The end of our summer cruise and my knee!

Today is Thursday 5^th October and it is a week since my knee operation and I’m feeling really good. 

 

Granny and Tobyn on his 1^st birthday

However, I will go back to the end of August when I left you all in Bancroft Basin.  It took us two days to get to the top of the Hatton Flight and each day my knee felt more and more painful.  They were quite long days with one being 7.70 miles and 15 locks and the other 6.8 miles and 17 locks.  Fortunately, the weather was good which made it a bit more bearable for me.

With the Hatton Flight in front of us we set off and got down about 4 locks before our knights in shining armour appeared!  Gill and Phil from Deck of Cards had done the flight the day before and were moored above the Cape Locks but had very kindly offered to walk up to meet us and help us down.  I’m afraid I took to my bed absolutely exhausted after 5 very long and knee battering days.  We had done 57 miles and 49 locks in those 5 days.

Somewhere on the Thames

Eventually we arrived in the Saltisford Arm and moored up.  Richard went back to Tewksbury to collect the car and in the evening we met Gill and Phil in the Cape of Good Hope for drinks and meal.

The following morning we packed up Mary H and drove home.  For me it was bliss to be able to walk straight instead of sideways and not have to do the steps from the cabin up to the deck!

Stratford upon Avon

I had an appointment to see the knee consultant and he arranged for me to have an MRI scan which showed up that the meniscus was torn and pretty mangled which is why I was having so much pain.  I was offered an operation on September 27^th which I jumped at.

The operation went well and I was supposed to be on crutches (not weight bearing) for at least 5 days.  I felt so good that I’m afraid I didn’t use them all the time. 

Gloucester and Sharpness Canal

So here we are on October 5^th.  I’ve just started driving again – I don’t think I had driven since the end of July.  I am slowly building up muscle again and trying to walk without a limp – I’ve limped for so long now that it is automatic!  I don’t need to limp now at all.

Hopping back to September, Richard and Jim took Mary H from the Saltisford Arm to Dunchurch Pools which took them 4 days – via the Folly Inn!!  The boat is now tucked up, but not winterised yet, in a very nice marina.

Don’t know where but they are cute!

Our stats for the summer are 543 miles and 380 locks over 149 days.  79 on board and 70 at home.  Our plan was to make it about 60% boat and 40% home but that works out at 53% on board and 47% at home but we didn’t anticipate my knee problem and having to cut our summer short.

We are off to Spain at the end of December for 2 months so I will no doubt blog from there too but until then Happy Christmas!!