Pottering and Tinkering

Yesterday turned out to be a cracking day, a nice gentle breeze and the sun getting warmer as the day wore on.  I stayed on AmyJo and planned to do much but in the end actually did very little.  

First order of the day was to clear out and clean the cratch.  We had a bag of coal bought on board that covered the floor with coal dust.  Not wanting to tread it all inside I rolled up the cratch cover and set to.  

We're quite lucky with our cover as there are several permutations we can adopted with it.  When fully closed all the side panel windows are covered.  We can roll up the covers to let light in and keep the wind and cold out with clear plastic windows.  We can unzip the side panels and roll them up leaving a good sized opening each side, and then finally we can roll the whole cover up onto the cratch board out of the way altogether.  The latter option was chosen

Its a bit more of a fiddle this way but ideal for when manoeuvring onto a mooring or into a lock for the crew at the front.  I actually prefer it up this way.

It took me ages to put everything out onto the jetty as I kept being distracted by the passing boats out on the cut  but eventually swept and polished the whole front half of AmyJo, inside and out. The bows and bow cheeks got particular attention with the polish as we had not got to these previously.  I then put everything back tidily in between watching the boats on the cut.

It was time for a cupa and lunch so I sat out in the cratch soaking up the sun when I spied a well known blogger opposite

It was Herbie or at least it looks like Herbie. Unfortunately there was no sign of Neil and Kath so I could not tell for sure.  I dare say our paths will cross sometime.  Neil posted about ladies who lock (click) that was rather interesting the other day and that reminded me of when Chris took AmyJo's helm for the first time through Watford locks (Click).  Neil's commented about Kathy urging other ladies to take the helm and that made me feel quite proud of Chris for having a go herself.

Later in the day whilst I stood looking over the cabin roof, watching the working boats making their way up to Foxton for the Historic working boat club gathering a rather unusual boat passed by AmyJo's stern, at first I could only hear it but not see it, so being curious I wondered down the jetty to see this little chap motor pass.

At little over 3 feet this model looked so realistic.  Being remote controlled it handled really well but I could not see the controller despite looking.  I would love to have a model of AmyJo like that I must admit as I used to have a fleet of model lifeboats years ago that I built myself.

Reluctantly I then closed up AmyJo and headed home, I swear its getting harder to do that each time we're aboard.  At least it will only be two days and we're back aboard for 6 days this time and then were off up the cut, can't wait!

So here's the thing, we want to head Braunston way so what would you recommend bearing in mind its Easter weekend?  Do we -

Stay on the GU and head towards Lemington Spa?  It would be lovely to catch up with Keith and Jo on Hadar again.

Turn North up the North Oxford (we'll do that when we take AmyJo home to Tattenhall)?

Or, turn South on the Oxford Canal?

Apart from the North Oxford we are not likely to get a chance to do the others for a good while, at least until we're both retired so want to make the most of it while we have the chance to.

edit -Sorry had to fix those typos