Welcome to 2012

Happy New Year everyone!  We hope you enjoyed a peaceful Christmas in what ever way floats your boat.  For us that entailed Matt driving down to Mercia Marina from Gateshead on Christmas Eve to join us for Christmas Day.  On Boxing Day we all piled into Matt's car and drove to Bristol to visit Alix, Ian and Ruth for a couple of days.  My goodness Ruth has grown even since we saw her last in November.  She is very mobile now so it will not be long before she is crawling, then life will get truly busy for Alix and Ian.  After a lovely time together it was all too soon time to head back home to the boat and for Matt to travel on to Gateshead.

Back on the boat and on our own again Sue and I toasted in the New Year quietly (second year running without hooking up with our friends the Macs).  Now the dust from the feasting season has settled and 2012 is underway what's in store for nb Adagio and her crew? 

Firstly, we have agreed to extend our mooring to an annual contract so making Mercia Marina our base for future cruises.  This makes sense as the location is fairly central for our kids and there is a good choice of cruising routes.  Furthermore, staying here gives us more time to complete the refit work we need to do on Adagio.  On that subject, I have to complete the cabin refit post-installation of the pump-out holding tank.  Then I have to schedule the hull modification work (repositioning through-hull drainage, new fender anchor points, steering gear) and blacking, with the yard.  The 'battle damage' from our 2011 cruising needs repairing/repainting as well.  Finally, Adagio needs ballast re-trimming after the pump-out fit which I shall do once all other major work is completed.  (I specified a large tank - 400 litres stainless steel - which has a significant effect on trim once it starts to fill.)  Once that task list is completed I can relax back into routine maintenance as we are not planning any more major changes to the boat.  Sue has plenty of knitting projects to complete as well as The Quilt (separate post about that in due course). 

Second, we are planning our cruising routes for 2012.  We have promised ourselves we shall take it easier this year after 2011's hectic schedule.  Our general idea is to head North to Manchester via the Macclesfield, Peak Forest and Rochdale canals.  The Macs are collecting a friend's boat from Chester sometime in June and taking it to Stratford, so we aim to try to hook up with them for a bit of 2-boat cruising.  But, the overriding aim this year is to take it easy!  Hopefully, we shall catch up with some of our new canal friends again as they have said they plan to head North too. 

Whatever your plans and ambitions for 2012 we wish you success and look forward to hearing from, or meeting, some of you out on the cut.  (You won't miss us, we will be the boat with the pretty blonde lurcher sitting on the roof!)