Testing a P-Wave

I'm sure most gents have encountered one of these mats in a pub urinal, especially used on waterless systems. I wondered if it would freshen up the cassette toilet? I ordered one with spiced apple aroma at £3.80 inc. postage. It was advertised that it could last up to a month in commercial use, so I figured it would last a lot longer with just two of us. The spiced apple was a little overpowering to start with, but settled down. It actually lasted two and a half months. We replaced it with an ocean mist one which has a more subtle aroma,

A trip out with our pair

Glenda had been more than a bit nervous of taking our butty out since the last time with our altracation with the cruiser Waynetta
and the pig of a man that owned it. But she finally consented to taking both boats out.

Moored on Denford unofficial moorings.

Nene locks are great for a breasted pair.

The Friends of the river Nene's Peartree Farm mooring.

A lovely quiet spot.

Broken down at Lilford lock, I'd had to clear the weedhatch several times, this time I smelled diesel which was coming from a cracked pipe, luckily, as we had the butty with us, I also had my full workshop, so I managed to de-silver solder the tiny top hat olive, which then deformed, completely flattening it!                     After much fiddling, I finally managed to get it silver soldered back onto the pipe.

So off we go again, heading to the next disaster...

As we approached Upper Barnwell lock a cruiser overtook us, we arrived at the lock and they were still on the lock landing, I had to rough moor on the offside until they went into the lock, as I moved across to the lock landing Glenda shouted that a narrowboat was coming upstream, we moored as far back as we could go to give them room. I lifted the engine board and checked the oil pressure gauge which had stopped working, Glenda shouted to me to come into the lock, she never lets me cast off normally, I had to go between the boats as I couldn't get off the stern, I started to go into the lock and Glenda shouted that their were two narrowboats coming down behind me, I looked back then took a step forward and fell down the engine 'ole! Injuring my leg and then landing full force on my rib, breaking a rib and badly winding me.

I suddenly realised I was still steaming into the lock, I had hell of a job to reach up to the speedwheel to slow the pair and get Freyja into reverse.

Ouch!

Glenda wanted to take me to A & E, I said there was no point, so we carried on to the Ashton moorings

I insisted we walked up to the Chequered Skipper pub, as I knew I'd seize up if I stayed put.

Headlight and navigation lights work OK.

Moored at Tichmarsh

I love this view of our boats.

 The TWATS! (The Wadenhoe and Tansor Swimmers) in action.

At Islip lock.

We joined LyndZ Read for her annual Standup Paddle Board festival at the Friends of the river Nene's Woodford Moorings.

Glenda and LyndZ enjoying the remnants of last night's fire and a nice breakfast.

Re-wiring the re-wired instrument panel

After our first re-wire the rear of the control panel and the engine bay wiring was still a tangle of scruffy and redundant wires.

It drove me potty, it makes fault finding near impossible!

My new panel taking shape.

Stripping out all the redundant wiring.

Ahhh! That's better!

The new oil pressure and temperature gauges, new digital volt/ammeter have joined the old rev counter and hour meter.   The three brass knobs are for the headlight switch, navigation light switch and the horn.

Before and after, how to improve the bilge from hell!

This is how our bilge looked when we went to pick up Freyja. Aquaduct marina had dropped her back in the water a week earlier than planned and then forgotten to grease the knackered stern gland.

A similar view, the BMC 1800 has gone, replaced by the Sabb 2JGR, I removed loads of oily bricks, layers of rust and grease, the sides of the diesel tank, the weedhatch (twice).

Still a lot to do before I'm satisfied! LOL!

Engine porn! That lovely chugging sound ;o)

It was nice to be able to take a few of our guests out for a short chug downstream. Love the chuckles and giggles from Steve & Lisa as they wave back to our fellow moorers who are waving us off.

Our 'Nearly getting old' party

As Glenda was 50 years old in January and I'll be 65 years old in December, we decided to have a party at our marina, somewhere in the middle of the year. Weather wise, we couldn't have picked a better weekend.
We bought a mountain of locally made sausages, burgers and stuff for breakfast. We borrowed a marquee and a gazebo from Jaymee at the Cock Inn in Denford.
All we needed now was people to enjoy it!

Jaymee from the Denford Cock kindly loaned this marquee, on Friday evening we chilled with my kids who'd arrived from Wales and a few early arrivals.

My youngest son Jac, his girlfriend Lizzie came up from Wales, Danny was an early arrival from Suffolk.

72 pints of locally brewed Mad Monk and a pale ale that Graham brought from the Wirral.

Our neighbour Martin brought his 1913 Buick ragtop out to give rides to our guests.

Martin was kept busy all day!

Dave, our 'next door' neighbour and Denford friends Tim & Christine.

A great experience for my kids and their friends.

We were so lucky with the weather.

My hastily 'erected' Choppurinal came in handy with the amount of drinks quaffed!

Danny from Suffolk on barbeque breakfast duty the next morning.

From left to right :- My eldest son Sion, Glenda's daughter Becca, My son Jac's girlfriend Lizzie, my daughter Nia, my son Jac and Glenda's son Nick.

Nice to see that Glenda's friend Carol came up with Rob & Julie from Suffolk.

The mad hatters!

Nice Moggie convertible

Great to get to party with a few of my Welsh biker mates Phill, Steve and Lisa.

Let the party begin!

Lit a few pit fires at dusk.

Nice sunset over the marina.

View from Freyja as we chug out onto the river.

Enjoying the pit fire and the company.

A chilled evening around the pit fires.

A great time with lovely people.

A successful trip at last.

We finally got out onto the river, with no problems!

It was a tad windy, but you'd never believe it from this photo.

Lush and green in the valley of the Nene!

Nice to escape the marina, Glenda had a short walk to work in Tiggywinkles Tearoom, Woodford.

Sunset at the Denford moorings.