Market Drayton

Jan was up before the sparrows this morning leaving me to blissfully examine the inside of my eyelids.  Eventually she couldn’t contain her enthusiasm and came bouncing into the bedroom to alert me to the arrival of dawn!

Yesterday we walked to the Morrisons supermarket in Market Drayton taking with us the ubiquitous old lady’s shopping trolley (well we had to get all the beer back to Waiouru).  Jan wandered around the aisles filling the trolley with bored hubby in tow.  In the fruit and veg area she asked “Do you fancy some kiwifruit and chocolate chip muffins?”  It’s a rare day when I’ll turn down food!  I guess the kiwifruit was on special.  What with the beer, large bag of charcoal and canned goods the trolley was looking decidedly bandy legged and had a squeak.  I don’t think she is much longer for this world!

We quietly departed the mooring doing tickover when a lovely lady appeared at her side hatch to tell me she is a blog reader.  Hurrah…..  That’s four confirmed readers!  I was tempted to tell her to “Get a Life!”  But she was too nice for that.  Anyway, thanks for making the effort! 

The plan came together when we reached the water point to find it empty.  Unfortunately the water pressure at Market Drayton suffers the same problem as me and despite us being three quarters full it still took 40 minutes to top up the tanks.  Jan actually managed to get a load of washing done whilst we waited.

The cruise to Adderley Locks was done at tickover.  A combination of long lines of moored boats and a slow boater ahead.  It wasn’t an issue for us as weren’t working to a timetable.  Doing the five locks at Adderley took very little time because there were more boats rising than descending.  We continued on to Audlem Locks doing the first two before stopping on the 48 hour moorings. The Smartgauge was showing the batteries at 100%. 

I needed to spend part of the afternoon working on the rear deck paintwork.  The plastic matting has protected the deck except the “feet” on the underside of the matting have marked the paintwork.  Well the matting wasn’t bought to protect the paint but rather to protect us from slipping on a frost covered deck.

I’ve just finished reading Peter Berry’s most recent blog post about boat maintenance and insurance <link here>.  His observations are a replication of our own.  I certainly would not allow any work to be done on Waiouru without being present throughout.  That’s obviously easier for us to achieve as “live-aboard” boaters.  We have also read the “fine print” on our boat insurance policy and it was quite a revelation to realize what’s excluded