we count ourselves very lucky. Today, Lesley & Pete came to see us! Lesley is another friend from school days, she lives in Canada, and is over for a month with her husband, visiting relations. On October 19th, Lesley, Catharine (the postman) Hazel (whom I met last week for the first time since I was nineteen) and I are all having a night away on York. What fun that will be. We just need that fifth friend. I looked her up on the internet and did find two people with the same name, but sadly neither of them was her. I got a response from one person who said she wasn't even born when we all left the sixth form!

Lesley, Pete, Trev and I all went for lunch at the Stag at Offchurch, and enjoyed each other's company very much. They have a 28' sail boat in which they have crossed from mainland USA to The Bahamas. Now that's serious stuff! I've had a hankering to sail all round the Med, after reading Paul Theroux's "Pillars of Hercules". So they have invited us to go over next year and they will teach us to sail........... Not across the Atlantic to the Bahamas, I hasten to add, but on the lake in front of their house! That should show me whether I can tackle the Med.

Tuesday, 4th October
On the move again, at last! After four nights at Radford Road Bridge, we're itching to be gone. We offloaded five bags of rubbish at the BW skips at Radford Bottom Lock, and then set off through the locks. Through the Fosse Locks, where we pumped out the loo and took on water, on through Wood Lock, Welsh Road Lock and Bascote Locks, eventually mooring up out in the country, with only the distant hum of the main road between Coventry and Banbury to break the silence.

Wednesday, 5th October
Today we went through the Stockton Flight of locks and in to Calcutt marina. We're staying here for four nights as we've been invited to stay with boating friends for a couple of nights. We met Sheridan and Ron when we were doing the Caen Hill flight of locks on the Kennet & Avon canal last summer. We travelled all up the flight with them. That's quite a bonding process! By the time you get to the top, you know all about each other! Then we met them again this summer on the Thames. They aren't live aboards like us, and have a house in Bedfordshire.

So we had arranged with Calcutt marina to leave Liberty Belle there for four nights. They are such nice people at Calcutt, very much "can do" people, rather than the sort who make sharp intakes of breath when you ask for something! They fitted us in, even though it was a squash for them.

Whilst we were there, we were fascinated to see how they get a boat out of the water. Up to now, we've only seen them craned in and out, or put in to a dock and the plug pulled out so that the dock slowly empties. But at Calcutt it's far more exciting! They have a tractor and a very long trailer which is attached to the front of the tractor. The tractor pushes the trailer as far as it dares down the slipway and someone steers the boat straight on to it. The steerer keeps the engine going "Full Speed Ahead" as the tractor pulls it out of the water and the boat comes to rest on the trailer and is pulled up the slipway. All very clever and so easy! It's all over in five minutes. As the men said, you just have to hold your nerve!

Putting the boat back in the water is pretty much the same in reverse. the boat goes down at quite an angle, and looks as though it's going to go under, and then suddenly it floats away!

Thursday, 6th, Friday, 7th, & Saturday, 8th October
Ron came to fetch us in the early afternoon, and took us back to his house. We had a wonderful couple of days with them, we were spoilt rotten! I even had two baths.........They brought us back to our boat on Saturday afternoon. Sheridan and Ron are having a Dutch Barge built, and it will be ready next October. It will be 60' long and 12'6" wide, quite a vessel. They plan to cruise the Thames with it for a while and will then probably take it to France. If they do go to France, they will sail it across the Channel, with the assistance of a pilot. That's all jolly exciting, isn't it? After they had left, it started to rain and so we stayed in the Marina until the following morning.

Sunday, 9th October
We set off again, this time as far as Braunston. We went through the three Calcutt Locks, and turned left at Wigram's Turn. There is a new marina here, with about two hundred private boats, as well as a Black Prince hire boat fleet. This whole area is fast becoming swamped with boats. Calcutt marina has permission for ninety more moorings, Ventnor Farm Marina is doubling in size. It's all incredibly busy and we had to take our turn to turn left at Wigram's Turn there were boats coming from all directions.

Now the more observant of my readers will have noticed that I've got a bit out of sync with my dates. This is what happens when we become social animals instead of boaters! The days just flow in to each other. Hopefully I shall get it back on the straight and narrow soon.

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