So what has Olivia been up to? On return from the 2017 travels, Olivia enjoyed a rest on a winter mooring. I usually carry on cruising over winter, albeit only every couple of weeks. However, I felt I needed a bit more freedom last winter. In the event I was so grateful that I made that decision as I broke my wrist the week before Christmas and couldn't drive for the best part of three months. The broken bone mended pretty well but I was left with soft tissue injury that even now reminds me that I have not 100% recovered.
I had already invested in the Gold Licence for this year so I eventually started out on a new adventure: the River Nene. I had a rude start when on reaching Northampton the river had SSA (strong stream advice, also known as the red flag) enforced. This wasn't lifted for three and a half days! When I did get started the weather was fantastic. Perhaps even too warm! I am finding moorings rather a challenge as being deep drafted I am often quite far out on bankside moorings and unsure if I jump off whether I will find solid ground or just overgrowth and water. I have been lucky that other moored boaters have been able to help and tie a rope while I got a gangplank sorted.
I seemed to have incidents every day to start with. These included mooring (as mentioned above), getting off the mooring (for the same reason), getting stuck across the river at Stanwick (Thanks Nick for helping me), getting grounded (at Woodford FOTRN mooring), going adrift (at Ditchford lock - many thanks to Jan and Haydn for rescuing Olivia) and snapping a rope on a lock landing. Things have improved since so I must have found my river skills. Everybody I have met have been friendly and helpful and the river is very peaceful. I just wish that there were more deep, straight edge moorings.
