Where have we been?

Well it has been quite a whilst since I last blogged (about 2 months!). We have been at MGM Boats to have our snagging items (found during our six month shake down cruise) sorted out!

It didn't actually take that long – to start with we had to wait whilst they finished their current boat build “Posh Fox” – the boat MGM are showing at Crick this year.

Whilst we were stationary in Leicester, Roy, Yvonne and Tilly kindly brought our car up to us to use, and of course stayed for dinner and a visit.

Shortly after arriving at the yard we had a terrific storm including hail stones

 

and torrential rain (the swans didn't seem to mind)

and the river rose from this

to this (notice the plank in the second shot – it even had to move up a step and still sloped up instead of down!)

a rise just over a foot in just an hour (sorry for the dark photos – night was falling!) and then dropped again within another hour!!

We have been here when the river rose about 2 foot – and we had trouble getting onto the boat with our shopping that time!

In early April I had a rendezvous with blogger Jacquie from NB Like Ducks 2 Water – She had commented on our blog that she was heading our way and was finding our comments useful, so when she passed by and moored just up from us, I had to nip over for a coffee and a chat.

It was lovely to meet her and we look forward to catching up again sometime – good luck on your travels Jacquie!

It was now time to move Muleless back into the floating workshop to start on our jobs. I decided to head down south to visit family and leave Gary helping out on Muleless rather than “live in a shed”.

Before I went I had to take advantage of a dry space for my laundry! and as you can see Gary starting to get into the swing of work – wearing his “onesie” as Jacquie described it!

Whilst I was away our pigeon boxes were adjusted so they don't leak any more, and the windows were resealed, this should sort out the last of our water seepage problems!

There were also various other jobs that were sorted out by Mark in between settling in the new owners of Posh Fox and sorting out one or two of their “teething problems” and last minute requests.

Gary also repainted the roof, and finished off the touching up of our battle scars ready for the next round. Thanks to James for giving him tips (we have to keep up with Chance, after all!!) The boat was then brought back to life with a good T-Cut and polish!

When I returned from the usual round of family and friend catch ups, I brought back some spare material we had from the making of our blinds and cushions and made a headboard for our bed, which had two uses – to make it look like a “proper” bed, and to keep any cold that used to seep through away from our heads at night.

I have also made something similar for the dinette/spare bed to keep our visitors  feeling warm!!

After 3 weeks in the shed, Gary was feeling like a mole, so it was time to leave!

He remembered how to steer the boat and reversed out without scrapping the paintwork!

We had been offered the use of nice mooring spot (the owners were on their summer cruise)  so we settled in for a few days to finish off a couple of jobs and catch up with some washing (and drying!) and return the car to Roy and Yvonne.

Realising that yet another bank holiday was upon us (May day) we decided to stay put and wait out the “rush” of holiday boats.

Posh Fox had other ideas and headed down river to fill up with fuel before heading back towards Crick.

As Saturday had the best forecast, we decided it was time to try out the new barbecue (which we bought about 2 years ago – it was our first purchase for the boat!)

We were extremely pleased with its trial run, and cant wait to use it out on the cut!

On Tuesday we were all packed up ready to leave, just filling the water tank ready for the journey south!

If we decide we want a permanent mooring, one like this will do us fine thank you, it was a shame to leave, but we have itchy feet after two months and need to move on!