Bartimaeus

We’ve been away from Bartimaeus for exactly four calendar months.  I’ve had an annoying delay with the delivery of the crown for my tooth, but at least I’m not suffering any pain from it.  We concluded that the cost of additional time in the marina was soon going to overtake the price of a return ticket for me to get to a dental appointment, so we have started our new season.

While we were away, Bartimaeus has been taken out of the water to be “blacked” – renewing the black paint-like covering that is mostly below the water line.  This all happened while we were away and the boat was back where we left it by the time we returned.  I had to remember to retrieve the keys from the boatyard before we set off.

We’ve got a little blasé about coming back to the boat over the years.  I used to worry over a checklist, but now I know there isn’t much to it.  To avoid frost damage, the shower hose gets disconnected and all the taps are left on.  So turn the taps off before turning the water pump on, and then turn all the other electric switches to their usual position, including the socket for the fridge.  That’s about it – we’d even left the bed made up!

While we were still in the marina, we filled the water tank, and gave the batteries a conditioning overcharge.  The battery water needs topping up before and after that too.  With that complete, we set off out of the marina with about an hour of daylight left – the office was already closed, but we saw no point in overstaying.  There was a pleasant looking mooring spot – with rings – just outside the marina entrance, so we decided that would do us for the night.

In the morning I was fixed on getting to a shop so that we could buy milk, and something for our lunch.  We set off in brilliant sunshine, but the air was distinctly colder than it has been of late.  There were a lot of moored boats on the way to Waverton so we made slow, but enjoyable progress.  At some point I noticed one of the jobs we hadn’t done.  The centre rope had been left coiled amidships, but it is more useful in a hurry if it runs up to the driving position.  Clare volunteered to walk down the gunwale to sort it as we went along.

We found the Egg Bridge Rolls cafe (no other cafe was available) with a very friendly proprietor and had a light lunch before getting some basic supplies in the shop next door.  Back on the boat we decided that we needn’t travel any further.  I continued with my project to update the operating system on the onboard computer, but when the weather turned brighter than forecast, I left the upgrade running and we set off for a walk.

A loop on the map looked inviting.  We found a cross which had been erected as a millennium project.  The inscription explained that all the crosses around Chester had been taken down by a puritan who was offended that people were praying at these false idols.  I’m sure he’d be very annoyed by their replacement.

The map doesn’t show where the farmer has planted, harvested or ploughed over the official right of way.  We were able to make our way along despite this.  Some bits were noticeably worse than others, so we diverted around the field edges – officially not a right of way, but we figured it was more reasonable behaviour than that of the land owner.

We scrambled across a ditch at one point in to what seemed to be a children’s playground.  It looked a slightly easier way to get back to the canal.  We gradually realised that we were not in a public park at all, but a local visitor attraction called Crocky Trail which seemed to be along the perimeter of this very large field.  It was deserted and pretty low-key.  One of the features was a path through trees which had a broken trunk made in to an arch at the end.

We found our way to the main entrance and slipped out without any sign that we’d been noticed.  The next part of the right of way was across a golf course.  There were large yellow signs warning walkers and golfers to look out for the other users of the space.  We had to give way to one golf ball before crossing a fairway but otherwise went unhindered.

Back at the boat my upgrade was waiting for me to press return, but had done all the downloading while we were away.  The upgrade completed during the evening, though I had to spend longer than I would have liked restoring the code that updates the boat location.  As I often say about software, it is a second-player win.  When I looked at it again I could see many ways to improve it – even though it was my own code.  Nobody else will notice the difference, so those changes can wait for another day.

Before dinner we were reminded that we are back on the west coast again by an interesting sunset.