What a day.

Moored near Lock 67 Apsley

The day started with bright blue skies but a bit chilly. It soon warmed up sufficiently to think about doing a bit more painting. I want to repaint the area’s that will be covered by the stern and cratch covers so that I don’t have to take off all the fittings later when I repaint cabin sides.
Tim Garland from Milton Keynes rang to say the covers are made and he will be over on Tuesday 6th to fit them. Better get my bum into gear and get the painting done.
The Temp agency rang me as well to tell me that the company I had been working for wanted me back from the 12th Feb to the end of the month but I had to decline the offer as it will seriously affect other plans we have made for later in the year. We hope to leave here on the 12th and start moving north. We can’t wait to get moving again, but being at Apsley since December has certainly worked in well with our plans. We may consider Wintering over here next winter.
Dot has now made contact with Glenda, the wife of the marina warden (Peter) who has offered assistance with getting the new roller blinds made for the kitchen and bathroom. She is busy measuring and cutting the material ready for sewing tomorrow.
While having a late lunch a narrowboat came through heading south. The boat was “Milly M” which we recognized as fellow blogger, Maffi, . We had been following his website for quite some time while he was in Saudi Arabia and his boat was being built in Yorkshire. A similar situation to what we had been through with “Gypsy Rover”. We went and introduced ourselves and spent probably an hour or more looking over each others boats and chatting about narrowboats, canals and things in general.
Maffi is the second blogger we have now met personally.
We have just read Granny Buttons on the topic of pump out versus cassette toilets. We have a pump out with a cassette toilet as a backup. We plan to get a self pump out kit so that if there are no pump out facilities available there are always Elsan dump points. We can then pump out into the cassette and dispose of the waste. This could be a saving of about 250 quid a year to a continuous cruiser so a self pump out kit would pay for itself in a matter of months. These are currently available from Lee Sanitation or some chandlery’s make their own. We are waiting to find a marina with one in stock to purchase. Pump outs are often hard to find when you want one.
The first photo shows the elaborate and different footbridge across the canal at` Apsley Marina and the second our new blogger mate Maffi's boat outside the marina.