Booked In

Richard has finally responded after a reminder on the phone. SONFLOWER is now booked in for 10 days hammering and sawing at Kate Boats in Stockton. Hopefully the work to the saloon will make the boat more comfortable for the new role that she has as a holiday boat. We hope to provide seating around the stove for the family and visitors. All we have to do is get the boat to Stockton Marina on time.

That should not be too demanding. Stockton is only a day and a half away for a good ownership timeshare crew doing 4mph and cruising all daylight hours. It will probably take us most of a week, cruising for an hour or two before breakfast and lazing around most of the time with a fishing rod in my hand. Nice bream at Braunston, carp at Cropredy and Fenny Compton (NO FISHING in the marina or between bridges 136 and 137A to protect the hundreds of HUMUNGOUS carp that dwell in the marina and feed out of your hand) plenty of good roach almost everywhere. There are also a lot of jobs that need doing apart from the BIG project.

Before then we will need to clear some of the accumulated clutter out of SONFLOWER. It is really amazing how one collects novels that you know you wont read again, magazines with one article that you might read again and newspaper to light 100 fires instead of just the one. That is without the cupboard full of half used batteries, secondhand brass screws, handles, rope ends, a horn that stopped working three years ago but I might get round to repairing sometime and another one that is new but never worked properly anyway......

Also there is that cupboard under the sink with two 'spare' water pumps that need overhauling, or the front locker withere the never used anchor is stowed and on top of it are all the pots of paint with a remnant remaining that might be useful sometime for touching in.

Probably enough to keep us at a refuse disposal station for a couple of hours! Better look one up on Nick's Canal planner.