Well the plan was to set off on a bit of a cruise this weekend, but the weather says 'hang on a bit'. When we left home yesterday morning it was warm and sunny and now sitting in the marina it's cold, wet and windy. What is worse, Grace and the dogs, Ronnie and Rosie are with us for the weekend. A teenager and two dogs are hard to entertain when confined to the boat and going nowhere.
Never mind, there is one good thing. A new cover we made (well Kath mostly) to stop the rainwater leaking in at the foot of our side hatch seems to be working splendidly. Something needed to be done as the rain would get in and wet the top of our sofa back. Longer term I need to fit a new door cill, but this was an easy quick fix and it works well.
We bought some waterproof fabric on line, and it does appear to be properly waterproof and the little neodymium bar magnets Kath sewed into the hem seem to grip the boat really strongly. So while the cover is easy to remove, it sticks on well against the wind. I just have to be careful not to get it too close to my pacemaker when I'm handling it. I suppose the whole thing cost us less than £20.
If and when we get moving, we plan to tootle up to the top of the Ashby and back. A journey of 53 miles and only 7 locks (including the little Hawkesbury stop lock) each way. Easy peasy.
On the subject of miles, I expect Boris Johnson would approve of Canalplan's habit of still using furlongs for fractions of a mile. Having suffered the necessity to do my engineering degree in both imperial and metric units back in the late sixties, I lack his enthusiasm for a change back to the good old days. Leave well alone I say. We still have pints of beer and signposts in miles. I'm still five feet ten inches tall (but shrinking). I can't bear the thought of petrol costing however much it would be per gallon. When I was a student in the 1960's we had to do our engineering sums in metric and in imperial, making a lot of extra work. I wouldn't wish that on the youngsters of today.
3 comments:
Oh Kath, what a brilliant hatch cover!!! Magnets, Bloody Brilliant. If you are bored one day maybe a few instructions, hints, links to the magnets.
You are wonderfully creative.
Lisa
NB WaL
I have similar covers for my leaky windows, also with magnets sown into the hem, but I've used the tarpaulins you get from the hardware for mine. I like your waterproof fabric much better. I'll have to see if I can buy some over here.
Excellent idea! I think we could do with one of those for the bottom of our duck hatch.
Shame about the cold and wet though. Perhaps you could set the youngsters on being outside doing the steering while you and Kath do making cups of tea and cocoa?
Cheers, Marilyn
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