Lockdown day 67 - Rediscover this day, May 28th 2012

Do you remember what you were doing on that day? Perhaps Google Photos has told you, too. It told me that we were on our way down to Braunston, where Roy of Days Afloat was to remodel our shower-room/toilet. Kantara was there for five weeks, so these photos cover the entire return trip. 

First stop, Watford Locks. We can't go anywhere without descending either this flight or Foxton.

Lunch break at the bottom.

A genuine, untouched reflection of the sky.

Bridge 100 on the Oxford canal just up from Roy's Braunston workshop.

And this is where Kantara is to stay for the duration...

...just a stone's throw from the junction with the Oxford Canal.

Then, five weeks later, we leave...

...with a fabulous new shower-room. (This is the only photo I took. We had a lot more than that done, but narrowboat shower-rooms are rather small for photo-taking!)

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Sunday

We drove back to St Albans again on Sunday. On Monday, Grace had a doctor's appointment, after which we drove into Cambridgeshire to pick up Jess. Having spent four days at the Edinburgh Festival with Said the Maiden and brother Steve, and a further four days holidaying with them in Northumbria, Jess had then gone to the FolkEast Festival in Suffolk with an old friend from Uni, returning to Kat's home just outside Cambridge on Sunday morning.

Before picking Jess up, Grace and I paid a return visit to Wimpole Hall, an interesting, beautiful NT property not far from Cambridge.

On Monday morning, we came back to Kantara, to find the glass splash-backs in place, and looking great. The galley's finished at last!

 

 

 

 

The space is now larger (although too small to take decent photos!), the cupboards and drawers more numerous, convenient and appropriate, the sink's bigger, and the new cooker, fridge and washing machine (in the shower room) are so much better than the old ones. And the quality of the woodwork is superb. We're very pleased. Lovely work, Lee and Roy!

We now have to be back in St Albans on 1st September, so we'll not be able to go to Stratford as planned. Perhaps we'll go at the start of October. I'm holding out for an Indian Summer! Today, then, we return to Yelvertoft.

How's it going?

By Roy's workshop at Braunston Turn

We've had a number of text and email communications with Roy and Lee, working on Kantara's new galley, and we visited today for the second time in the past eighteen days, to see how they're getting on, and to discuss fine details of the build. It's all coming together well.

   

When Roy originally said the job would take four weeks, we reckoned he'd revise that up in due course. Today, Lee said five!

We took with us today a sample of the door and drawer handles, and power sockets and switches we had in mind, and they all look fine. The cooker, fridge, washing machine, sink and taps have all arrived. Now it's all been marked out, and the bulk of the cupboard and drawer skeletons all constructed, they'll be able to complete the job without any more input from us. Now we'll be able to get away for a few days next week, for a bit of a break.

Having done the Roses and Castles course back in May, Grace is now practising the art, with the possibility of her painting designs on the sides of the boat after it's been repainted next April. Today, she took tracings of the flowers currently on the sides, to help her as she practises.

The job starts

On Monday morning, we were up and ready early to move across the canal, to moor up by Roy's workshop, but there was still a boat there, a job still in progress. Roy rang to explain. The job had over-run a little, and he needed the owner to take it out for a short spin, to test if all was OK. The boat duly left, winded, and returned an hour later. Work still needed to be done, so it was just after we'd finished lunch that we were able to take Kantara across and moor her, ready for work to commence.

Roy drove me back to the marina to collect the car, while Grace emptied the galley of pots, pans, crockery, cutlery... everything! When I got back, there was a carful of stuff to to be loaded to take back to the house with us. Roy spent another half-hour or so with us, making sure he fully understood the work to be done, and Grace left him with drawn plans and detailed notes. We finally left at around 6:00, fortunately missing the worst of the traffic rush.

So here we are, back in St Albans, with a to-do list as long as my arm! We're hoping the job will be complete within a month. Fingers crossed!

Kantara to Braunston

It poured with rain on Friday night, all night. The rain found a leak in a window seal in our bedroom, and I woke with wet feet and a wet patch on the duvet over them. I sealed the leak later, with Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure, a really effective sealant I've used several times now on the boat and the car.

Cruising in rain like that wasn't really a very attractive proposition. We reckoned we'd had our year's share of heavy rain at the end of our week with Michelle. So we delayed setting out until it had stopped, it had got a little warmer, and the wind had dropped.

The temperature rose steadily after that, and I got very hot working the locks at the Watford flight. We moored just north of Norton Junction, opposite the pair of disused BW butties. It was a fine evening, and a dry, warm night.

Sunday started very grey, but we had no reason to hurry away, and the weather was much improved within a couple of hours. We discovered that the boat in front of which we'd moored was "Dibitu", with Steph, one of those who'd done the Roses and Castles course with Grace back in May. The crew of five had entertained us considerably the afternon before with their harmony singing.

After a late breakfast (lunch really, since we tend now not to eat at all at the start of the day), we continued to Braunston. There was only one other boat with us in the tunnel (Grace's least favourite), and the locks were largely in our favour. It was very warm and sunny now, not at all what the weather forecast on Friday had led us to expect. We moored opposite The Boathouse in Braunston, which is a good spot to overnight, despite the continuous noise from the pub's kitchen extractor fan.

Tomorrow, we move Kantara across the canal to Roy's workshop mooring, and leave her there while he refits the galley. We'll be going back to the house - lots of work to do there!

Preparing for the new galley

On Tuesday morning, Roy arrived to discuss details of the galley (kitchen) refit he's going to do in Kantara next week. Measurements were taken, Grace's plans consulted, notes made, chins stroked, tea drunk, ideas exchanged, and Roy left looking and sounding confident. Grace sat down straight away to order cooker, fridge, washing machine, sink and taps on the Web.

In the afternoon, we saw "Belle" at the cinema, a really excellent British film with a top cast, sensitively directed.

1. "This film is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed race daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay. Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield and his wife, Belle's lineage affords her certain privileges, yet her status prevents her from the traditions of noble social standing. While her cousin Elizabeth chases suitors for marriage, Belle is left on the sidelines wondering if she will ever find love. When she meets an idealistic young vicar's son bent on changing society, he and Belle help shape Lord Mansfield's role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England."
2. 
   
   

The new cooker was delivered to Roy's workshop on Thursday, and we drove over to check it, to make sure it was all OK. It gave us another opportunity to discuss the galley job further, to see the black glass sheet which will used for the splash-back behind the cooker and the sink, and the oak which will be used for the worktops. It's all very exciting!