Varnish day aboard and 2005 memories of NP being towed by a 4x4

Moored Norbury Junction, Shropshire Union Canal

A full day of varnishing today for me as the fitter had his day off.  I found the ceilings really hard to do as I find it really difficult to work above my shoulders.  But it was a mind over matter situation, trying to block out that I would have to do it all over again…. twice!

With everything really quite here boating wise I have been having a look back over the years at what we have been doing, and this blog looks back to 2005..

The beginning of the year was spent in Milton Keynes on the Grand Union Canal before moving south dodging the winter stoppages to take a look at London.  The pic above is of Paddington Basin, the nearest to the centre of London that we cruised to.

It was decided that we would go to East Anglia and the Fens for the spring and summer, our first of four visits to that area in the following five years.  We were very nervous once we had gone through the last of the Rothersthorpe locks that drop the canal from Gayton Junction to the River Nene, we had no idea really what to expect….

But it was wonderful, and we really did enjoy the summer… oh apart from one incident when we cruised up Burwell Lode and tried to cruise back!.. No chance…

It was so weedy that we would travel no more than a few feet then have to dive down the weed hatch to clear the prop.. the place was totally un-navigable.. and guess what, we would never return here again!  But the EA were brilliant and towed us out of there…

It was late summer when we returned back to the canal system at Gayton Junction.. we had an appointment at Great Haywood in October with Tim and Lisa Salt of Staffordshire Canopies who were to make a pram cover for No Problem1.  Lisa makes all the canopies on their boat, there isn’t much room to live…

October was also the month I first met fellow blogger Andrew Denny of NB Grannybuttons.  There were very few blogs in 2005, I think you could count them on one hand!..

The Ashby Canal was our destination at the end of the year to winter over the Christmas period.

Our spring/summer cruise took us to waters that we have never been to even in our hire boat days, we were certainly hooked.. we would return the following year..