Tag: market drayton

What happened to January?

Seriously? Where did it go?

One minute it was the start of January and the next it’s suddenly February and I’ve not posted anything anywhere.

I suppose the only positive thing I can say is that actually I did do a few things in January, the biggest was the now traditional annual pub crawl in Market Drayton with various friends. It’s a tradition that started many years ago when we kept the boat at Upton upon Severn and now its a pretty well planned event which usually takes place on the “Burns Night Weekend” and involves a lot of good beer, cheese, port and to wrap it all off a fry-up breakfast on the Sunday morning with various Scottish and Irish delicacies before everyone heads home.

A pleasant weekend

Well that was a quite enjoyable and pleasant weekend. I picked Nick up just before 7pm on Friday and we loaded the new fridge into the back of the car and headed off to the boat. The roads were strangely quiet and we got to the boat at about 8:20. We plugged in the power line and I battled with the central heating but eventually got it lit and we headed off to the pub for a couple of beers and to discuss the plan of action for Saturday morning.

Saturday we got up, got the engine started and went up to the winding hole by Betton Mill and turned and pulled onto the water point. Whilst Nick got the water hose out I wandered over to the boat yard and arranged a pump out and a new gas cylinder. Then I wandered back to the car and drove it to the bridge and we unloaded the fridge. I then took the car back to the marina and walked back and we got the fridge into the boat, and yes we did measure it first to make sure it would not only fit through the front door but that it would also fit in the kitchen

We turned the boat again and got it pumped out, and being the first pump-out of the season it was a bit rank. Then we turned the boat again and headed back to the moorings where Neil turned up just as we manoeuvred the boat back into the mooring. We had a coffee and we powered the fridge up and then Jon turned up and we headed out to the pub. We had a very relaxing time and we did quite a few pubs, including two we had never done before before heading for a curry at The Jaipur. Then a few couple more beers and a couple of games of pool and back to the boat. When we got back to the boat the inverter was beeping at us and the lights were a bit dim but the fridge was still cold. We powered up the battery charger and put the fridge onto the land line. The whole idea of doing what we did was to see how long the batteries could support the fridge but we need to do some more tests to see how long it lasts when the fridge is already cold. I do have to say however that the chiller blocks from the cool box were still frozen solid on Sunday morning so it had obviously worked quite well. Nick and I now have some ideas on what we need to do for the fridge to make running it easy and we are also going to pick up an external fridge thermometer so we can see just how cold it is getting/staying when its running on batteries.

The next job is to get on the boat and remove the gas fridge and its piping and ft the new fridge into the old place. The new fridge is quite a lot bigger than the old one which is not a bad thing because we did sometimes find that things got a little tight in there at times.

It’s that time of year again

A few years ago now four of us decided that we’d get to together for a weekend of chatting and drinking. Now as all of us are married its awkward but Nick and I had an idea. We have a boat so why not go to the boat and do it there.

For a couple of years we did it at Upton upon Severn when the boat was moored at the marina there. However we got a bit bored with the River Severn, the scenery is not particularily exciting and really apart from Worcester or Gloucester or Tewkesbury there isn’t really anywhere to go for a weekend. Add to that the lack of moorings on the river and its habit of flooding and you can understand why we moved it. We headed north a couple of years ago, and boy are we glad we did because we got out of Upton before it flooded. Although I think we will all miss the really good pubs and Pundit’s Indian Restaurant.

So the boat is now moored at Market Drayton and this coming weekend we’re going there for our second Market Drayton Pub Crawl. Nick and I are heading up on Friday night and on Saturday morning we’re taking the boat out for a quick run and a pumpout and a new gas bottle and refilling its water tank. We’ve also got a new fridge which we want to check will work with the Batteries and inverter set up we currently have. Then round about opening time Neil and Jon will be joining us and we’ll probably head off to The Talbot for a couple of beers and lunch (they did very good pies last year) and then’ll we’ll wander off into town, probably spending some time at the Red Lion which does a very good pint of Salopian Shropshire Gold.

We’ll fit a curry into the evening somewhere and wander back to the boat for coffee and more chat before collapsing into bed.

Sunday morning will be lazy before a breakfasty brunchy thing and then we’ll all head off home.