After what seemed like a long time, our new cratch cover has been fitted, and it looks great. It's very neatly crafted, with some features that the previous cover had lacked. We'd been a bit concerned about the colour - the only real choice available in a world where there's a shortage of blue dye - but it's fine. There was one problem with it, though.
It rained the next day; not hard, but hard enough to penetrate the new cover, dripping puddles over the well-deck. I got onto the company straight away, and the reply came back,
"Sorry you was not informed. It is completely normal for the cover to leak at the start . They are just like the old style canvas tents . They need a sealing-in process . You need to allow around 5 good heavy downpours with the cover drying out between the downpours. Each time the leaking will get less until it stops . The covers are made using a thread that swells in the pin hole. No treatment is needed on your new cover. Please allow it time to seal itself. Many thanks.
Thread that swells in the pin holes! Clever!
We now have a fridge issue. It's having to work too hard and too long to keep the food at the right temperature. Particularly during periods of unusually high temperatures. This is putting too much of a strain on the battery bank, and we're having to run the battery charger for several hours each day. On many days, the solar panels on the roof haven't been seeing enough sunlight to be very useful. There's a company in Nottingham who would send out an engineer to service the fridge, but we're just outside the area they serve. We could take Kantara to Nottingham, and we'd love to do that, but we'd rather not. It would take us eight or nine days to get there, and we'd be anxious about our food and the batteries, which might take a hammering overnight despite being charged by the engine during the day. The company might come out to us here in the marina at an additional cost. We're waiting for their reply to my cries for help.
Naturally enough, we're very frustrated by the repeated delays of the past several months. Even the paint touch-up jobs have had to be postponed several times because of the heat of the sun, or the rain. We needed relief from the stress. On Wednesday, Grace's birthday, the weather was just right for us to pay a visit to nearby Lamport Hall and gardens.
We noticed there, as we have at the marina, huge crowds of swallows busily catching insects in the air or over the water. On the marina, the flocks must number around a hundred. They share the water; half of them do their amazing flying and diving act while the others watch from a nearby tree or boat. Then they swap over. It's a wonder to behold.
And then we said, "Stuff the fridge and batteries, we're going cruising!"
So we did. The weather was right for it, we were right for it, so we went. Nothing exciting. Just nine miles, as it happened. Three and a half hours to the Welford Junction. Our main purpose was to test the fridge and batteries. Would the batteries, charged by the engine throughout the journey and fed by the solar panels while we were moored, withstand the demands of the sick fridge? The answer was "Just about barely", but it wasn't looking good for cruising any further. We went back to the marina the next morning.
Now we were waiting for a reply from the company we want to service the boiler. We're still waiting for Colin, too, to remove the thermostat from the Bubble stove, fit a new radiator, and free a seized radiator valve. "Impatient" doesn't express how we/re feeling now.
Oh, and there are closures all around the canal system because of low water levels. Will we ever get to do a proper cruise again?
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