On the boat front: we're absolutely itching to 'get-going' but reluctant to go too far with the house about to go-through. The licence has just been renewed (12 months for £769.21) so we're all legal and Jeff has booked The Cat into the dry dock at Barton Marina to have a new stern gland fitted along with a few other jobs. The weather has been lovely the last few days and we managed to get out last weekend for a short cruise up to Shobnall. Just to say a quick hello to passing boaters or exchanging pleasantries with folks at the locks was lovely!
I seem to have spent hours following other boaters blogs and their journeys so it was great to be out in the real world rather than the virtual world. Although I have picked-up loads of info from these boaty blogs. One of the things I have been noticing is that a lot of these savvy boaters seem to have an on-line tracking system for their boats and being a gadget sort of person thought I'd like one for The Cat. I discovered the website waterexplorer and ordered the GPS receiver as recommended and downloaded the Navvygator software. It was a bit tricky to set-up but I managed and it is now working. I have put a link on the front page of the blog so that anyone can now see and track The Cat's Whiskers progress on the 'interactive waterways map' - useful for our family and friends maybe!
Well, we're back in the marina for now but many of our narrow boat neighbours are leaving the marina now that March is here. We are starting to feel a little left behind. I'm praying the house sale does go through quickly and smoothly now and then we will be joining in all the fun with the wonderful boating community!
Just a quick note to say that I have found a couple of great websites for all things narrow boats including http://www.canalworld.net/ and http://www.justcanals.co.uk/
