Nearly beached her!

Before I get on to that subject, I must say what a smashing job Sheila is doing on K2. Steve has written quite a lot about this finishing touches to his boat, and now that he has published (if that is the right wording for weblog posts), I thought I'd add a couple of ours.


The first was snapped from the dinette window showing some lettering completed (with shadowing effect et al) and some not.


The second shows Sheila busy on the Port side of K2. It is very odd actually having K2 facing the wrong way - we're so used to having that huge tug deck as a sort of extra bit of pontoon!!! (did you know they use it as a barbecue deck Steve? - ed.)


There has been a bit of wind lately and the Midlands have had most of the rain allocated to the British Isles. This has not kept us all tied up to the pontoon or towpath however (see related blogs). So the day before yesterday, I had the interesting experience of approaching the pontoon in a sideways sort of crab as the northerly wind got me broadside. I thought I was going to do a good grinding and scaling job on Helva, the boat that snuck in behind us. So I poured on a bit of power, and gaining plenty of steerage way, missed by at least six inches. But whoops!! that is a beach ahead, not wide water. So with 55hp stern thrust and helm hard over, I watched incredulously as our mooring rings vanished from the peripheral site astern; then appeared again as Gleemaiden nudged gently into the pontoon. No hesitation, rope in hand, I shot a loop through and got her in nice and tight. Apparently, I missed the beach by about two inches, and Audrone told me that she thought that she was going to be catapulted onto the bonnet of our car when she hit.


Apart from the fact that one doesn't really like taking the camera out in rainy weather, there haven't been any water based shenanigans to capture over the last week - apart from another intrepid painter. Martin (aka Gussie Finknottle), borrowed Debby's little punt and managed to put a good coat of paint on the off-pontoon side of Hetty Peggler.


We also had a lovely evening on Clarence last night, but it is best, even if episodes of such evening are recorded on film, that they are left unpublished. For this good reason, we were far too tired(!"!) to wish Neil and Ruth a bon voyage as they set out for the Ashby canal on Nerus this morning.