First turn of the key

Back on board for a few days  - it'll not be a weather related blog but it sure was interesting for the last couple of days. Sun rain, hail snow..... and impressive westerly winds that turned the canal into a sea 

But that's just canal life, you live with and in nature. Before it all got a bit lairey and in anticipation of the weather I got the exhaust stack vacuumed out and the manifold back on with new gaskets. One turn of the key and the lister donked into life. I pushed my luck by getting the Honda genny out for a cut of the grass and as expected that did fire first pull... it's a Honda. 

I might have mentioned our mooring fees went up a butt cheek clenching 20%  - I asked the farmer if there was a a chance of adding another water point as we were two hoses away from the nearest. Pleasingly they did but they managed to add it further away so when moored bow to the north my two hoses joined together were at their limits, and as the cassette one is getting old now I've been cutting bits out as leaks appear. I was resigned to sploshing out for a large reel type but noticed the buried pipe our neighbour had been using and one we used was now 'open and he was using the new tap nearer his tank. I spoke and he was happy for me to see if I could pull it back out of the ground to the middle point of out mooring  - he was happy for this as he said he'd not put it in as it was there when he came to the mooring. 

It was about 6 inches underground and the soil was soft so it pulled up easily and pretty much the middle of our mooring a join appeared. So a new cap was put on and it is now perfectly placed to fill the tank with one hose regardless of if we are pointing north or south, small benefits. 

We should wind Percy and may do later if for no other reason to cut through the silt bar that will have built up since we last moved her. It is still a cold north westerly wind and I'm sporting a chesty cough gifted to me by my middle grandson I expect. 

The clear night before two days of storms 

We got cabin fever yesterday so took a drive to empty the cassettes at Norbury and do a top up shop in Newport 

We've not been cold !