Sunday 3rd July
It’s been another hot day today and we have stayed at Hassall Green. After much consultation with various sources about a cure for prop whine (yes it is still with us) Ken has filed a bit off one of the blades on the prop to rough it up a bit. This was one of the suggestions along with running the boat aground and giving it a good rev up in the gravel on the bottom. It remains to be seen whether this will actually cure the problem.
Later on we walked to Rode Heath which took us 35 minutes (sans dog) where we went to the village shop and the Broughton Arms. There are some very good moorings at Rode Heath and swayed by the fact that Monday night is 2 for 1 steak night at the Broughton Arms we are moving on to there tomorrow.
When we returned to the boat we saw Clive, the chap off the boat in front, he had also stayed here today and he had been to the cafe shop to buy a cake. He insisted on giving us some as he said he would only eat it. I said I thought that was what he had bought it for! He had a bit of luck later on as well because he found a hammer in the grass which had been left there by someone who had been putting spikes in. Probably the bloke who had tried to move his boat up yesterday while Clive was manouvreing in to the space to moor up himself!
Later on we saw a chap with a landing net who said he had been trying to catch an injured duck. He also said he had phoned the RSPCA 3 times. We actually saw the RSPCA girl yesterday but didn’t know at the time what she was looking for. Anyway, later on we spotted this duck and Ken caught it. It had a broken wing poor thing. We put it in George’s spare cage and I called the RSPCA again. Later this evening they came and took the duck away, bless.
Just after we had found the duck Ken caught a 6.5 lb barbel, his first barbel actually and Clive had to net it for him because the RSPCA called me back at the vital time. There was another bloke there at the time, sitting on the bench, who was doing some sort of walk along the canal towpaths. I didn’t speak to him but apparently he told Clive about how he had started off with £5 or something and he wasn’t allowed to accept any money from people. Clive made him a ham sandwich for some reason! I don’t know if he thought he was actually a tramp or what.
So tomorrow we are off to Rode Heath for a steak dinner!
