Logbooks:

England 2016

June to 14th September

Given this is a sailing log & given that we are not on a boat for this time I won't be writing actual logs. I will however, add photos of the many happenings whilst we were in England. We visited many wonderful places & spent great times with family & friends with the finale being celebrations for Mum & Dad's 60th Wedding Anniversary on the 8th September. Hopefully you will enjoy our photos as much we enjoyed being there to take them :-).

Returning Denise

We were really dragging our feet to return Denise to her home at Stoke Prior turning up just after the scheduled time. We have really enjoyed our time.
In our last couple of weeks, after leaving Stratford, we travelled to Hatton from where we spent a lovely day in Warwick before moving on to Birmingham. However, not being keen on hanging around the big city lights we moved on to Dudley then down to Stourport, then back out onto the river Severn & finally up the Droitwich canal to rejoin the Worcester Birmingham canal.
Our good run of weather continued with only a few days of on & off rain. We were joined on a number of occasions by family, which was fabulous. It was wonderful to be able to share the experience.
We have seen some wonderful English countryside along the way, it never ceases to amaze me that in such a small country there is still so much green!
Definately an experience to be repeated :-)

Two Weeks In

& all is great! We have had a fabulous couple of weeks! The weather has been fantastic for this time of year with just a couple of days of drizzle, a few chilly mornings but mostly dry & sunny. We even had to break out the suntan lotion!
We travelled from Stoke Prior to Worcester to catch up with family. Then down the Severn River to Tewksbury then onto the Avon River. From Tewkesbury up the scenery was beautiful at every turn, lush green fields & hedgerows & pretty villages. Probably the same on the Severn but the banks are higher & you can't see over them as well. At Pershore Mum & Dad came for lunch & we had a lovely time in the sun. Later the same day my niece & great nephew joined us & stayed for the weekend. It was fabulous to have them on board & to watch AJ's enthusiasm to have a go & learn, he was great! The weekend was made complete by another family lunch on Sunday at Bidford Upon Avon, once again a beautiful day.
This last week we continued up the Avon to Stratford Upon Avon where we moored up right on the edge of town & next to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, of course, being his birth & death place. On Wednesday night we went along to the currently running performance of 'Cymbeline' which was very enjoyable.
After three nights in Stratford this morning we are heading north up the Stratford Upon Avon canal through 18 locks to Wootten Wawen & the turn off to Warwick.

Denise

After a lovely couple of days with Mum & Dad, who both look very well, we have taken 'delivery' of Denise, our home for the next month. Denise is a 52ft Duchess Class canal boat, built in solid 8mm steel, 18 ton & 7ft wide, totally different to Clawdette!
Our plan is to travel from her base at Stoke Prior down to Worcester for a couple of days to catch up with family & then around the 'Avon Ring', (120 miles & 130 locks), which incorporates the Severn River, the Avon River & Stratford-Upon-Avon, Birmingham. The locks & canals are an engineering marvel, a simple but ingenious design. They may be simple but working them is very, very good excercise!

The Arrival

Now I must admit we are cheating a little here & using this sailing logbook site without Clawdette in sight. While she is safely tucked up at Oyster Cove Marine we have travelled 13, 000 miles across the oceans courtesy of Qantas & Emirates, which was just a little quicker!
In two days time we'll pick up a canal boat for a month so then we'll only be half cheating!
Must mention too that we travelled from Dubai to Birmingham on an A380 & our chosen seats were upstairs, where we hadn't been before, on the left hand side next to the window. All I can say about Emirates is, fabulous! Their planes, their service, their catering is all fantastic. Given we were so comfortable it is hard to believe that we had been 'confined' for 24hrs!