11th
Day out on the trains.
16th
Heading out of the soar on to the river Trent and heading towards the Trent and Mersey canal.
17th
Through Sawley Lock and moored close to Sawley Bridge Marina. Viewed several boats there but none of them came up to spec.
18th
6 miles 4 locks to Weston - on - Trent
19th
8 miles 3 locks to Willington, looked at a couple of boats at Willington Marina.
20th
A boat had caught my eye in Towpath Talk moored at Wilton Marina so we arranged to visit, caught the train there and got picked up at the train station by one of the staff and taken to the marina. Investigated it thoroughly and it passed the my travelling companion Nose Test for mould and mildew, ie there was no sign of damp at all. Put in a silly offer.
21st
The silly offer was almost accepted, I had to go up another thousand but still got a 15 year old 55ft boat with a perfect survey for a reasonable price, within my budget, but it still didn't leave me much left over.
22nd
1 mile 7 locks - Norton Junction. Caught the train to Wilton again and completed the purchase. License and insurance all paid up and off we went in my new boat.
23rd
10 miles 7 locks 1 tunnel Hillmorton
24th
14 miles 3 locks - Hawksbury Junction.
25th
12 miles 9 locks Whitley Bridge
26th
11 miles 4 locks Hopwas
27th
9 miles 2 locks - Moored above Shade house lock.
28th
Caught the train to Willington to collect Almyne and Olive
29th
9 miles 3 locks Barton Turn
30th
5 miles 10 locks Shade House Lock
All three boats together now but in my absence the batteries on Forty Two had gone completely flat, I had inadvertently left the inverter on which had drained them down to absolutely nothing so much so that they were unrecoverable. No choice but to have five new batteries installed, an unexpected bill.
31st
Took loads of pictures of Almyne and built a web site giving all the details. Almyne was advertised on Apollo Duck with a link to my Almyne web site.