Short Cruise and Puppy Pads

A very short cruise today travelling less than a kilometre.  Jan put on a load of washing whilst we were filling the water tank from the tap outside Moorhen Marina.  I then managed to wash and dry the port (left) side of the cabin as the tank filled.  We are now moored in a quiet area above Latton Lock.  There is no ‘dot in the sky’ but we do have a few DTV channels.  There is also a good internet connection.

After lunch we wandered up to the nearby retail park.  Jan had this great idea to replace the baby nappies I use to clean up oil spills under the engine with puppy training pads.  There was a large pet store in the retail park so we bought a small packet of them to try out her idea.  They are a perfect fit under the engine.  One side of the pad is absorbent paper and the other side plastic. We have a thin layer of oil on the baseplate under the engine so for the first attempt I’ve laid the paper side face downwards.  Hopefully that will remove most of the film of oil.  Next time the paper layer will be face upwards to catch any drips.  I was initially concerned the plastic side against the baseplate might result in a build up of condensation but have now decided this may not be an issue as the heat from the engine tends to keep this part of the baseplate dry.

Later in the afternoon Jan did more interior spring cleaning whilst I carried on with the exterior paintwork.  The cratch window frames were sanded along with the water tank hatch cover and the cockpit deck.  These areas were then given a coat of graphite grey paint to my usual poor standard.  I’m a hopeless painter!

Tomorrow we need to visit the nearby Tesco and somehow I also need to fit in a walk.