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| We went to stay with my old friends Rhys yr Ambiwlans (Rhys the ambulance) and Tarn in their old farmhouse near LLanychaer, West Wales |
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| There was plenty of good old Welsh 'liquid sunshine' (rain) and wind on this exposed hill. |
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| When we were leaving they kindly gave me a lovely old ex- Green Goddess Gilpin axe, I took it in my workshop, cleaned, de-burred and sharpened it. |
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| We had wanted to get Christina out for blacking last summer, but the slipway was fully booked |
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| So, we finally got a chance to risk the weather and try to black her in late January-early February, this can be a big problem if you choose a week that's wet or very cold (condensation on the hull often means you can't do anything until after lunch) |
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| The badly welded rubbing strake was being buckled out by the jacking action of the rust behind it, so we cut out all the bad sections. |
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| And welded in new D bar |
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| Bad welds on the box section on the bow had resulted in the box section being full of water. |
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| A new piece of D bar welded in |
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| Repaired sections |
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| Glenda applying black to the elum (large wooden rudder on the butty) |
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| New curved tunnel bands being added below the rubbing strake |
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| After several coats of bitumin and six new anodes, I'm also re-lengthening the forward tunnel bands |
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| Imposing view of the bow |
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| The slipway, viewed from near the pump-out pontoon |
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| Lovely colours at the Friends of the river Nene's Woodford mooring |
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| John & Rita had headed back to the marina, we stopped, moored and went visiting ex neighbours and picking blackberries. |
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| We had arranged to meet up with the Friends of the river Nene at their new Pear Tree Farm moorings (upstream from Wadenhoe). On arrival we breasted up in the bywash. |
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| As there were a lot of boats already moored bankside |
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| They had made fantastic progress clearing the riverside mooring |
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| Glenda spotted something large wedged under Freyja's bow and we decided to try to pull it out using the hydraulic crane on out tugdeck. |
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| Apologies for the fuzzy pics, I was pumping the crane at the time! |
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| It involved craning it up a bit and then lashing it to a tree, then getting a fresh bite with the crane |
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| Heave Ho and up she rises! |
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| Safely on the bank at last, this could have ripped the bottom out of a cruiser. |
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| Next we cleared the bywash bank and an area for camping |
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| Time for a breather |
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| By the evening we had these beautiful moorings to ourselves |
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| Idyllic, or what? |
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| FotrN have provided these firepits at all their moorings, handy for burning rubbish, as there are no bins on the river. |
