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| Site of the Marsworth airfield where a Wellington bomber squadron was based |
Now we are
in 2019 we both know we have to get on and finish all those things we need to
get done before we move to France. The ‘Things to do before we go’ and ‘Things
to buy before we go’ lists are getting nice and short now which is good. The trouble is, many of the things left are
those in the ‘difficult’ or ‘not much fun to do categories’ – a bit like what
used to happen when we worked.
One of
these was to program our VHF radio to ATIS mode which is a fancy way of saying
make sure it works in mainland Europe.
When modern VHF marine radios transmit, an identifier is automatically
included; for boats in UK waters the identifier is an MMSI (Maritime Mobile
Service Identifier) number. We already
have an MMSI number to identify our boat and now have had to get an ATIS number
which is what the rest of Europe uses.
These numbers mean the receiving stations know who is calling before any
voice contact is made.
Anyway,
long story short, I programmed in our ATIS (Automatic Transmitter
Identification System) number and the result was that we can only use two
channels and both of those are channels that are illegal to use.
The VHF radio frequencies have been allocated channel numbers and these
are pre-programmed into radios, so operators don’t have to fuss about remember
and selecting complicated sequences of numbers.
For example, in inland waters of France, most locks and other stations
are contacted on channel 10. We now only
have channels 15 & 17 available so the radio supplier is trying to find out what has
happened.
I’ve mentioned
before that Karen and two of our daughters are into knitting and similar crafts
like sewing and crochet. Karen was
rather pleased with herself on Wednesday as she finished knitting a cushion
cover which we both agreed looks really good:
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| Newly completed cosy knitting cushion cover |
Back to
radios, on Wednesday I completed the first part of the Marine Shortwave Radio course and
passed the first theory test which means I can now attend a further theory and
practical exam (pre-requisites for travelling in mainland Europe waterways). I will be doing this in February back at
Willow Wren in Stockton and, as this is near where Chris & Sue live, will
take the opportunity to catch up with them and their puppy, Bracken.
We have
registered to receive VNF notices by email; these are the equivalent to the UK
notices issued by CRT. They inform
recipients of closures and restrictions on the canals and rivers, whether planned maintenance or emergencies
such as breaches or fallen trees.
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| Our first VNF notice was received on Wednesday |
The notice
above is warning boaters of a new sand bank that has appeared on the Rhine and
has not been marked by buoys yet. No
doubt we will receive another when the marker buoys have been put in place.
Over the
last couple of days, we have also been outside and had several walks around the
area. On Thursday we walked north across
the fields and one of the first sites we came across was the former Marsworth airfield
used by a Wellington bomber squadron.
You can see from the picture at the top that it is amazingly flat and
level.
A bit
further on we passed below a hill that has lynchets along the southern
side. Unfortunately, they are covered by
a wood, so they cannot be seen.
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| Lynchets hidden in the wood |
Lynchets were
formed in medieval times from constant ploughing across the face of hills and
look like terracing. It wasn’t until I
was researching them that I found out that the correct term is lynchet – a new
word for me. Here is a picture I took
from a blog called Landscapism.
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| Lynchets in Dyrham, South Gloucestershire |
On Thursday, our morning walk took us around the four
reservoirs at Marsworth. These
reservoirs were built as feeders to the Grand Union canal. They are great places for walkers, fishermen
and bird watchers as well as pleasant places to moor by as we have in the past.
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| One of the reservoirs |
Anyway, enough of this blog writing, it's time to get back to those do lists 😅
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