Yesterday and today were very much devoted to cleaning the boat and a few repairs, leaving everything ready for Christmas and the New Year when we plan to be back on board (probably going nowhere much!) as we have done for several years now. We expect to be visited a couple of times so the second bedroom needs to be available for its proper purpose!
Yesterday morning the outside of the cabin, roof and sides was finished, scrub, shampoos and carnuaba polish. As, the deep clean of the front half of the inside was also done. This took us to mid afternoon and not long before darkness. Christine had established that replacement glass for the stove was now available at the stockist in Pershore so we set off - about 30 minutes. It was a tad longer than forecast as the sat nav route took us down a route that led to a ford. Just before we got to the crossing we came across a local man pushing a mowing machine down the middle of the narrow lane. He looked at us in some surprise and then said, "The ford is right up to here", indicating somewhere over his head! Always (well usually!) believing that local knowledge beats sat nav every day, we turned around and fought the instructions for a whole as the voice kept insisting that we turn around . . . Wre got there in the end.
Chase Heating proved to be very pleasant and helpful and we came away with an armful of bits all needed to complete the repair.
Today we continued - but Mike's first task was the glass repair. Last night he did a test on one of the retaining screws which came undone with remarkable ease. Today the same happened with the second one, both of which also retain part of the door. However, when he turned to the other two, which turned out to be much more unwilling to comply. After resorting to our 'bodging' skills hey eventually succumbed and Mike was then free to clean out the door. This took some time and we were glad that last night we had picked up some wire brushes from Wilcos. Eventually it was deemed ready to start reassembling. At this point Mike discovered that the two 'easy' bolts were longer than the other two but that we had been supplied with four of the shorter ones! Fortunately the original ones could be re-used as well as washers that are critical to the fitting. Now have to leave it for a few hours for the glue holding the sealing rope to set.
Mid morning and back to the cleaning the front and rear decks were especially in need of a clean. Christine tackled the rear half of the inside - the much more intensively used areas so more ion need of really deep clean. We only hope that our waste water has not silted up the marina basin with all the dirt we have removed, inside and out!
Well that's it for now - return home tomorrow with quite a full diary, catching up on various things after having been away for a month! When we get time we will have to count up how many locks and miles we have done this year and compare with previous tallies.
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