Wednesday 23 April 2014

Progress in steady steps

We treated ourselves to the Boater's Breakfast in the Willow Tree this morning; no particular excuse except that we won't have another opportunity for a bit if we go cruising next week as we plan to.

Feeling well fed, we put in a burst of work on the boat. The fire being out, I swept the flue and chimney, cleaned out the stove itself and changed the door glass. The old one is still intact but roughened on the inside; it's not been the same since burning some eco fuel made from compressed wood chippings last year. Changing the glass can be a hassle if you don't know that a) the door can be lifted off the stove and b) the simplest way is to use a pair of mole grips to swing the lower clips round to release the glass. Liberal applications of WD40 help, naturally.

I've kept the old glass to use as a spare.

Meanwhile, Sheila washed the roof. This takes quite a while, being the length it is. She also washed our scruffy boating fleeces. The aim is to get that sort of heavy duty washing done before we go out.

When putting the deck furniture back, I changed the centre lines for the newly washed mooring lines. I'll now wash the old centre lines over the next couple of days, after which they'll become the mooring lines. This way, all the lines get washed (we don't do them often enough, really) and by rotating them the wear gets evened out.

After a light lunch we walked round the marina, returning to the boat just in time for a cup of tea. Once I've posted this, Sheila's going to cut my hair and I'll trim my beard and have a shower.

It's Ocado buffalo stir fry tonight, leading to a mildly bizarre conversation as we were putting the lunch stuff away:

Sheila: "Is there room for the lettuce in the fridge yet?"

Me: "No, but there will be after I've fried the buffalo."

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