Boatwif

Permission to visit and stay overnight on boats took effect from 4th July. For months the large blue IKEA bags (handy for transferring stuff from house to car boot and through narrow hatches and doorways onto a boat) had been lurking at home, awaiting onward transportation… And what mixed bags they were – bedding, a repainted flagpole for the stern, foodstuffs, walking boots, waterproofs, electrical paraphernalia,    2 Turks’ head knots for tiller decoration and    a customised companion set...

“Thank you for the space,” an approaching walker said one day on one of the footpaths through a Marston Vale community woodland site.  Though referring to the distance created between him and other foot traffic the simple sentence has a broader meaning for the Cleddau crew. ….. “It’s plus I week now,” remarked the Cleddau Captain one day last week. Plus one? Plus one week? It transpires that his method of coping with Lockdown was to count down from 12...

This time last year (16th May, 2019) Cleddau and crew were at Tarleton preparing for the adventure that was the tidal route across the Ribble to access the Lancaster Canal. And in 2018? On this day Cleddau chugged along the Fossdyke to Burton Waters Marina, just outside Lincoln. Looking further back, in 2017, May 16th saw Cleddau moored in Gloucester Docks. In May 2016 Cleddau was moored in Salthouse Dock, on her first visit to Liverpool, while in 2015, with...

Though you can take a man away from his boat, you cannot take a boat out of the man… In these strange times when boaters are forbidden to visit their boats and navigations are effectively closed it’s hard to imagine a boating life… Had the initial plan for 2020 cruising proceeded, by mid-April Cleddau would have been on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. Instead, locked down in a Bedfordshire village, the Captain and Boatwif take comfort in their daily walk. There’s much to...

Boatwif caught the Captain looking back at the last blog entry a couple of days ago. It had been posted on January 18th, following a few special days in Pembrokeshire and a couple of nights (and two theatre productions) in Stratford-upon-Avon. That post finished with: ‘Now a germ of an idea has begun to form: wouldn’t a cruise down to Stratford and along the Avon be just the thing to look forward to later in the year…?’ Back at home...

When does a bad habit become a tradition? And when does a tradition give cause for celebration? To answer the first question (bad habit becoming tradition) the Captain would state 25 years. The 12 years or so of January visits to Stratford-upon-Avon then are still “bad habits”, albeit very enjoyable ones. At home there are theatre programmes from the Royal Shakespeare Company) retained from January 2009 onwards.  Hence the annual winter gazing over Bancroft Basin in Stratford, for only the...

Can a Boatwif report on a totally boat-free trip…? It had been the idea of Godmanchester Friend 2. “Lille,” he’d suggested back in October. “For the Christmas Market…?” Failing to find any serious objection to a fun-sounding plan the Captain and Boatwif agreed. As the designated day drew nearer unforeseen aspects became apparent. The 1104 Eurostar train from St Pancras (such a civilised time) would require a very early start. True, there is little daylight in mid-December but to leave...

Thanksgiving in Southern California was marked by rain, rain and more rain, by the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, televised across the nation from New York,        and then by a blow-out lunch. Gradually the rain lightened to short, sharp showers. By the afternoon of Black Friday pent-up energy needed to be spent… “Are you SURE you want to do this?” Cal Son asked as he outlined the options. “Peace and quiet at home for a couple of hours...

These  Thanksgiving trips to far south California encompass school runs and retail opportunities, leisure jaunts and visits to favourite haunts. There’s  childcare too, although it has to be acknowledged that the older two children now exceed Boatwif’s height by a fair margin – see photographic evidence at the end of the previous post. There was a soccer match to watch on Saturday on an arena pitch (plastic turf enclosed by a concrete wall and high netting). Cal Guy Jnr plays...