Swan Lane Pocket Park, Stoke Heath

As much as we like to stay in city centres we soon tire of the busy urban environment and yearn for more greenery and a bit of quiet. After filling with water we left central Coventry, taking Rainboat on a short cruise back up the canal.

Will had found a place for us to stop where he could take the petrol cans to a fuel station and fill them for the generator. There hadn't been anywhere within reasonable walking distance in the centre and being so close to the solstice we need to run the genny to charge the leisure batteries every day.

We gave the dogs a run in the 'Snake in the Grass' pocket park but Leo soon found cooked turkey bones that someone had dumped so Vicky had to wrestle them off him for fear of them splintering inside him. Meanwhile Whiskers jumped ship and ran off down the towpath. Will set off and Vicky tied Rainboat to the park railings (the towpath was concrete with no room for pins and no rings or bollards). Vicky used the tracker to find Whiskers balancing on a garden fence and bundled him back on board before going back outside to hold the mooring rope. Meanwhile the fuel station's electronics where playing up so it took Will longer than expected to get the petrol but he managed in the end and we carried on up the canal to Swan Lane Pocket Park, where we moored for several days.

There was a lot of dog poo around but our dogs enjoyed meeting the other dogs, although Tiger was feeling a bit under the weather. We ticked a few things off our list at the retail park less than a mile away and Will visited a nearby pub a couple of times.

On New Year's Eve we stayed in watching films and eating crudités and chocolates. The fireworks being let off from the nearby houses lasted hours and were pretty intense, with one even hitting the boat. The dogs were both terrified despite all our efforts to calm and comfort them. The cats seemed less affected but we locked them inside all the same.Read more