Ham Manor Marina (Kennet & Avon Canal)

I’m rather late in announcing the brilliant news that I am now a Granny :-)   Tobyn Oscar was born on September 21^st at 6.25am and weighed in at 7lbs 10oz.  The labour was very quick – lucky Laura!  Tobyn is 2 weeks old today and each time I see him he has changed in some little way.

Richard and James got Mary H back to Newbury on September 23^rd enjoying some nice Autumn weather.  The inside of Mary H is in chaos as we discovered a water leak at the end of August which Richard thought he had cured.  He thought it was the filtered water pipe which he mended but in fact it was the water pump which continued to leak.  The water has been removed but everywhere is very damp so all the kitchen cupboards have been emptied and the doors taken off and a de-humidifier put in.  Goodness knows what we would have done if we were living on board!

Here are our statistics for this year compared with the last few years.

	2016	2015	2014	2013
Miles	585	337	820	553
Locks	366	178	486	494
Swing Bridges	34	20	37	38
Average miles per day	6.35	3.51	6.72	6.07
Average locks per day	3.9	3.35	3.98	5.42
Days	141 days	96 days	159 days	173 days
Days cruising	77 days	53 days	95 days	89 days
Days not cruising	15 days	15 days	26 days	19 days
Days boat left in marina	49 days	28 days	38 days	65 days

We have had a good summer – meeting up with old friends and making new ones.  Muffin doesn’t seem any the worse for wear after his accident on the Stoke Bruerne Locks – in fact I think I am the one who was more traumatised and I can still see his little head disappearing under the water.

We have made plans for next year but who knows what will happen.  I want to be at home more frequently so I can see Tobyn which may mean leaving Richard and Muffin onboard or maybe we will all go home – who knows!