THOUGHTS of FREEDOM

Been moored here at Marsworth for 25 days and as my back is much much better the urge to once again be free to cruise is getting stronger. Although the mooring here is 14 days max the BW guys who rescued me said they would make sure those that needed to know would be informed and for me not to worry about overstaying and just give the back time to heal. One of them has even stopped by to ask how i was and also to take away my rubbish.

Friday last with the inboard water tank near empty i decided to go down through one lock to take on water and empty the toilet cassettes and return to the same mooring. Apart from the need to get water it would also give me an idea how i felt doing a lock, glad to report all went well and i can`t explain how good it felt cruising the boat just a few hundred yards turning and reversing onto the water point.
Perhaps in the next couple of days l`ll make a move very slowly away from here to pastures new with a different view through the windows.

The Aylesbury arm was my original destination but that will have to be a future cruise although
l have walked along part of it and visited the end by bus so perhaps i might do a blog on the arm even if it might be cheating not having cruised it......yet.

Two of the g`children(Jordan & Jack) paid a very short visit and we visited the Natural History Museum in Tring. The museum houses on 3 floors the vast collection of Lionel Walter Rothschild and was gifted to the nation in 1937 by the Rothschild family.

Jack and Jordan joined the other half-term visitors armed with clip boards and questionnaires printed for all ages on a tour of the museum seeking the answers the reward on the way out being a stamp on the bottom of the sheet. With free entry i wasn`t at all surprised by the large number of children running around and sprawled across the floor filling in the answers so if you as adults want to visit avoid the school breaks.

Regular readers of the blog will be aware of Mike Perham the youngest person to sail solo round the world and this Thursday(5th Nov) the Cutting Edge programme on C4 is about Mike`s voyage.

Quite a long time ago i added on the right of the page the NeoCounter that has so far recorded 16,879 visits from 74 countries. I wonder how many of those visits were accidental with people using search engines for say a boat cruise holiday or whatever. Also did any of them across the world carry on following the blog? Come on readers if you are following the blog from outside the UK let me know. From e mails i get i do know of some but there must be lots of people who read but never comment or make contact so if you are one.....let me know.

The other 2 stat counters on the blog are Top 100 boat sites and UK waterway sites showing my positions as 78 and 40 respectively. I have been higher in the past but hey it`s not a competition, well not for me anyway, so why do we bloggers put them on our sites. Are we a competitive bunch having entered want to be top dog, the winner or the best. If you think it through none of these can be right as we all provide links to other blogs (fellow competitors) be a bit like Tesco encouraging people to go to Asda never to return. Ok i hear the question.....well for a long time i had none of the stat counters on the blog and as more appeared on other blogs i did wonder how i would fare in the tables plus they cost nowt to run and........all right yes i did hope to be higher than others i suppose. But why! It`s not like the football league where the top teams have played better to gain top positions, top viewed blogs are of a style that more people like to read similarly perhaps more love stories are read than crime the authors are both good just that more readers like a particular style.
Oh heck it`s all getting complicated so hello to all my readers however many just glad you enjoy my wittering.

Just reading back this post so far and it`s not my usual style but things have been a tad unusual of late and i just felt i needed to do a blog and have been at a loss what to write.
Dug out some figures that might be of interest, over the last 12 months i have used;

967 litres of diesel £1.15 propulsion & £0.72 rebated (12 months ago)
£1.11 -- & £0.64 -- (October)

5 bottles of gas (5th still in use) Last one cost £21- 80

4 engine oil changes about £20 each

2 G`box oil changes about £8 each (ATF fluid)

I do not keep any other records so no idea of number of locks or miles travelled other than it`s one hell of a lot but those locks and miles have taken me to many beautiful and interesting places and i don`t regret a single lock/mile or litre of fuel that has given me this wonderful life.

Just leave you with these 2 evening shots the first shows Jack & Jordan up on the reservoir.
Thanks again to you all.