I've been feeling a bit of a whimp. we generally do a fair bit of cruising in the winter but this year we haven't. Although we have spent a good few days and nights on board, we haven't taken her out since she was blacked in December, partly because we didn't want all our nice new blacking scratched off by ice! Now after a record layoff, we plan to take Herbie out tomorrow, albeit for a short shake down cruise.
Little Grace is coming with us, and she is excited at the prospect of another chance for her to work some locks either at Watford or Foxton. We haven't yet decided which way to turn out of the marina.
With a bit of luck we might bump, not literally I hope, into James and Amy (formerly the Ducks) who will be passing our way as they bring their new old boat Willow home from Nottingham to Cambridge. Look out for us J&A.
I always get a bit nervous before taking Herbie out after a long break. Somehow it causes me to doubt that all the mechanical bits will work. Of course they generally do.
For anyone who was a bit daunted by my instructions on how to download from CanalPlan into my CanalOmeter spreadsheets the other day, I have good news. Nick Atty (Mr CanalPlan) contacted me to say that he will very shortly be adding a facility to generate the CanalOmeter output format without all the fuss, so it'll be dead easy. Watch this space.
HERBIE! Journeys on our narrowboat and the trials and tribulations of maintaining her.
1 comment:
I hope you enjoy your first outing, Neil. We always get the butterflies before the first trip out as well. But then I have to admit our fellow travellers on the canals are a wee bit bigger than we are. if we crossed paths with one of them, it would be the equivalent of an elephant swatting a house fly.
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