Pottering in the yard

15th & 16th November

It was the coldest morning yet, with ice on the inside of the Houdini hatch. We got up in good time, in case Ian wanted to shuffle boats in the yard early, but he wasn’t in any rush to do so.

I went down to the newsagent to get a paper, and to look for this month’s Canal Boat, since the Trading Post didn’t have one, but no copies were to be had there either. They did, however, have a Waterways World, so I got that instead.

Back at the boat, Ian produced the three prisms neatly reassembled with fresh SikaFlex. They need 24 hours in the warm for the SikaFlex to set, so we parked them, in their neat little homemade tray, near the stove. The weather forecast having improved, there was a good chance of getting them back in after that, as indeed proved to be the case.

Reg produced the finished cot side, and we put it in position for the varnish to harden before stowing it under the side berth. Looking at it, I think it’ll benefit from a couple more coats of varnish, but that can wait until the better weather, rather than having wet varnish making a niff in the boat. It’s quite tall, but that’s all to the good, as it means the side berth can function as a playpen for Daniel during the day

Late in the afternoon, we managed to shuffle the boats so that Sanity is now against the side of the yard, and Nocturne is down the middle. This means that Ian can take her out for a trial run without disturbing us, and we can rest here without running the engine until the parts come from Beta for the domestic alternator.

Just before cooking dinner, I went on the net and ordered a piece of software, Disk Warrior. This is a good friend to Mac users – it’s a general sorter out of disk addressing problems and the like. Essential in case of serious disk trouble, and useful in all cases, as it defragments the disk directories to give faster running.

Today we had a lazy start – nothing can be done to the boat until either parts arrive from Beta, or the prisms are ready to go back in, which won’t be until the afternoon.

Although I’d not ordered it until late yesterday, the copy of Disk Warrior arrived in the post – well done Amazon.

Mid afternoon, Ian put the prisms in, so hopefully we won’t have further trouble from them for a bit. We tried the cot side in its stowed position, where it seems to fit very neatly. Can’t be sure how much difference it’ll make to the hardness of the bed until Saturday night, when Elanor is due to sleep in it. Shouldn't be too much – it’s a case of a solid board instead of the hardwood slats.

Iain and Luisa are due back tomorrow, so I guess I’ll be making a curry for them sometime in the next week (maybe). Anyway, cooked a beef version of the one I’m planning with prawns for them, just to get my hand in.

Looking forward to seeing Elanor tomorrow, as well, so it’s going to be a sociable weekend.