Almost reached my destination...

Since my last post I have been to see Laudon Wainwright at The Stables in Milton Keynes. He was very funny and we had an enjoyable evening. In the past I didn't think I liked his songs but Luke recently lent me one of his CDs and I thought it was good. Also on the bill was his daughter, Lucy, who has a very nice voice and has written some great numbers.

The next day I pressed on and cruised Wednesday 18th to Wednesday 25th all of which were decent weather and often very nice warm calm days. On the Saturday I met up with Michelle and her grandchildren on her boat which is currently at Berkhampsted. We had a lovely day. The children went out in an inflatable boat and it was a nice, warm day for it. Lucky really as they got drenched.  Most days I was only travelling 3 to 4 hours - enough for me. I've reached Uxbridge so only another day and a half to reach Kensal Green or Paddington. Last Thursday when we had the first rain of any amount, I only cruised a mile. After all I'm doing this for pleasure not endurance.

Talking of endurance, this weekend (yes, this wet and windy Bank Holiday weekend) I went camping at the foot of Snowdon! Luke and I made a plan to meet Tom, Gemma et al who were doing the 3 peaks challenge. Luke and I started out at 11am, ascended via the easier but longer Llanberis Path and reached the summit around 2pm - Luke, with his long legs went ahead and got there half an hour before me. We decided to descend via the Miner's track as we thought we might meet Tom - and we did - he was virtually jogging up the mountain looking fresh as a daisy!!! Soon after we met two more of his group not far behind him and also looking pretty good. It took another two hours to get back to the road so all done in about 5 and a half hours. I was so pleased to achieve it, having had no fell walking practice for years and I'd last walked up at age 13 when it took six hours!! I'm all geared up to do more now.

Hopefully I'll keep this a bit more up to date during June.

I test out my walking boots!

A short but heavy shower yesterday which included hailstones. I had cruised on down to MK and got the bus back for the car. I had to shelter under a tree while the hail stoned me. Had a quiet evening reading and an early night. I'm obviously unused to all this fresh air. Today I pressed on through a couple more locks and am a few miles South of MK. I had to walk back for the car because it's Sunday and there are many fewer bus routes in operation on a Sunday. I tried out my fairly new walking boots but don't seem to have the sock system quite right so got a bit of a blister. I think I just need to break them in as they fit well and are generally comfortable. Not sure whether I should wear them on the big hill, though. Might just go back to my old reliable if slightly worn & leaky pair. Alas, I have to do a couple of days work before I can continue cruising so if it's going to rain, can it be now please. Just seen the weather forecast, no rain mentioned until about Thursday. So far this trip, nothing unusual or weird has happened to me. Ahem. I'll try to put something more exciting on here next time :-).
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I started out after work on Wednesday and did the first few miles, filling up with water at Weedon and sorting out all needs for the trip. I walked back for the car and parked close to the boat’s mooring.  On Thursday I cruised to Blisworth ready to go through the tunnel next day. Rick brought his boat down and offered to help me lock through Stoke Bruerne. Pete, was also at Blisworth as was Al and it was good to catch up with them. We had a cup of tea and then I got up to go as I needed to walk back 7 miles for the car. However, my luck was in, Al offered to drive me back to the car, so that gave me a great saving of time and energy but was not so good for my exercise (especially my training to climb Snowdon later this month!). This morning I was up and ready quite early. Had a good trip through the tunnel, meeting only 2 boats within. I got into the first lock and there were Rick & Pete (they had come over in my car) and we very quickly got through the locks. I drove them back to their boats and moved car to its next spot which was less than 2 miles from the boat - so just a short walk and then cruised back to where I’d left the car. Did a pile of marking and looked at tomorrow’s pile - it doesn’t look too bad! Lovely sunny evening with a field of sheep opposite - the lambs are getting big already. Onto Milton Keynes tomorrow. I haven’t got the dongle with me as I was hoping to use BTFON but there are not as many hotspots as BT would like you to think so I’ll upload this when I can!!

Last minute jobs....

I was on board from Friday to Sunday trying to tidy up all the paint brushes, pads, jars of suspect liquids in garish colours, huge volumes of used sandpaper and so on. I treated and stained the poles which look rather smart now - and the rain over the weekend showed that they are now much better waterproofed than before. Rick put all the fittings back on including the step up things on the cabin sides, the bow and stern fenders and other random (but essential) fittings. I'd brought the new seats over - one was just the back seat, cleaned up and varnished (rather than peeling paint) and the other was a new seat cut out by Tom and treated by me. It was such a tight fit that Rick had to cut half an inch off. Rick then tried to fix my horn that hasn't worked for a couple of years but we had no luck. However, I do carry an air horn (very loud, so use sparingly!) so that's not an urgent fix. He also tightened the V belt and generally tested things for me. There are still some paint jobs to complete but they can be done during the cruising. Also side hatch doors and engine vents need tidying up but can wait for now. Here are the latest set of photos:

Let the season begin...

I have been busy for the last month or so planning this year's cruising. Why so much planning and so little crusing? Well, that is because Olivia is getting a makeover - gone is the flaking paint, gone is (most of) the rust, gone is my attempt to make a start on priming two years ago. These photos were taken before work started on her makeover (Note: my attempts at priming the bow!).

For a little while she looked worse than ever and it became a little disheartening as progress with preparation was slow. Here she is looking BAD:

I'd hoped we could have started the makeover earlier but bad weather stopped play - however, since starting on 2nd April, the weather could not have been better for prepping, priming and painting. Well done to Rick for working 12 hour days when needed. Here are some photos as the paint started to go on:

Now she looks so much brighter - similar livery to before - blue and dark red - but instead of yellow I have gone for Pearl White. Both well deck and stern deck seats have been tidied up and I'm hoping the broken front fender will be fixed this week. I'll put up the latest photos tomorrow.

 I've still got to tidy up the inside and pack up my trip kit but any day now we will be off to London. Yippee!