Final approach to Alvecote for the Festival.

(Boat Chalice - posted by Alan)
Very retrospective post for Friday 22nd August. 

OK, OK - so as we got around to "Festival Time", the blogging process finally fell apart!  No excuses really, other than once we had both boats back together, there was much to keep us occupied, and, (when moving again with both), no chance of getting any Internet stuff done except in evenings.

It seems we also lost the ability to take many pictures, as from this point on the cameras seemed to have yielded far less to select from, although, to be fair, we are struggling with battery problems in two of the cameras we regularly use.  (Don't you just love modern technology - the cameras still work fine, but the rechargeable batteries no longer do, and replacement "clone"  batteries seem to not be much use at all).

Anyway, for completeness, and our own records, we will try to remember what happened up to two weeks ago.

As reported "yesterday" Huddlesford has established itself as a good overnight mooring for us, and I am much taken by the pub, where the landlord is very friendly, (and offers you the choice of a beer in a "jug", rather than a straight glass, which I still prefer).

"Hampstead" slips gently past before our boating day begins.

We hadn't got far to go today, but before we were moving, some of the "historics" were, and coming past before we set off.  As a result we leapfrogged with some throughout the day.  "Hampstead" had a fair "load" of I'm not quite sure what, (it was under tarpaulins), and was hence moving quite slowly.  It was interesting to see what happened as we were waved past in quite shallow waters, but in the end overtaking was relatively easily achieved.

As we now knew "Sickle" had been delivered to Alvecote for us, we were quite relaxed on time, so chose to make a deliberate stop to fully empty toitets and waste bins, and to fully fill the frest water tank, so we would be well set up for spenging several days at Alvecote with "Chalice" not moving.

Probably the only other thing to note is that although we found a convenient towpath slot on arrival, it was opposite where all the winding of boats would take place repeatedly throughout the weekend.  Even the manoeuvrings going on on the day before the event were enough to convince us we were to vulnerable to getting hit. so when a friend moved their boat away from a space somewhat further up, we grabbed the opportunity to take it.  It had the added bonus of giving us just about the shortest walk we could have to the pub from "Chalice" - result!

Huddlesford Junction to Alvecote Marina (Coventry canal)
Miles:  11.0 (Chalice), 0 (Sickle), Locks: 2

Total Miles: 700.7, Locks: 477