New Year, New Livery

Throughout January and February we are mostly painting boats. Sammy and Sumo are getting a nice new livery for this year and some out of water maintenance.  On a very rainy day at the beginning of January both boats were craned out of the water at Oundle Marina and popped into the shed for some TLC after a busy year going up and down the river.

Here is Sumo on her way into the shed.  This is the last time you'll see her in this colour - when she comes back out of the shed she will look like a completely different boat and be green and red to match Sammy!

Meanwhile Arwen and Spencer Bear have been busy helping to take out curtain hooks so the curtains can be laundered. Spencer Bear looks fascinated by the whole experience!

The first job was to power wash off both boats and remove a few freshwater mussels and weed, let them dry and then sand off the hulls and cabin. Any rust spots were then treated and Sumo had an ultrasound scan to check the thickness of the steel which she passed with flying colours!

Sammy is first in the queue for painting and  here she is after several applications of undercoat - a nice shade of battleship grey!

A quick look underneath the back end of Sumo now she has been cleaned off

We're now at the stage where Sammy has gone green again and is just in the process of having her red back panel painted on.  Then it be will time for the coach lines to be reapplied and her name to be added. It would be good if it warmed up just a little bit as trying to apply paint in sub zero temperatures is no fun as it doesn't spread very well!

Sammy's got some new magnesium anodes fitted on the front and back of the hull

We're certainly getting through a few tins of Toplac and Pre-Kote and there is still another boat to go! 

In the meantime, I leave you with a sign that Spring is just around the corner and it won't be long before we're back on the water - see you soon!

Fotheringhay and Back

Over the holidays we took our boat off down river for a few days.  We very rarely get to go out boating ourselves as we're usually really busy during the main boating season so it was a bit of a treat to get out on the river.  On the afternoon of the Winter Solstice we set off on our trip.  After the first lock we made a quick stop at Oundle Cruising Club for a drink (well it would have been rude not to!) and then carried on to Lower Barnwell Lock.

We headed on towards Ashton through the rather stormy looking Northamptonshire landscape - the river takes on a very different personality in the winter becoming very changeable in its moods.

By the time we had reached Ashton it was starting to drop dark on the shortest day of the year so we decided to moor up by the town bridge at Oundle for the night and we were treated to a beautiful sunset across the town.  You can see the spire of St Peter's Church in the background.

The following morning we had an interesting start. It had got rather windy overnight and as we set off from the mooring we were blown across the other side of the river. An entertaining time ensued lining up a 70ft boat to go under the arched bridge at Oundle!

A couple more hours cruising saw us arrive at Fotheringhay and as the wind was getting progressively windier, it was nice to tie up for the day below the church.

We left the boat at Fotheringhay and Garry from Oundle Carriage Company promptly collected us so that we could go and retrieve our car. We journeyed up to Wansford where we were booked on to the Nene Valley Railway Santa Express which the kids all thoroughly enjoyed.  It's well worth a visit at any time of year, just check the timetables for trips into Peterborough.

On the way back we popped into the Montagu Arms in Barnwell to see everyone and Dylan the cat was busy on till duty!

The Church of St Mary & All Saints looked lovely all lit up on Christmas Eve and I enjoyed the view while eating a large number of mince pies and enjoying a glass of sherry or two!

We had a quick cruise up to Warmington, got stuck on a sand bank while turning the boat in very windy wind and then back to the Castle Mound on Christmas Day

On a chilly Boxing Day morning, we set off back home - the wind had dropped, the river was still and calm and the trip back was chilly but very pleasant.

There wasn't a soul about anywhere - we had the river to ourselves

We eventually arrived back at our moorings at Barnwell just before the weather turned again after an enjoyable winter cruise.

Back to work now with lots to do. The hire boats are due to come out of the water for a repaint ready for the start of the boating season in April.  We're looking forward to the arrival of Spring and I'm already out checking for signs of the first snowdrop!