Sorting the Paperwork

With the boat ready to drop back into the water in a few days it was now time to sort out a few bits of paperwork. The invoice for the time ashore came yesterday and is ready for paying, the insurance renewal was due so was also paid yesterday and then there is the Canal and Rivers Trust licence to pay for as well.

In recent years we have only been licencing the boat for nine months of the year. It seems silly paying for the three months that the boat is laid up ashore. Granted it only saves us around £100 but that is £100 that could be better spent on parts for the boat then being wasted paying for something we are not using.

The last licence ran out at the end of December so I will buy a six month licence today which will see us through until the end of August and then a three month licence after that will see us through until we are ready to lift the boat out once again.

Back to Work

After another weekend of working on the boat we are now back to work for what will be for me anyway, a short working week. 

On Thursday evening after work we will head back to the marina so that I am on the boat ready for the relaunch first thing on Friday morning while Liam heads back to Sheffield to work again.

We discovered over the weekend that our batteries really are on their last legs now. They are always a little sluggish after a period on the battery charger ashore, so we decided that at a few points over the weekend we would switch off the charger and let the batteries do some work in a bid to wake them up from their slumber. But this was to no avail. They really are suffering. So Liam is going to order a pair of new domestic batteries this week and will fit them on Friday evening after work. We knew they were getting ready for replacing so it is no great hardship.

Done

We had an early start this morning to make the most of the weather.  The paint was applied first thing to give it the most time possible to dry.

We then set an outing waxing and finishing a few bits and bobs off in the cockpit.

Naughty-Cal is now ready to relaunch on Friday morning.

Busy Bees

Today we have been busy busy working on the boat hoping to get it finished by tomorrow evening.

Today we have completely polished the cockpit and dashboard, changed one of the blue cockpit led lights, resealed a few bits in the cockpit and fettled a few bits in the galley.

Tomorrow we need the weather to be better and minus the rain as we have to apply the antifoul paint and apply some wax.

A Wee Incident

I had a wee incident with the hull primer last weekend and thought I had gotten away with there being no photographic evidence until this morning when this photo cropped up.

There was a little splash back!

It took an age to get off. Metallic primer seems to like to prime anything, skin included!

Indian Fakeaway

As regular readers of the blog will know, at the back end of October Liam and I set about trying to eat a bit better and a bit healthier.

Well up until now thing are going very well. We are both losing a steady 1 to 2 pounds a week and more importantly we are both still enjoying the food that we are eating.

Last nights evening meal was a very tasty, all homemade turkey curry with wholegrain basmati rice, sweet potato pakora and garlic and coriander wholewheat flat breads.

The pakora are easy enough to make. For these I baked a sweet potato the night before. Scooped out the flesh and added to a bowl with finely chopped onion, beaten egg and curry powder. Form into balls and cook in the air fryer for 15 minutes.

For the flat breads Liam mixed low fat natural yoghurt in a bowl with grated garlic, chopped coriander and wholewheat plain flour. Formed a dough and rolled out into flat breads. These were then dry fried in a large pan.

The whole meal was delicious, tasty and really quite healthy for a curry.

Glistening

We always like to keep Naughty-Cal looking at her best. She may be getting on for 14 years old now but that is no excuse to let her start to look shabby.

At the beginning of each year she is treated to a full machine polish and lots of wax to hopefully keep her hull and topsides glistening and gleaming but also to help keep them clean throughout the year. The wax and polish help to stop dirt sticking to the gel coat and scratching or scuffing it. A quick rinse off with the hosepipe is usually all that is necessary to keep her looking spotless through the summer months.

Towards the end of the season as the wax starts to wear away cleaning tends to require more elbow grease and some car shampoo is usually applied to help with the cleaning. This year we were a little lazy as we didn't wash the boat before we brought her ashore, which of course just meant that we had to do it last week before we set about polishing. These jobs always catch up with you in the end. There is no getting away from them!