We made it back to Ringstead

Jay from 'Raging Speedhorn' (one of the bands I used to take out on tour in my sleeperbus) arrived with Kath's sister and their four and a half month old baby. It was great to see him again and to hear that they have reformed the band. Also Kath's Mum came to travel with them all back to Ringstead.

The wind whipped up and made winding the three boats a challenge, we lagged behind and wrestled with the wind as our tarpaulins make very effective sails! We had our work cut out to exit Ringstead lock and to battle across to the lock landing so I wasn't looking forward to trying to reverse onto our pontoon with everyone watching. Lots of people came to try to help us but I amazed everyone (including myself) by reversing dead straight in with no problems! WooHoo! That was the icing on the cake, the perfect end to a perfect weekend.

A big thanks to Mark, Kath, Steve and Louise for helping to make it such a great little trip. ;o)

A lovely weekend cruise down the Nene

After sorting the exhaust I re-connected the bilge pump (once we were satisfied that the bilge was dry and free of any diesel).

We took the generator and our battery jump pack, just in case and we set off towards Denford on a beautiful sunny day.

It had been a long time since we last moved her and I was a tad rusty, as we reached Ringstead lock I missed getting Freyja into reverse and we crashed unceremoniously into the lock landing! Oops! We stopped to buy a new centre rope as ours had seen better days. Two other boats appeared and we rushed back, it was Mark and Kath on NB Kia-Ora and Steve and Louise on NB Hedgehog (both boats are from our marina), they were heading for Denford as well. We let them go ahead of us and then shared the lock with another boat.

Glenda steering towards Woodford, the weather was great, the countryside and wildlife were fantastic ;o)

Woodford in the distance

Brett on NB Aqualina shared Woodford lock with us, we let him go first as we were taking our time. He'd already gone a fair way in front of us.

We breasted up to Mark and Kath on NB Kia-Ora, Brett on NB Aqualina is in front of us and Steve and Louise on NB Hedgehog are behind us. We got the barbeques out and Glenda and I enjoyed some of Lidl's finest kangaroo steaks. A hot air balloon appeared to add even more interest to the scene.

After we'd eaten we used our notebook barbeque as a pit fire and sat around enjoying the flames, our solar fairylights switched on and Brett decided it was too quiet for him and headed back toward Ringstead. Glenda and I wandered up to The Cock in Denford and had a great night as usual.

Steve and Louise's puppy Sam decided to live dangerously and wandered about on the barbeques, nibbling of the charcoal and bits of the grills. Steve is amused, Pippa their other dog isn't impressed.

Cheeky little pup Sam has Glenda, Steve and mark in fits, Pippa doesn't think it's funny!

We almost got invaded by this herd of young cows it was great seeing them frolicking on the meadow, Pippa was impressed too!

New stainless steel flexi fitted

I have now fitted the new stainless steel flexi (very sexy, slinky and shiny!) it cost £40 including collars welded each end, clamps and postage.

Freyja is almost ready to 'fly the nest'