Cape (moving day)

With poor Karen still not 100% it’s been a quiet weekend, spent mostly on the boat.  Buddy’s not been so well either, so he’s not even been angling for long walks!  We did have some lovely sunshine but still no butterflies seen this year ☹ Elsewhere in the country, six different species have been recorded already, but they have been in the southern counties highlighting the different conditions between there and the Midlands and elsewhere in the UK. 

We arrived at Saltisford two weeks ago on Sunday so, to keep within the T’s & C’s of our licence, we had to move on.  T’s and C’s always looks odd with the two apostrophes, but it must be the correct way of writing it as the two words, ‘Terms’ and ‘Conditions’ have both been shortened (or abbreviated for the educated 😉).

We’d planned on getting to Leamington over the weekend but decided to leave it for me to do during the week.  Instead, it was a short trip round to the Cape where I could take on water ready for doing the weekly wash before cruising on down to Leam.

I left it until about 3 o’clock and it was still really rather mild, so I went the whole way really slowly, switching between tickover and idle, taking in the sights and sounds.  Karen and I have both noticed the birds singing in the evening now as well as during the dawn chorus.

Buddy steering the boat with his tail

Karen and I both felt a bit sad about leaving Saltisford as it had become our patch; no boats had passed us during the whole fortnight.  That’s the trouble with this time of year, you get to feel you’re the only one on the water and it sort of belongs to you.

Before we left I had one last look at lock #27 and saw that they had started pumping water out; I assume to get it ready for working in the lock from Monday.

  

Also, the stank that had seemed excessively high had had its top three planks removed:

  

Having rounded the bend where the Saltisford arm goes off to the right, we went under the A425 or the Birmingham road that runs into Warwick. 

The bridge was rebuilt in 1992 hence its modern appearance

After passing Warwick cemetery we were in sight of the Cape moorings.  For the first time we could remember there were no boats moored at the visitors’ moorings, just the two permanent boats outside the Cape of Good Hope on the opposite side.

Unusual not to have any moored boats here, whatever the season

We pulled up opposite the pub and took on water. Once full, I pulled the boat back a few metres onto the visitors’ moorings so that we would be clear of the water point.  Mind you, it seems very unlikely anyone else would be along to get water.

Our mooring for Sunday night at least