Return to Netherton Church Hill

We cruised to Parkhead services. Will left Vicky to fill with water and empty the rubbish while he went off to fetch Martha. Vicky would take Rainboat to the bottom of Netherton Church Hill and Will would park Martha on the industrial estate again. That was the plan. When Will returned to where he'd parked Martha, all that remained was broken glass from her window. He called Vicky and the police. A recorded message told him to report the crime online. He returned and we numbly went through the motions, entering details into police forms, then cruising on to our previous mooring spot at Netherton Church Hill.

We stayed for several days coming to terms with what had happened. We felt bereft. We'd lived in Martha for years and had so many adventures. Whilst we hadn't left many things in her, many of the things we'd left were tied up in those memories. Sadness, anger, disbelief and numbness all washed over us.
The police called and got a few more details from Will before sending through a crime number, which we passed on to our insurance company.

Whiskers had been with us for 3 weeks now and had been out for little walks on his harness. The towpath was narrow here with brambles, shrubs and trees close by for him to hide in. He is very nervous of dogs and of people he doesn't know. He is wearing a bluetooth tracker so we let him go off by himself. He was cautious and came back after a little while, which was a really good sign. Unfortunately on another foray he got chased by a dog. He escaped easily enough but stayed away for a long time. When it got dark Vicky went out calling and he came trotting towards her mewing💞 Indoors he is gaining confidence, but Leo will bark whenever he sees him so we're using the dinette cushions to block him from view and he seems happy enough for the moment. We are so happy with how he is doing.

With the season cooling we'd been keeping our fire on low most of the time. It does a great job of heating the living saloon and dinette but we less so with the bathroom and bedroom. To keep condensation under control we open the bedroom portholes and put the radiators on for an hour each morning. Only the Eberspacher central heating control was showing a fault; we'd not got enough diesel left! Luckily the heating draws fuel from a higher point in the tank than the propulsion outlet so we could still travel. We also had a spare 20l in a jerry can so used this to tide us over. We used the folding trolley we'd bought back in Stratford to wheel the empty diesel and petrol cans to the BP on Pedmore Road about 15 minutes walk away and refilled them.Baca lagi