New year online.

Due to the naff wet weather not many photos in this post I'm afraid.

Having spent Christmas Day at the bungalow with the girls Chris and I returned to AmyJo.  Chris was flying driving south to visit her mum but as I had to return to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I remained here.

We had tickets for the New Year celebrations at the Shady Oak pub just down the cut.  As there are no locks to contend with I moved AmyJo on my own together with our mooring neighbour on her boat to the moorings outside the Shady on the Monday.  There were two boats on the pub staging and two on the tow path side.  Sheila moored in the gap between the latter and I winded AmyJo and pulled in upstream of all three.  We were joined by a further 8 boats as the days leading up to New Year passed.

Over the following 3 days I commuted to work from there and when Chris returned on New Year's Eve we enjoyed the festivities to see the New Year in.  A great night was had in the newly decorated Shady Oak but unfortunately all the photos were blurry.  Not sure if this was the camera settings or we were more inebriated than we thought. 

In the end we stayed a full week and only returned AmyJo to the Marina today (Monday).  We were quite happy moored out so were in no rush to return, enjoying the excellent food and carvery (on Sundays) provided by the pub .  In fact we have enjoyed these stints out of the marina so much I think this will become a regular feature if weather allows.

Yesterday, Sunday, there was a short break in the wet and windy weather that was calm and dry enough that it enabled me to get the drone out for a brief flight and thus managed to get these photos.

The road bridge over the canal that passes the Shady Oak looking towards Chester.

Seen from directly above, AmyJo (centre) moored opposite the pub (top left).
By now the tow path was becoming a quagmire after all the foot traffic over new year..

The Shady Oak from above

AmyJo on her mooring

 I have to admit I'm having great fun seeing the canal from this new angle but I'm always concious not to annoy other people with the drone.  There is a lot of bad press about near misses by drones with aircraft at the moment  so I'm careful when and where I fly now.

Today Chris went back to work so after bringing AmyJo back to the marina I washed her down (the boat that is) and tidied up.  I also replaced the water filter as this was due to be renewed.

After two years of reliable service the Erberspacher heater has decided to play up and will not always start.  I guess its long overdue a service so we'll get that organised over the next few days.  I know it should be serviced annually but that got over looked.

Today the sun made a rare appearance so I checked our Solar panel output and was pleased to see

Does not look much at 60watts max but it was enough to bring the batteries up from 92% to 95% charge.  With this in mind it looks like they should make a big difference if we get a good summer (if we get one that is).