Burton Hastings to Coventry Basin.

Hi Folks.

Burton Hastings to Coventry Basin 10.7 miles travelled in 4 hours 10 minutes.

Brrrrrrr a very chilly start to the day after the over night temperature dropped down to -0.9C, so there was a frost on the ground and on the roof of the boat.

After all the usual morning stuff we set off from our weekend mooring just ater 9am, but didn’t get very far, in fact we only made it round the first corner and the engine coughed, spluttered and then died. Keith ducked down into the engine  and I was left steering the boat in the breeze. Fortunately the wind blew us back into the towpath, with my guidance. Having fitted a new fuel filter over the weekend, we now had an air lock. Keith started bleeding the fuel system at the filter, he then fired her up but no go, so the next place to check was the injector pumps. With us moored up I helped him take the rocker over off and he bled the injector pumps. This time she fired on both cylinders and even ticked over from cold which she had not been doing, so changing the filter seems to have worked, fingers crossed. Of course it could have been the fact that Keith also cleaned the air filter, so it may have been this, or both, but at least we are back to full working order again. Engine ticking over sweetly I cast off and away we went, we had not gone ar when I recognised a Northwich bow coming towards us, it was David & Margaret on Adrastea coming the other way.

We had a brief chat before proceeding on our ways. They are spending Christmas on the Ashby so we will not see them again until at least next year.

Coming towards Hawkesbury Junction we saw NB Gerald No13.

 

The boat was all shut up, so Roy was out somewhere we thought, this proved to be the case because just after passing Hawkesbury junction we met up with Roy and again we had a brief chat before we carried onto Coventry Basin.

When we arrived in the basin there were only 2 other boats in the basin, so plenty of room to moor. We had a quick lunch of soup and bread and butter, before setting off to do some shopping in Coventry City. I wanted to go back to Argos to take my litter grabber back, they very kindly exchanged my broken one for a new one, so hopefully this one will last longer than the other one. Keith and I both like Coventry City, not only is it close to the basin, there is all the shopping we need there. I stocked up on some more bits & pieces for Christmas, especially at Poundland and 99p Stores, where I bought some Pringles for 99p a tube. I refuse to pay the supermarket prices, so will go looking for them else where. Normally when I am near a B&M I will get them from there because they are about 89p. I also bought some heavy duty gloves to help me with my litter picking. At Christmas we like to watch movies and eat nibbles, so we have bought ourselves the last two Harry Potter DVD's, so that is Christmas Day afternoon sorted unless we get a better offer. The odd thing was you could get The Deathly Hallows part 2 easy enough, but we had to shop around for Part 1, no one seemed to have it. Eventually we found one copy so bought it for £10.

I was a little surprised that the city was not busier with shoppers, maybe it is a little to early for some people. I am so well organised that I have even posted all my cards. The light was fading as we walked back to the boat, the Christmas lights were just coming on, so we did not get the chance to see them in all their glory. By the time we got back to the boat we were both flagging a little. Dinner is now in the back cabin stove and the kettle is on. No TV signal here so we will probably watch a DVD or just play games online.

Tomorrow we are off to the big Tesco out of the city to stock up on food.

Chat soon xx