A morning spent quietly finishing the paint on the bow floor, and since the weather was finally up to it a couple of hours on along the canal to get the first trip over with.

By & large very successful, bar clipping the bows both leaving & entering the marina, but I pity the couple of moorhens fastidiously nesting under the rear rope button & around the tiller of the boat next door. It can’t end well if the neighbours decide to move at all this season …

We intended to kick off the season today, but true to form the wind was a bit lively for a first trip for a while, so we spent the day on the boat getting things a bit more prepared. That meant draining & replacing the water in the tank (which had developed a definite ‘tang’), swapping the gas bottle that’s been empty for months and painting the bow deck to match the newly-spruced stern. At least until I ran out of paint, obviously. Looks good though, eh?

The usual Friday lunchtime oasis was a little different today. The McDonald’s wasn’t just consumed on the rear deck, it was consumed while touring the marina and partaking of the Carlsberg keg in the sunshine with Doug & Mark. It took a little longer than I’d have liked to get back into the mooring, what with the lack of practice and the audience (daughter of the Budgie Barge, I think), but we got there in the end. And sadly had to go back to work for the afternoon.