An Icy Check on ‘Chance’

Yesterday we went up to Brinklow Marina to check on ‘Chance’.   As it’s been a few weeks of cold weather since we were last there and thought we’d go back to check that things were ok – especially to make sure the heating has been working properly on the frost – stat setting.  This was the scene when we first arrived…………….

….’Chance’ beautifully preserved in ice!

The heating had been working well and everything seemed to be fine.  James checked the glow plug on the Mikuni boiler and it was as clean as a whistle.  We also got the part numbers from the various engine drive belts so that we can order spares for this year’s cruising.  James popped down to Brinklow village for fish and chips at lunchtime……..

… and we ate them in the relative comfort of 5 degrees C! inside ‘Chance’.

We left after lunch to travel the 30 miles to our builders (MGM Boats) at Thurmaston, Leicester.  As we were “up north” it was nice to catch up with them and to see their latest boat taking shape and destined for this years’ Crick show.

We left MGM and headed south to Faringdon where we stayed with youngest daughter Frances (and Kel) for the night.

Today dawned bright and cold and we headed towards Newbury where needed to do some shopping.  It was too cold to leave Oscar in the car for long so we quickly shopped and then took him for a walk along the canal.

Here he is, wrapped up against the cold, with the lovely old cottages of Newbury Wharf in the back ground.  This is actually the River Kennet here and, due to the low rainfall this last summer, it is running extremely slowly ( but still fast enough not to freeze).

A walk along the towpath in the Aldermaston area, by chance, we came upon nb ‘No Problem’.  Sadly, fellow bloggers, Sue and Vic were not on board – sorry we missed you, it would have nice to have met you both at last!

We headed further towards Aldermaston Wharf and briefly met up with Tom and Jan on nb ‘ Waiouru’  and check on their progress.  The boat looks much, much better now that Tom has put on the undercoat and blacking.  We found Tom on board working in sub zero temperatures.  10 out of 10 Tom!

The bitter cold had taken it’s toll by now and we got back into the car for a nice warm trip back to West Sussex.