Saturday, October 17, 2015

Ups and downs and comings and goings

On Wednesday, we had Simon working at the front of the boat, and Roy and Lee working at the back. At the same time. Simon was servicing the Bubble stove. It had been problem-free for four years, but recently started to burn dirty, sooting up the glass in the door and, of course, the chimney and inside the stove itself.

It took Simon 3½ hours to clean the build-up of carbon from nooks and corners I didn't even know existed. He actually used a hammer and chisel at times! When he'd finished, boy, was it worth it! The stove burns really efficiently now, with a dull red and blue glow just as it should be. It's fascinating and quite beautiful in the dark. And a very effective heater, to boot.
 
Roy and Lee were here to take rather more drastic measures than they had done the last time they came to fix a leaking joint in the calorifier. It had continued to leak after their last visit, so this time they replaced some oojamaflips. Unfortunately for all of us, we won't know if these oojamaflips are doing their job until the next time we run the engine to maximum temperature. Next spring, then!

There have been some new arrivals nearby in the marina. NB Hereward arrived a few days back, and surprised us by berthing in the space Achernar left last week. We're expecting them to be back in the coming week. Perhaps they've changed their minds, and are mooring somewhere else now. And just this afternoon, NB Wreyland arrived and moored in Smudge's space. Bang goes our view from the starboard windows! But David, the new owner of Wreyland, is only staying for four days, so there will be no problem with Smudge returning.

I got an email today, informing me of the removal of this blog's entry on the UKWRS website. Apparently, it had been drawn to their attention - probably by someone whose blog had been overtaken by this one on the ranking table - that my blog isn't waterwaysey enough! It has to be "UK Waterways related". What, all of it? Always? No, they say, just most of it. I looked at the blogs of some of those who occupied the same sort of area as mine on the table. Hmmmm. Never mind. If that's the rules, it's not a big deal. I had no idea anyone took their readership ranking so seriously! I've removed the little logo which used to reside at the top of the navbar here, and now NB Kantara's place will fall lower and lower until it disappears altogether up its own absurdity!
Down four places already!

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