A few days at Cowroast

Mon 27th March  Cowroast

We moved the boat to the CRT facilities at the top lock to empty two cassettes as it would be difficult to do this when the boat is high and dry. We then cruised into the marina, and onto a trolley so that Darren could tow the boat up the slipway.

Into Cowroast Marina

Waiting to go up the slipway

On the ramp

Under cover

He jet washed the hull and when it was dry he applied a coat of 2 part epoxy paint.

He fitted the new Axiom propeller we supplied, and took off a strip from the forward part of the rudder, with the idea that the boat should travel straighter.  We shall see.

New Axiom propeller

We drove to Aylesbury for an excellent dinner with Jack and Sandra

Tue 28^th March Cowroast

Darren put one more coat of blacking on the hull. When it was dry, James set about sanding and preparing the battle zones from the gunwale down to the rubbing strake, where, no matter how careful you might be, you end up with chips and scratches from lock walls, quay sides, brambles and sometimes other boats.

Work to do

Meanwhile Darren welded up the holes either side of the engine in the bilges, so that the bilge compartments were not all joined up. Hopefully this will enable us to keep the bilges dry.

We had an evening meal at the Cow Roast Inn. There is a new landlord here, who is keen to impress his customers. The food was very good. The pub is ancient – much earlier than the canal, with flagstones on the floor. It has been a bit neglected and needs some tidying up in places, but the atmosphere was good.

Wed 29th March  Cowroast

James started painting the gunwales and lower sides. The last time he did this was at Tixall Wide, where the edge of the canal is very low, and you can turn the boat round easily. It didn’t do his back any good, kneeling on the bank and reaching out with a paint brush. Here, under cover of the dock, he could stand up and paint at eye level. So much easier.

Darren moved the stern greaser from under the stern deck to a new cupboard converted from an inspection panel under the throttle lever.

We visited Aylesbury Honda for them to replace the driver’s airbag, as there was apparently a fault with them.

We had lunch in Morrison’s before buying a few things and returning to the boat

Thu 30th March  Cowroast

James finished the painting of the gunwales and lower sides, while Darren cut ventilator holes in the bow locker, to stop the condensation that had caused rust to develop.

Shiny black bottom

He also changed the diesel cap from the locking version to normal, but he used a brass one!! We have chrome everywhere and try to avoid brass. We probably should have specified chrome.  Thankfully Darren agreed to change it and ordered one for delivery tomorrow.

Hugo was getting a bit stir crazy and kept asking to go out, but we were not going to let him as we were high above the ground.

We went to an Indian Restaurant in Tring for the evening meal. Eating out means we don’t have to wash up, and we are trying to avoid too much water going out of the boat onto the floor of the dry dock.

No boating today

Fri 31st March  Cowroast

The boat re-launched this morning. We reversed to the end of the marina and back to test out the new propeller and rudder. It seems OK. We can certainly stop quicker.  The chrome diesel cap arrived, so Darren changed it for the brass version.

We went to the Full Moon at Cholesbury for a pleasant lunch with Alan and Geraldine who drove up from High Wycombe to meet us. It was good to catch up with them

Alan and Geraldine

Hawridge Windmill from the Full Moon

Minimal boating today

Sat  1st March  Cowroast

We travelled to Banbury today for the BCF Spring Conference, which was led by Peter Atwill. It was a very good day, looking at how Jesus reached out to people, and how we can engage people with the Christian message.

Tim leading the worship

 BCF Spring conference

We went to Morrison’s beforehand to buy lunch items, and we filled the car diesel tank at £113.9 – about 5p per litre cheaper than in Aylesbury.

On the way back we stopped for a meal at Frankie and Benny’s, which was NOISY with kid’s birthday parties.

No boating today

Sun 2nd April  Cowroast

We drove to Aylesbury for our last Broughton Church meeting for a while.  It was really good to be sent out with prayer for us as we seek to be a witness on the waterways.

We drove straight from there to Suffolk for two days with James’ sister and brother-in-law Maggie and Clive.

They have an old farmhouse with an ancient moat, which is surrounded by daffodils and kingcups.

Kingcup

Kingcups

The pond

No boating today

Mon 3rd April  Cowroast

We sorted out post, which all gets sent to the Suffolk address. There was important stuff such as a new passport for Hazel, our Gold licence for the summer, our stickers for Little Venice Cavalcade.

We went for a drive to visit Newbourne Springs nature reserve. It was a very pleasant walk through woodland and on boardwalks alongside a clear stream. We saw a blackcap, quite close, and lovely spring flowers and blossom everywhere.

Newbourne Springs Nature Reserve

A walk in the woods Maggie, Hazel, Clive

Spring blossom

We followed this with a visit to the Maybush Inn at Waldringfield for lunch. Although it was busy, they found us a table quite quickly.

Then we put the car away for the summer, under a tarpaulin, with the battery disconnected.

No boating today

Tue 4th April  Cowroast

We packed everything into our holdall, before a lovely breakfast with Maggie and Clive. They took us to Saxmundham station, from where we went to Ipswich, Liverpool Street, and by tube to Euston for our final train to Berkhamsted. Then after a visit to Waitrose, we caught a bus to Cowroast and returned to our boat. Hugo was pleased to see us.

We had a fair bit of admin work to do such as renew the boat insurance, and membership of RCR (The boaters AA).

No boating today

Tomorrow – back onto the canals, heading south down the Grand Union towards London. Rickmansworth by Sunday.