This time last year

Its been a while, but Mary has written some more, this was about our bank holiday weekend in Thorne last year.

August

Time sure does fly. We did go on holiday during August, the first for a couple of years that didn't involve working on Misterton in some way, so it was a nice break. We did venture out onto the river last weekend and went for our first overnight trip, about two miles upriver to Bell Weir Lock, conveniently located by the Runnymead hotel. We were able to sit on their terraces and watch the boats go by, and also watch other people's weddings, which is fascinating in itself.

We even managed to turn round without hitting anything, Mary took this picture to show that we were actually out on the river with other boats.

Work has been continuing, mainly by other people, specifically James the joiner who has finished and installed the kitchen units - looking good!

 I think its now down to me to finish it off, then Mary can finally cook dinner.

July

Due to work, a few weekends away (including the Le Man classic 24 hours race) not so much boat work has been done. Part of our new sofa has arrived, it will be an 'L' shape, but they haven't finished the second bit yet. Looks good and its nice to have somewhere to sit, Mary and I now squabble over the sofa, and chivalry does not help my case here, so I usually end up sitting on the floor.

In a small attempt to de-clutter things, I decided to mount the VHF radio, even though it'll be  a while before it's connected up (and probably even longer before we have a license or need for it).

There are still quite a few things to do, but I'm chipping away at them when I can.

We've moved a little further up the mooring to make way for Claires boat, so here is the stern showing the lettering we did a while back.

Dawn Patrol

The last couple of weekends, Mary and I have got up at 0530 in order to take Misterton out on the river while its quiet. This was a good way to get some practice in and test out the steering while not getting in any one else's way. The steering is certainly better, but I did manage to hit some trees and run aground turning around just below the M25 bridge at Runnymede a couple of weeks ago. Certainly more ballast will help the propellor get a better 'bite'. We've learnt though that slowly does it and to give Misterton a chance to respond. This weekend just gone we managed to turn round without hitting anything, which was an improvement. We were joined on this trip by Mary's brother Steve, and he had a navigation application for his iPhone (he's a keen sailor).

You can see our trip here and there are pictures at various points to click on. Here's one of Staines road bridge in the early morning.

It seems like its been too hot for much boat work, but I've been tidying up the engine room in the evenings, cleaning and de-greasing the floors before treating for rust with Vactan.

Then painting with deck paint left over from my narrowboat Iris.

Just need to sort through the tools and other stuff in the engine room now.

Modified Steering

Finally got all the bits I needed to do this, the cutters to make the holes, some shiny new bolts and a piece of 8mm thick steel plate. I made a template out of plywood to help establish where each end should be in relation to each other. As I'd had several weeks to measure and think about, the actual drilling and fitting didn't take too long. Just need to test it out now.

Friend Nev popped up from Bristol for a quick visit. As a fellow boat owner we had plenty to catch up on. Possibly not what we thought we'd be doing when we were at school over 30 years ago. :)