Post 13 - Moving on in every sense

The day after Sandra's funeral we sailed to Trent Lock for the night, to empty the loo and fill up with water. We were absolutely jiggered when we got there. I think everything caught up with us. I know we had to be extra vigilant as Marian was preoccupied, obviously, but locks are dangerous places if one doesn't keep one's focus.

When we began life on the cut we quickly decided to moor on a Friday and not sail again till the following Monday. The months between April and October see a huge increase of boats on the water but the weekends bring out the occasional boaters. It is just too busy so we find it more peaceful being moored. Plus of course it allows us to catch up with little jobs.

But we had to break our golden rule and sail on the Saturday as we had arranged to meet some people for a meal on the Sunday evening. It was bad enough sailing on the Saturday but it was the Bank Holiday weekend. Everywhere was so busy. Most of the locks we had to queue at and Willington was full of boats, we were fortunate to moor there. One local asked me if there was a regatta as he'd never seen so many boats.

We sailed on the Tuesday to Shobnall which is a mile from the town centre of Burton on Trent and moored there for a while. Marian went back to Somerset to see the children and meet some old friends for a meal and just do something different after all the months of pain and distress. I stayed with the boat to get a few things done. I visited the Marina there and asked if they could look at an issue I had with a little leaking diesel.

Shobnall mooring. A boat turning in a winding hole in front. Under the bridge to the right is the Marina and Marston Pedigree's museum

Steve who owns the Marina came a couple of days later to look at the issue and gave me a price which was extremely fair. The job not only took a bit longer than expected but he also identified a couple of things that given time would need swift attention. So he kindly fixed those and wouldn't take a penny more than his original quote, even though I offered more. Honesty, kindness and integrity are values still practised by some. I cannot recommend Shobnall Marina highly enough. Their work is excellent.

It's 25 years since we last visited Burton and the changes to the town centre are obvious and very well done. What surprised me, however, was the loss of so many pubs in the heart of the brewing industry. Now that is a real sign of the times. Sadly as many of us know a pub is more than a place to have a drink, it is a place where come together as a community and establish friendships. For some of the elderly it is perhaps one of the few places they can go and have some human contact. The demise of the English pub can only encourage further isolation in neighbourhoods. A community is not a community if everyone lives in isolation to others and is either not aware of others' needs or doesn't want to be involved.