Boat Blog: Desperate for a cruise….

Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th March

Richard went up to the boat on Saturday to install our new central heating timer and catch up with a few more jobs. He did not get as far as he wanted to as he spent too much enjoyable time talking to people on the towpath (and needed to rush back to watch the rugby). I had to stay at home to catch up with some outstanding work – if only my clients would pay me for doing nothing! He also serviced the engine, changed all the filters including the extra diesel filters on the engine line. Still on his engine to do list:  Filter on the webasto diesel line, check battery levels (DON’T FORGET TO TAKE A MIRROR NEXT TIME), check all bolts etc are tight, renew the weed hatch seal, give the stern tube its annual 1g of grease, check for water in the base of the tank, check for leaks and DON’T FORGET TO FILL IN THE SERVICING BOOK. Don’t worry he will be quizzed after his next trip but that won’t be this weekend as he is probably off to Ireland for an important work meeting somewhere not too far from Croke Park. Hmmm.

We’re counting down the days to our odyssey now – we’ll probably start out on w/e of the 27th March, just a few days before our permanent mooring comes free – that is very exciting but, as before, we will hardly use it  …

I’ve had a gloomy week – my work in Scotland has been very successful but I find business travel utterly exhausting. I also had the shocking bad news that my aunt died earlier this week after a brief and savage attack of lung cancer.  I vetoed a morning cruise today because I have to drive down to deepest West Wales this afternoon ready for the funeral tomorrow.

But I am desperate for a cruise – the mixture of peace, quiet and fresh air is a balm for all ills….

Dog Blog: Dear Baxter and Muttley

nb Matilda Rose

Somewhere on a canal

England

Tuesday 9th March

Dear Baxter and Muttley

Please help – our mum has gone mad!!!!!!

We’re STILL going to classes and mum kept saying that the 8 weeks were almost over and we wouldn’t bother with the test so we thought we’d just keep our heads down for a bit. We’ve been ever, ever so good so now she says we’ve been so brilliant that maybe we should take the test and do another 8 weeks. What???!!! What sort of reward is that? And we’re down to the last bag of liver cake….

As if THAT wasn’t bad enough, mum and dad went to see the ‘dog whisperer’ live on Sunday. We got left all by ourselves for a whole evening – we only had our toys, and our duvets, and big bowls of food for company. When they got back they were actin’ all ‘calm assertive’ coz that’s what Cesar Millan told them to do. They said he was totally brilliant. Mum’s got that manic glint in her eye, the one we get when she’s on a campaign, only WE’RE the campaign. We don’t want ‘calm assertive’, we want mum runnin’ round looking after our every little whim……

She did still bring us some scraps from the Wembley Arena snack bar tho’, so maybe she’s not totally a lost cause…..

Woofs

Blue and Lou

Boat Blog: Ropes Stolen; panel delivered….

Saturday 27th February

Richard went up for a bit more DIY today. Sadly we’ve had an incident on our otherwise trouble -free moorings at Black Horse – both our centre ropes have been stolen – grrrrr!

We suspect that it’s pirates a rogue boater (possibly a cruise-by theft) as there aren’t any kids’ rope swings hereabout (unlike at Banbury last year). Nothing else was taken but we’ve put the contents of our deck lockers inside and will be investing in a few more padlocks.

Honestly, can you believe some people – we’re very cross indeed…….

Saturday 6th March

Richard went up to the boat for an exciting assignment on Thursday – our new panel had arrived. We are very impressed – Richard tells me that the panel looks great and they did a thorough job of fitting it. They didn’t charge us extra for re-doing the panel that I rejected a couple of weeks back – that’s pretty decent considering it was as likely to be my poor explanation as their lack of understanding.

With the new panel fitted and fine, we can recommend Balken in Greenford – they’re a family firm and very pleasant to deal with (as well as being skilled joiners).

Richard went back to the boat on Saturday to do a bit more DIY, set the Webasto for the next cold snap and put some of the other panels back. He’s also started to put the loose panels back on so that Indigo Dream looks shipshape for the start of our summer cruising. He’s ordered a new timer for the Webasto – the loose wire problem on the existing timer is a circuit board problem so proving fiddly to fix and it will be increasingly important to have a reliable timer as we start to move out from London.

Luckily we haven’t had any more onboard crime, though Richard has now secured our deck lockers. He’s also ordered nice new centre ropes with a distinctive design, which will hopefully make them less attractive to thieves. At this rate we may end up with having every loose item monogrammed with the boat’s name – after all, we did that with our life-ring because someone nicked the unmarked original!