Middleham and Richmond

On Sunday, we drove into nearby Leyburn to buy in some supplies, but spent the rest of the day in Middleham. We've been here before, but we had to visit the castle again. There's something rather magical about ancient stone buildings.

On Monday we drove out to Richmond. Again, this town isn't new to us, but it was good to wander around and see the sights. Unfortunately, the castle is only open on Sundays during the winter, but we enjoyed a walk around the outside of it, and spent some time down by the river.

Finally, we went down to the old railway station which has been converted into a two-screen cinema, restaurant, art gallery and conference venue, with a number of "food artisan" shops, and a heritage centre - a brilliant concept, superbly executed.

We had hot drinks in the restaurant before seeing "The Hobbit" in 3D - an excellent film shown in a very comfortable, pleasant 92-seat cinema - and had a good meal there afterwards. 

A very good end to a good day!

Christmas, and into 2013

After a lovely family Christmas as per our tradition, we left the tree, decorations and family yesterday to come to the Yorkshire Dales for a week. It's a part of the country we know quite well now, but we had to come back for more. We're staying in a delightful stone cottage

in the town of Middleham in Wensleydale, a quiet place overlooking broad countryside. We have lots lined up to see and do, so the next few posts will have nothing to do with Kantara - whom we miss lots, and will be visiting on our way back to St Albans on Saturday.

Our last day on the cut this year!

Friday was the day we had been waiting for. The wind was negligible, the sky was blue and cloudless, so we set off at 10:30 for our test run of Kantara. We heard and felt the difference immediately. The engine was quieter and smoother, and we had far less of the spurious vibrations which you get in boats.

We turned right out of the marina and headed north up to the winding hole just past bridge 28 and back, an 8-mile, three-hour cruise in which we only passed three other moving boats. It was a glorious trip, cold but a very enjoyable way to conclude this year's Kantara experience.

The canal was full to overflowing, and surrounding fields were badly flooded in places.

Colin's straightening of the engine mounting has clearly improved Kantara's running, and, contrary to his expectations, it seems that neither the prop shaft not the stern gland have suffered any lasting damage. The gland dripped only little, as it should, and the grease gun turned down firmly as it used to, where previously it had never felt tight enough. We were very pleased.

A kingfisher graced us with its presence, and stayed close enough for me to get some clear pictures.

Returning to the marina very happy, we started to prepare to go back to the house the next day. We almost finished the job on the Saturday morning - we had to leave one or two items behind for collection another time, the car was so full - and drove back to St Albans in the pouring rain. What a good job we had taken Kantara out the day before!

Today, Sunday, is Naomi's birthday, and Jess's is on Wednesday, so we all had lunch out together. Tomorrow. we'll go back to the boat, finish the job of winterising, pack the remaining pieces and bits in the car and return again to the house. We'll go back probably once a month to make sure Kantara's all right - particularly if the winter is hard. One year, we might just stay on board through the winter, just to see what it's like. For now, I'm glad we have the house, and the greater comfort it can afford, should the weather get really cold.

Until we get back in late February (probably), there will be little to post in the blog. Follow us on Twitter to get any updates until then.

Happy Christmas!

Weather - again!

You all know the standard pictograms for weather forecast reporting...

...well I think they ought to be honest, and adopt a new one...

Yesterday, the forecast for today said that the weather would be good enough for us to do our three-hour cruise to test the engine. This morning it said otherwise, and we had torrential rain and strong winds. We have not seen the canal as high as this before, lapping the bottom of the supporting beams in the jetties. The boat had risen so high that she was pulling over on her bow mooring rope, it had got so tight.

So, no cruise today. Tonight's forecast says there will be no rain tomorrow, but 24 mph winds! Friday might be OK.

We shall see.

Plans changed

Well, things didn't work out quite as planned. Sunday's weather was sunny and bright, with little wind, and it would have been the ideal day to take Kantara out for the test drive we wanted to give her after her engine and prop shaft alignment having been done. But instead we drove to Herefordshire.

We have been searching for ballast for the boat. Ballast is needed to keep her on an even keel (well, if she had a keel!). It's placed around the boat, usually in the bottom of cupboards, under the bed, in lockers and so on, to act as a balance against the weight of the furniture and fittings in the cabin. Our ballast has been a large iron weight in the gas locker at the front, bricks under the dinette, and a huge 25 litre water container, full, in a space under the galley worktop. This container was taking up too much space, and we needed something much smaller, iron or lead, to replace it. Grace looked on the Internet and found various possibilities, but the best one was being sold privately on Ebay, a 56lb iron weight for pan scales...

...this kind of thing.

When she first saw it, the price was a mere 99p, and it remained that way right to the end of the auction. She contacted the seller, and he suggested we collected it the next day, Sunday, at 2:00pm. No time for the test drive, then.

The drive to and from Kington in Herefordshire was really pleasant. Traffic was pretty light, and the weather excellent. We found the guy's house easily, then took a short drive out of the town to Hergest Ridge. The ridge "is a large elongated hill which traverses the border between England and Wales between the town of Kington in Herefordshire and the village of Gladestry in Powys. Its highest point, which is in England, is 1397 feet high." (Wikipedia) And, of course, it was the inspiration for Mike Oldfield's second album, which he named after it. It's an awesome feature, with fantastic panoramic views (and a very, very cold wind!). I had not taken my camera, and the photo below is the best I could find on the web. It doesn't do it justice!

At the end of Ommadawn, Oldfield's third album, is a short song entitled On Horseback. The last lines of the song are, "So if you feel a little glum, to Hergest Ridge you should come. In summer, winter, rain or sun, it's good to be on horseback. (Hey, and away we go...)"

The weather yesterday and today has been awful, with rain driven by a strong wind, but the forecast suggests it might be a lot better tomorrow, so perhaps we'll take the boat out then for a few hours. Then it will be back to St Albans the next day... or Friday, or...

Back home for a few more days

So we returned to the house on Thursday, and went to see Said the Maiden doing their two 40-minute sets at the folk club at the Pump House Theatre in Watford (the grotty Watford, not the Watford with the Locks!) They were absolutely fabulous, and the audience loved them. I've never heard them so good, honestly. Seventeen songs, several of them being performed for the first time - brilliant!

We came back home this afternoon. It was really cold in Kantara! The weather tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so we'll take her out for a few hours, largely to test the engine now that it's been realigned. Monday may well see us driving to Herefordshire for the day - more of that later, if it happens - and then we'll winterise Kantara and go back to St Albans for the winter, probably Tuesday. It's going to be very odd, living in a house again!

I know that I published a number of sunset photos this time last year, but humour me, eh? We have fabulous sunsets this year, too!