Departure
About to board, end of our nearly 5 month trip. The green grass of home...family, friends aqua, making soup, sleeping in our own bed... A few last precious hours with cousins and old friends. A last photo from our mooring HOME SOON!
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Count down
After nearly 5 months our flight home is 6 sleeps away. In the past week so much has happened. Most importantly, the nasty mole was diagnosed as not malignant, by a specialist working in the City of London. Oddly, this area saw my first night in London 50 years ago, and where I worked. Despite this memory, we were very pleased to be accompanied on rail, tube, to the appointment, by kind generous boating friends. We stayed with them in Dulwich in south London, a delight. The other big event this week was the announcement that the (locked) lock flight blocking the return of Santiago to her home mooring, was opening at the end of October for a few days, must book passage. Great relief, with our boating friends volunteering to crew her north. They have all stayed on her over the years. So now we sort, pack, clean and head home after some family visits.
Marking time
We're in a holding pattern. The canal authorities have not yet reopened the Macclesfield Canal to allow passage through the 12 Bosely locks. Our home mooring is on the north of these locks, as well as our booked boat repainters' yard. And time here for us is running out. We fly home in less than 3 weeks. We have received generous offers from friends to move Santiago after we leave, most welcome. So now an alternative mooring is needed, securing keys, advising the home mooring marina, contacting the repainter.... transport for us from where the boat is left. The list goes on. All is not gloom. Our friends in London welcome us this week, a show booked, plans to visit some NT properties. Plus a dash down to Portsmouth to our family friends. Yesterday in Manchester, mostly waiting on some medical advice at an NHS hospital, but also a happy wander round the Manchester Art Gallery. Old and new buildings are married in spacious beauty. To reach Manchester we walk in the linear gre