Friday 17th August 2018



We didn’t move today, but had a long overdue maintenance day. I was up at 7 and had the washing hung out and the starboard side of the boat washed before breakfast. The cabin side was then waxed and polished. Then came the painting.

We now had on board a half tin of the 2-pack blackening used originally, a ¾ tin of the satin black used originally from the rubbing strake up, and the tin of PU100 Matt Black bought in Stone. The tin of 2-pack, while it is a buggar to use, gives better protection and it costs £75 per tin. So we decided to use that up but save some for the other side, then start to use the PU100 which, while it won’t give as good protection, is a lot easier and quicker to use.

This side now looks so much better. It should never have been left so long without being coated. The boat was starting to look neglected.

Just need to do the other side now.

Brenda set to and cleaned the windows. This job is made much easier with the portholes and windows being removable, although the windows are heavy and it takes the two of us to remove and refit them.

We did a couple of walks. One over the River Trent and into the countryside. The other around the village of Burston. There are a lot of big, older properties here, quite a few of which dwarf Burston Hall.



                              



                                                    





                                    The River Trent at Burston, Staffs
























The River Trent was first encountered when the canal crossed it on a little aqueduct not far from Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station, where the A50 crosses the canal amidst a confusion of other bridges. It seems to be no more than a dirty little brook that does not appear on the other side of the aqueduct and so must go underground. You would have thought that Stoke-on-Trent would have made more of a feature of the river it is partly named after. The source of the Trent is only some 6 miles north of Stoke in the Biddulph direction.

One thing about here we have noticed. There is very little wildlife except wasps and there are plenty of them. No birds, no fish. It’s strange.

Later on, I had another go at sorting the TV reception. The fault has been traced to the co-axial cable between the booster box in the bedroom and the aerial outlet box in the saloon. There are two co-axial cables that run here. Graeme Cunliffe always runs two, in case one gets a nail put through it during the build! I tried connecting one end of the second cable thinking that maybe the wrong cable has been connected. That didn’t sort it though, so it’s back to the drawing board and a rethink on that one.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday 26 th June 2020   We both had a terrible night. It got to 28 ˚ and was airless. Rain started at 4am but it did nothing to cool the place down. The rain stopped as soon as it started but came again before 8am and continued heavily until midday. Once the rain had cleared we walked up into Christleton village. It felt so good to be back out and exploring again, although the church was only open for private prayer on Wednesday and Sunday. The centre of the village was delightful, a pretty village, full of some lovely old buildings. Even outwith the actual centre, there was an abundance of gorgeous properties.                                    St. James Church, Christleton               ...
Read more
Saturday 20 th June 2020   Brenda took the dog out this morning and, after an hour, Harvey turned up back at the boat on his own. A frantic search for Brenda found her on the towpath talking with someone. At Tracey’s, the fencing was finished and the gate hung. Well pleased with the job but hard work. In the afternoon, we met with Martin and Shelley in the grounds of the Kings Lock pub, bringing our own beer. Again, it was nice to meet up with old friends. The Kings Lock would be our usual meeting place but it did feel funny not being allowed inside. There were quite a few groups meeting up in the same way with most tables being full. Roll on when the pubs reopen. Of course, there were no toilet facilities so we had to break up early. Brenda went for fish and chips, while I dragged the dog back to the boat, desperate for the loo. It was a long way back! We sat in the front cratch and ate our fish and chips, very novel. After a bit of TV, it was early nights. We heard...
Read more
Thursday 25 th June 2020   After breakfast we walked up to Beeston Castle. It was open but visiting was by prior arrangement only. However, we both enjoyed the walk although it had been hot before 8am and the day just got hotter. We then decided to head for Christleton and resume our exploration of the Shroppie and visit the castle on the return journey. Once down Wharton’s Lock it is an 8-mile, lock-free somewhat boring cruise. The countryside is lovely but there is the 2-mile stretch of privately moored boats at Hargrave to contend with. The algae was not quite as bad as yesterday, but there were numerous floating islands of reed, some completely blocking the canal and had to be pushed gently aside with the boat.                                    ...
Read more