New fenders

It rained an awful lot yesterday evening and overnight, and while I quite like the sound of rain on the roof, it doesn't make for ideal sleeping conditions.  I knew it was going to rain all night,because the Met Office website has a great new feature showing the rainfall.  You can play a sequence of images from the previous three hours, so you can see what's coming your way.

It was still raining this morning, but I could see that there was a dry spell on its way followed by another load of rain.  It was just as well, because at 9.30 Mick Betts was coming with our new fenders.  We'd feared that the old shackles might have to be cut off  because they were rusted solid, but I'd taken every opportunity to spray them with WD40, and Mick had also been up to the boat over the past couple of weeks to have a go at undoing them -- eventually with success.  It was just as well, because the anchor points on Briar Rose are very chunky, and Mick didn't have any new shackles big enough so had to reuse the old ones.  He'll come back next week when he's got some the right size, and swap them over.  Even so, the improvement is considerable.  Here are the before and after photos.

I particularly like the tipcat and button rather than a single button at the stern.  They'll take a few weeks to settle into their final position.

Not long after Mick had gone, the rain returned and really threw it down.  We'd been very lucky to have had a couple of dry hours, even if it was really cold.

I've spent the rest of the day reworking an article and making some calls.  I also checked the batteries, and made a crumble for tomorrow when my parents are coming up for a little trip.  This afternoon, the swallows have been skimming the water in front of the boat.  One sat for a little while on the tiller of the boat next door, although naturally he was facing the wrong way.