Another quick visit

Both of us this time made a short visit to the boat on a day trip. There were two main purposes: one for Mike to use some information from the internal door lock supplier (which had taken a while to track down but were then very helpful). The latch on one of the doors had started to become rather unwilling to close properly as if the internal spring was not right. It would close if given positive encouragement but Mike was also concerned that it was a sign of an impending full failure. As this door is one of those to the walk-through bathroom we did not want a failure, did we!

The instructions helped to remove the latch, somewhat different from all those others we have dealt with before. The spring seemed to be intact but we did take the opportunity to give everything internal a good lubrication after which it seemed to be a little more willing to do its job when re-fitted into the door. What did take a time was that the bolts that hold the lock in the door have a slightly poor design and were uncooperative when being removed. They depend on a modest 'tight' fit into the plastic part to prevent the bolt spinning around. This was not adequate when first removing one of them and it took a while to find the best bodge to extract. We gave them a good clean so that they screw in OK but whether the problem will re-surface if there is another need to remove the lock, who knows?

As we still have hopes of being able to stay on board at New Year for a few days (we still await what lockdown might be imposed to control Omicron) Christine was keen to set up our bed so that it will be ready for us if and when we arrive to stay over.

It was also useful to be able to turn on the heating - the last two Springs have been marked with an issue with the heater which took some effort (and a call at the boatyard in Worcester) to get going after the winter. It was with some relief that it started first time.

Mike also did the usual re-waxing of the wood internal window surrounds which suffer at the hands of condensation each year. The Bar Keeper's Friend did not really give much visual improvement but at least they are better protected for the next season.

It was not weather to tackle any of the external paintwork which needs more touching up - we started it at the end of the season but it will take a visit with no excuses to get us back into action!

We left soon after three so that we would make most of the journey home in some sort of daylight.