Ah yes, boating!! Got back from Marrakech in the very early hours of Monday morning. Went home and slept, then resorted our stuff and got back to Odiham on Monday afternoon to find the boat tied up with Madam Butterfly, and oh boy! What a mess! One of my boating principles is to never tie up under a tree, guess what? Three weeks under the trees!! What a mess, oh, I already said that!!
Ok, more about the mess later. I started the engine to get some charge and hot water, swapped out an empty gas cylinder and loaded all our gear. We wriggled out from the inside of MB and reversed into Galleon Marine for a bit of diesel. One of the young ladies took pity on me (I've still got it!) and swept several trees off of the roof, I settled up with GM and took the boat over to the wharf.
We topped off the water and started to clean up, roof first then starboard side, front and back. Leaving the port side for another day. Did I say it was a right mess? The worst I've ever seen, I was a bit unhappy!! Anyway, we spent the night at the wharf, it still feels a bit odd to be here on our boat, and Penny went off to work in the morning. I dismantled the cratch so as to avoid the problems with Reading Road. Pondtail and Farnborough Road bridges that we had on the way up, had a chat with the fisherman, yes, it's the 16th today, fisherman are back on the scene, and set off for Mytchett.
A pretty good day weatherwise, saw 2 kingfishers, a GM boat at the Barley Mow and not much else!!
Dick had asked me to report on water levels and stuff as the John Pinkerton is due to go to Mytchett soon, this I duly did - Broad Oak feeder flowing, level looks pretty much near maximum, Dogmersfield looks tight (for JP) but probably ok if lightly loaded, water empty etc and most surprising, water going over the Ash lock bypass.
Still not been attacked by the angry swan, most disappointing. Big shock at Ash lock, there was a boat coming the other way!! Saved me having to close the gates. And so on to Mytchett, passed a couple of moored visiting boats, there are 5 booked for Deepcut tomorrow morning so these were probably a couple of them, and arrived at the canal centre at 2.15, time to clean the other side and reassemble the cratch.
More damage to the cratch than I realised, top plank hinge broken and 2 bolts bent!! Have to have a root around to see what I can find.
Caught a taxi home, and got some dinner going, went to my Spanish class and found a suitable replacement hinge. Penny's daughter gave us a lift back to the boat and here we are!! Deepcut and Brookwood tomorrow - at least the forecast looks good!!
Nothing really of note to take pictures of, so there aren't any!!
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