I am Linda and along with my husband Richard and our dog Muffin we enjoy our summers on the UK's canal system

Monday 6 July 2015

Kingston (River Thames) – Sunday 5th July

We finally managed to severe our links with the land today.  After my Mother’s stroke at the end of March and her subsequent passing at the end of April then our five week holiday to the USA, it seems strange to be back on the boat again.  I’m struggling a bit with things to be honest.  I am an organiser but I can’t seem to organise my life at present – we have come back to the boat without quite a few things which is not like me. A few days after we got back from the USA my daughter asked if things were back to normal – I replied that normality ended on March 30th when my Mother had her stroke and I now have to find a new normality. 

Anyway we are back and the boat is looking lovely – well except for the spiders everywhere!  Inside we are very pink but I love it – not sure Richard is too enamoured with everywhere being pink though!
  


We left home just after 9am and drove up to Hampton.  The car was so full that Muffin had to sit on my knee and he was fed up as there was nowhere other than the gear stick to rest his head.  Thank goodness we have automatic!
  


The Hampton Court flower show was on and I was worried about the traffic but I put Google Maps on the phone and it took us in a different way – we came out directly opposite the boatyard and didn’t get held up at all.  Unloading wasn’t easy but it was soon done and then it was off to Waitrose to stock up the ship’s stores.  Richard then took the car to Nauticalia in Shepperton where we are leaving it for a couple of weeks while we are in the area.  I used to work for Nauticalia so I called in a favour!  When he got back I had unpacked and tidied up and we were ready for the off.  Our original plan was to stay the night at Hampton and move down to Kingston on Monday but through the wonders of Facebook I found that Ray and Diane from nb Ferndale were in Kingston so we headed down to see them.  Molesey Lock was busy and we had to queue but not for too long.  It was nice to be on the water again and on a lovely day.

We found Ferndale and moored up behind her.  Diane had worked out that we would fit however she thought we were 57 feet so our 60 feet was a bit of a tight squeeze!

We sat out on the bank with a glass or two of wine and then cooked a BBQ.  By 9.30ish it was a bit chilly so the jumpers came out but we didn’t pack up and head to our beds until about 10.15pm.
  


It was so nice to catch up with friends – Muffin knew exactly who they were and dashed onto their boat to look for biscuits!  When we cruised with them in 2013 they had their lovely Cockapoo, Banjo who sadly passed away last year.  Ray used to give Muffin biscuits and their boat became known as The Biscuit Boat – Muffin has not forgotten :-)

I must at this point say a big thank you to James at Constables Boatyard for having Mary H to stay!!

3.8 miles

1 lock

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