Bit of an Internet Calamity - Day 4

Total distance:10.51 miles Elapsed time:7h52m17s Locks:14 Bridges:40 

Average speed:1.33 mph (3.11 lock/mph)

What a major pain in the proverbial. We had a really great day on Friday seeing Jo and Keith but that evening after I posted the blog our internet WIFI connections suddenly went limited and we had no internet access at all. No matter how I applied my IT skills the router was having none of it. 

 To make matters worse whilst logged onto the router trying to get it to obey me I accidently turned off the WIFI transmitter on the router admin software and we completely lost all WIFI access. Normally this would not be a problem, plug in an Ethernet cable to the laptop and router, log on and turn WIFI back on and we’re in business. But this is me we’re talking about and my love of gadgets has got the better of me at last. I bought a nice new wizzy 2 in one laptop that doubles as a PC or a tablet just for use on board AmyJo. Pretty cool I thought, until that is, I realised it is so thin (10mm) it does not sport a network cable port.

 Thank god Chris’s little Samsung note book was aboard and that does have a network port. Even with that saving the day we still could not get internet access so we eventually had to give up for the rest of the trip.

So now I have three days worth of posts to catch up with, but I’ll not bore you with it all in one blog so will post over the next few days to bring you up to date.

Saturday

Unfortunately we did not have the time to explore the city as we had to get back home but from what we did see its well worth a visit.  

The morning dawned as another sunny one that saw us under way at 8.30ish which seems to be normal now.  We started to head back through Leamington Spa. It always seems strange to me that you can pass through somewhere in one direction and then pass through again going the other way and it still looks totally different. You get to see things you miss on the way in. 

Railway Aqueduct on the way out of Leaminton spa

Nice housing estate just a mile from the city centre

Still in town but you would not think so

 Putting a lovely welcome from Keith and Jo aside we really enjoyed our stay here and were quite impressed with the city and the cleanness of the cut.  Very little litter and, Maffi will love this, very little dog poo or poo bunnys to be seen.  In fact the whole area we well kept and maintained.  Boaters seem to be most welcome but you do need to check out mooring spots as most of the cut is concrete walled.  Mooring is only possible via the rings set into the ground and there is nowhere to hammer in pins until you are out of town some way.

We went up Cape Top Lock 25 and made good time though the city. Chris had made a cup of tea and toasted some hot cross buns for breakfast and this was welcomed. We have acquired some thermos mugs with sip through lids that really keep the drink hot for a long time so we can make the most of a cuppa as we go along. You can see them in the picture below

Chris is getting more and more confident on the helm each time we go out

So far it had been very quiet with very few boats out on the cut and we made it across the city without seeing any other boats on the move. We reached Radford bottom lock and waited a while for another boat but all was still so we started our climb as Billy no mates. We also took the opportunity of disposing of our rubbish in the disposal point there. Buy the time we got to Bascoe locks though we had picked up a lock partner whose boat name and owner names I forgot (sorry guys) so we made good time up the locks.

Our first sighting of ducklings this year

When we got to Itchington Bottom lock there was already one boat in the lock so our partners went in and we were Billy no mates once again.

As it was now getting on we decided to stop again at the Blue Lias Pub for the night as we enjoyed it on the way down. Whilst booking the table we found out they had a charity do on that night with live bands playing. 

The first of the Stockton Locks are just after the bridge

Just a few boats about even though its a bank holiday weekend

We had an excellent meal and sat enjoying the entertainment for the evening. Although we did not find out who the bands were because we could enjoy them whilst aboard AmyJo, the music was excellent and worth stopping for.