Thursday, 16 May 2024

Pre-Crick: Day 1

I did a Breakfast shift this morning, and came up to the boat after that.  There had been a crash on the M1, which meant the drive took longer than it should, so I stopped off at Tesco at Wolverton for lunch and then a shop. It was cloudy and a bit rainy.  Having unpacked the car, my plan for the afternoon was to get the cratch cover off and scrub it, but I found we had no cavas cleaner.  So I spent some time touring Milton Keynes trying to find some.  In the past I’ve used a soft-top cleaner, but a garage I tried had none, nor did B&Q (online only for them), and Halford’s was also a no.  So I went across the road to Go Outdoors and got a tent cleaner which was half the price. The cratch was looking very green, following a winter just sat in the marina.

By 4pm the sun had come out and the temperature had shot up.  I took the cover up to one of the picnic benches and scrubbed it.  Lots of green came out, but past experience suggests it won’t look totally non-green.  Then I laid it out on the bank, got the hosepipe out, and rinsed it off.  I then left it to dry, while I removed all the spiders’ nests from the cratch board.

I had an early dinner, then folded up the now almost-dry cover and put it in the car (there was a slight delay because when I picked it up, I found the underside was swarming with ants! They took a bit of removing).  I drove down to Stoke Hammond, to Lena of Infinity Boat Covers, who’d agreed to re-stitch one of the zips which came adrift last year.  She was moored along from the bridge.


As I walked along the towpath, she was measuring another boat moored there for a tonneau cover.  We went to her boat where she did the stitching.  Her husband was also there, carving a face and a mushroom into a big lump of wood.

I’ve come back to the boat and put the cover back on.  Re-proofing will have to wait until tomorrow.  Adrian is on his way up and should be hear shortly.

0 miles, 0 locks.

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