The Black Hole of Quo Vadis

We got to the marina for 10.30 this morning, and immediately set about sorting out the water tank. I used the old water pump to empty the tank, then Liz ... bless her ... climbed inside and dried it out.

Hello hello hello hello hello

She then rubbed /scraped down the rusty bits, and we vacuumed out the resulting debris.

After a well earned cuppa, she got back in and painted the tank with Vactan to kill the rust.
We will now leave this to cure for 24 hours then, weather permitting, Lizzie will be back inside to paint on the Tank Blacking .... I'll be on tea-making duty again.

let them eat cake

As Liz recovered from her exersions, I tested out our nice new frying pan, knocking up bacon, lettuce and tomato rolls for our lunch, which included an invite to the local ducks (they had cake). 

After a quick vacuum around the boat, without a hint of complaint from the inverter, we realised there was still time for a quick "there and back" to Saddington tunnel as a shake-down following the stern tube repair..

It is about 6 weeks since we last cruised Quo, but in no time, we were cast off and away.

The exit from the marina is a very tight 180 degree turn, which so far I've only got right once, and with the aid of the wind, today went down as another failure as I had to 3-point turn using the far bank again ... dammit! Once away though, the full joys of narrowboating soon shone through, along with the sunshine ... glorious. Liz did most of the steering, and we were amazed at how much the canal has narrowed now that the trees are in leaf and the reeds have come through. This part of the canal is particularly river-like, with many tight turns ... enchanting.

Buttercups

As we approached the aqueduct, the weather took a downturn, and rain threatened, so we moored up and put the kettle on while it blew over. A quick tweak of the aerial, and we were able to watch the F1 qualifying .... amazing.

As Quo had an empty water tank, she was bow high, and the rising wind made handling "interesting", so we were glad to get back to the marina by 5pm. Athough my 180 degree turn back into the marina was as bad as the one on the way out, reversing into the mooring went well. Looking forward to getting much more practice.