We arrived late in the afternoon yesterday, there were a few heavy showers about so we didn't go anywhere. I did a few jobs and we enjoyed an evening on board with some nice wine. The ballasting hasn't been sorted yet but we had a good chat with Tingdene and it sounds like a plan is in place to resolve this and a couple of other minor snags so we should be all sorted soon. I managed to resolve one minor mystery very quickly - recently we thought our immersion heater didn't work, but then on another weekend it did. We were also not convinced that the battery charger was charging when we left it on while away from the boat. After some head scratching and testing with a multimeter I discovered that that the switch labels on the shore power panel were incorrect. Now I have swapped 'Battery Charger' with 'Immersion Heater' everything is working as it should be.
Our boat is the first made with this bathing platform and one of the improvements we soon identified is to have a couple of grab rails on the outside of the transom, I feel a bit more secure if I can hold on to something while boarding. There are some decent rails on top of the transom but these are inside the canopy so this means the canopy has to be partially opened to be able to use them. So I bought a couple of stainless steel grab rails and fitted them this weekend.I positioned them 'by eye' rather than trying to be precise with a rule and spirit level (which for an ex-aircraft technician was quite challenging!). It was really the only way, there is no datum to measure from and nothing is particularly level.
They are screwed on with 5mm roundhead screws, so I drilled 4mm holes through the gelcoat and fibreglass, then carefully bored through just the gelcoat with a 6.5mm drill so that I wouldn't get star-cracks when driving in the screws. We were happy with the result, another job jobbed!
We awoke to a much brighter day on Sunday, breezy and with a few clouds but generally much nicer than it had been, so today was the day we were going to travel through our first lock in Life's too Short! After boiled eggs and soldiers for breakfast we readied ourselves for the short trip. My checklist 'Uncle Bryn's Guide to Boating' was used to make sure we completed all the essentials before setting off. Amber conditions prevail with the stream decreasing, so rather than heading downstream through Sonning (and having to negotiate the bridge with a strong side stream) we planned to head upstream through Caversham which we know is a nice easy lock to get through.
On arrival we noticed the 'Self Service' boards were out so I started the locking process and then bought the boat in. As luck would have it the lock keeper returned and finished the process for us which made it a bit quicker and we were soon on our way. We had gone through our first lock on our own boat!
We motored through Reading and on as far as Mapledurham where we turned around to head back, taking it in turns to drive.
There are many lovely sights to see along the river, we have 30 years worth of holiday photographs, many of the same houses, wildlife or beautiful views, and no doubt we'll continue to take them for many years to come.
We were soon back at Caversham lock, it was on Self Service again but fortunately we were joined by a group of 20 or so canoes and one of their paddlers kindly offered to operate the lock for us.
Soon after leaving the lock we were safely moored in the marina with Caroline preparing dinner while I continued to 'potter'.
On this short trip we were surprised and a little disappointed to see a number of dilapidated boats that appear to be permanently moored as live-aboards in places where we've overnighted on previous holidays. It's a great shame as not only are the moorings no longer available to license fee paying boat owners but also some look to be in such a mess with refuse and scorched patches where open fires have been lit.
My next little job was to tidy up some marks along the edge of the cabin roof. There are scuffing marks all along the cabin roof edge, caused by either webbing straps or ropes. I'm not sure when they occurred, I expect they've been there the whole time but because of how our boat has been moored I didn't notice them until a few weeks ago. They could be from the trailer trip down from the factory (most likely) or from lifting in and out at the marina. I must admit I was surprised at the length of these marks - from the very front of the cabin all the way back to behind the windscreen, and all the way along the cabin roof grab rail. How they've been caused will remain a mystery, but they can't be left like this.
Time for a bit of elbow grease and some rubbing compound, it didn't take too long to remove all the evidence then I finished the job off with a bit of polish and it now looks as good as new.
After dinner we cleared away. used Uncle Bryn's Guide again to make sure we left everything as it should be and then headed home. We're not sure when we'll next be on board, but hopefully within 2 or 3 weeks.
