Bartimaeus

The forecast for the next few days is to gradually get hotter and brighter.  We decided that getting on with projects on the boat would be the best use of today.  So while Clare was knitting, I set about the construction of the tandem storage cupboard.  I spent a long time staring and thinking.  I don’t want to make holes in the boat that will be difficult to deal with if we have a change of heart, or when the boat gets a new owner.

I broke off at one point to open the nearby swing bridge for a pair of single-handed boaters who would have had a lot of difficulty otherwise.  I got a thank you from the man on the first boat.  The woman on the boat behind him told me I was a wee gem and that she has resorted to knocking on people’s doors to get help in the past.

By the end of the afternoon I have a frame that will hold both parts of the tandem, and will even support the back half as long as the boat doesn’t move around too much.  Tomorrow’s jobs include finishing the tandem stowage to a suitable standard, and starting to think about what can slot in around it.  Moving the telly will start to become important too.

In the late afternoon we moved on a few miles intending to fill up with water at the water point we saw on our evening stroll last night. We moored up there but found the tap was unmovable, even with pliers. Fortunately we have just enough water for tonight, so we moved on until the batteries were full, and hope there will be enough hot water for a shower. We’ve found another rural mooring and managed to get just close enough to the bank. After we were all settled in I noticed a large number of wasps just outside the side hatch – I put the perspex window in as a precaution.