Our goal was to be on the Chesterfield canal by mid April as we have friends and family in this area and we just happened to have rather a lot of birthdays to celebrate this month. The next few weeks were going to be busy busy for us so it was an absolute joy to find the Chesterfield Canal so peaceful.
We were surprised by just how rural it is with the occasional disused brick works alongside.
But the price to pay for this isolated idyll is a bit of a vicious circle. The canal has very little traffic, it’s narrow, has shallow banks and few mooring opportunities. It has a reputation for becoming very weedy.
We did however find a lovely spot to moor at Drakeholes
The low concrete edging meant that Eric could relax over the bank holiday weekend in true manly fashion by repainting the gunwales
Whilst I took advantage of the sunshine and picnic bench to get my spinning wheel out and turned some fibre into yarn.
Arty and Ruby were able to join us and we shared a sumptuous picnic, I’d foolishly not believed the forecast that said it was going to be a hot weekend and made soup.
Hot days make for misty mornings full of promise.
And the main goal of our time on the Chesterfield was to meet up with my brother, Silver, who has lived overseas for the past few years and only seen photos of Firecrest.
What better way to celebrate than a proper Boater’s breakfast.