Nothing new really

Early in our time on Kantara, I wrote a rather idealistic post about the weather, basically saying, if I remember rightly, that it's just one of those things that boaters have to put up with, and we just smile and get on with life regardless. How naïve that was!

The fact is that, though there are stalwarts out there who cruise the UK's inland waterways throughout the year, come rain or shine, hail or snow, Grace and I are not that hardy (or is it foolhardy?), and we feel very much at the mercy of the weather. While chugging along the canal in a strong wind may not be too bad because of the trees and hedgerows along most of the banks, we still have to get out of the marina! 

At the moment, we need warm, dry weather. Without it, we can't paint the hull and we can't have our cratch cover repaired. Well, we could but for the fact that we have developing plants on the foredeck at the moment, and don't want to run the risk of adverse weather damaging them - it may well have been frosty last night, for a start.

In fairness to us, we could be cruising. The weather's not that bad, and we've certainly been boating in weather far worse than this in past years. But it's just not convenient to be on the cut at the moment, since we want to attend the Crick Boat Show next weekend (and already, nearby moorings are closed to casual would-be users), and I have to have the car serviced and MOTed next week. We're banking on better weather the week after the Show, that the painting and cratch cover may be done then.

Meanwhile...

We still feel the need to have the bubble stove on for a few hours each day.

The weather forecast is hopelessly wrong, promising good weather when we have bad, and bad weather when we have good. Yesterday there was a strong wind for most of the day.

Using a couple of the free cinema tickets we get in exchange for Tesco Club Card vouchers, Grace and I saw "The Great Gatsby" the other day. Grace enjoyed it more than me. I found it rather tedious, and light on content, and I couldn't help wondering why Peter Parker was in it. Tobey Maguire really can't be anyone else, it would seem.

A Midwestern war veteran finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbour.

Oh, and I finally got around to taking the two gas canisters out of the bow locker, and removing the piece of old carpet on which they had been standing. As I had suspected, the carpet was not damp, and the painted floor underneath only had mild surface rust. Nevertheless, I replaced the carpet with plastic tiles which stand on feet, away from the floor, and which have lots of drainage holes across their area, and won't need to be concerned about the possibility of rust developing in future.