Narrowboat Alacrity

Ouch…I didn’t get up today I sort of fell out of bed in a groaning heap. All of yesterdays kneeling and bending were taking their toll.

Tim (MD of Braunston Marina) must have pre-ordered the weather as it dawned fine and clear promising a hot sunny day. The smell of frying bacon wafting over from the moored working boats making breakfast a necessity.

As the show wasn’t due to open until 11 o’clock we had breakfast and did a leisurely tour of the stalls. there were all the usual attendees with some great Morris dancers.

Author Geoffrey Lewis was on his stand signing copies of his books, Jo bought three of his books (note… I must build a bigger bookcase onboard).

The number of ex-working boats attending this year far outstripped previous years and at one point you could cross the canal just over the boats.

It was going to be an early start but having to settle the cats and set up their feeders took a bit of time………Yes can we go now, I get the thumbs up from SWMBO ………. Easy journey up the M1 not too much traffic so arrived at Braunston with sanity intact.

Braunston Marina

mmmmmm  The feeling being here is like a comfort blanket I know is sounds corny but you can feel the calm descend…………. The autumn tints are in the hedgerows and trees and there is a definite chill in the wind…….yes rambling on again!!

Onboard at last at least there is no damp smell, open the curtains yuck lots of spiders descend they seem a bit miffed about being evicted from their winter homes, yes I know that they keep the flies down but I still don’t want them abseiling down into my tea or my ear when I’m asleep.

Water on, Electric on, Gas on I bring Alacrity to life, with some kindling and logs I light the stove and feel the heat almost immediately…………Kettle on!!…

Well there is no damage from leaving her so long apart from a large tin of Bitumen hull paint which seems to have rusted through in the front locker leaking a trail of thick sticky black gunge under the matting on the welldeck…..2 hours later a large quantity of white spirit and lots of rag we managed to remove it all!!!!………. nice smell though…………

Under orders from SWMBO I set up the TV aerial so she can watch ” Celebrity Come Dancing “…….and start to cook the evening meal to be fair she has borne the brunt of my griping about the tin of bitumen leaking. Well she did marry a “Grumpy old man”