Rodbaston's second trip:

by Alyson Oliver

When we arrived at the Marina the "builders" had been in attending to various items on Rodbaston and the boat was a bit of a mess. Luckily Joan was there and she hoovered and we wiped the surfaces and dusted. Once that was done, we were off and had about an hour's cruising towards Braunston as the sun was setting. We moored just below Calcutt locks, just after Ventnor Farm Marina. We had a quiet evening "at home" and a good night's sleep, although one of the local owls made a lot of noise in the middle of the night!

On Saturday morning we headed towards Braunston and once there, we met up with Kelvin's parents who live locally. We took them for a short run up to the Braunston Turn and back and remembered just why we love boating so much. We used to moor at Braunston (virtually in the same spot as we pulled into on Saturday - just close to the Stop House (we bought our third boat, Excalibur, there as well (http://www.braunston.demon.co.uk/mnboat2.htm)) so we have many happy memories of the area. We had dinner on the boat (I love the challenge of cooking away from my "real" kitchen! ), and a drink or three, and we woke up on Sunday morning to a thick frost and an even thicker hangover.

The trip back to the marina was chilly to say the least despite our "proper" arctic fleeces and waterproofs. It would have helped if I had remembered our hats! It took us about 3 hours 15 minutes to get back to the marina where we said our goodbyes to Rodbaston and headed south. Strangely it took us exactly the same amount of time to drive home....I have to say I know which one of those trips I preferred......

We are very pleased with the boat. The kitchen is a dream - so huge incomparison with our previous boat and taking a shower was a pleasure....I didn't make contact with the freezing shower curtain as the bath is so huge and the water was decently hot...no hopping about with second degree burns alternated with frostbite!!!

We'll send some pictures shortly. (Unfortunately a certain person forgot the digital camera, so they will be dodgy throw-away camera pics!!)