A good day at the bottom of Hillmorton

We had a bit of a lie-in this morning after a rather broken night, not sure why. It didn't matter as we hadn't planned to move today, so were able to take our time getting going. The forecast looked hopeful for painting the floor of the well deck, so the main job in the morning was giving it a good sweeping and a wash. Before that, I fitted the new bulb in the rev counter lamp. I'd been told the old one was a 5 watt capless, so that's what I'd got from Halfords as a replacement.

It looked a bit brighter than the other two on the oil pressure and temperature gauges, which I suspect are 3 watt. Just to be on the safe side, I ran the engine for half an hour and used my new toy, an IR thermometer, to compare the warmth at the back of each of the gauges. They were broadly similar, so it looks like the extra couple of watts won't be a problem.

Having got the well deck clean, it was apparent that there was a bit of rust along the sides where water tends to lie and not drain out of the scuppers. Accordingly, after lunch I took a wire brush to those areas and, as is the way, turned a bit of a rusty area into a rather larger one. This really needs dealing with, so I've given those areas a couple of coats of Rust Konverter. To do the job properly, it should be left overnight to finish changing the oxide into tannate or whatever, so the actual painting has been postponed until tomorrow.

That in turn means we shall stay here tomorrow, probably running the engine to get some washing done. The forecast for Monday isn't too good at the moment – it it turns out wet, we shall sit tight for yet another day.We're not on a controlled mooring here, so have 14 days to play with. If we don't move until Tuesday, we'll go straight through to Braunston again, stopping there for the rest of the week.

Meantime, we went for a walk this afternoon which also involved a fair bit of socialising. Timewarp was tied at the top of the locks and we had another natter with Jacqui and Tony. Eventually, I succumbed to temptation and bought Sheila another tiller pin, a single owl. Finally tearing ourselves away, we carried on along the towpath to the end of the moored boats, which said included Riverside Escape. As we were coming back, Steve and Denise were just setting off to walk to the café for a mid-afternoon drink.

We joined them there and had another good gossip about various boating related matters. All-in-all, a very pleasant day.

Location:Hillmorton