Vulcan & Raymond.

Still moored at Braunston.
Total of 218 locks and 223¹/₂ miles and 8 Tunnels since 5th Nov 2006

When we arose this morning you couldn’t see the opposite bank because of fog.
By mid morning the sun had finally burnt through the fog and the temperature has been climbing steadily to 23 ⁰C. Another good day for sanding and painting. The stern deck and rear hatch have now all been tidied up and looking good again. During the course of the day numerous events have taken place. The boat behind us, n/b Hector which is a tug design with a genuine tug 6 cylinder Lister 5 litre engine. The owner, Paul couldn’t start the engine due to insufficient charging time yesterday. Like us he has a bank of 6 volt batteries set up for 12 volt but until 2 days ago he had insufficient power in the alternator dept: He now has a 160amp/hr alternator but has not had the time for a good run. He then had to visit Braunston chandlery that open on Sunday to get a spare 12 volt battery that he intended to buy sooner or later.
While all this was going on Paul’s partner Rosemary showed Dot through the boat which is all set up with a traditional boatman’s style cabin. She now knows what boatmen of old used to have to contend with as far as living conditions were concerned.

The other event of the day was the preserved narrowboat Vulcan with preserved butty Raymond in tow. They were only moving Raymond to another part of the marina but had to come out onto the canal to do it. The pair of them looked resplendent especially Raymond after just recently coming out of the paint shop with a complete make over.

An apology is due to Del and Al who we mentioned a few days ago on nb.Thema. We made the same mistake as others and mistook them for the names on the boat. Just shows you don’t always believe what you read. They are in the process of taking the plunge as we did and getting their boat Derwent6 built so they can live the life we live. What a fantastic life it is too. May we meet again on the cut in the future.

The last photo is the end to a beautiful day – more predicted to follow this summer.

Tomorrow we move on towards Rugby.