Sunday in Braunston

This morning several boats passed us going north which suggested there might be at least one vacant mooring in Braunston so we slipped our mooring and slowly cruised towards Braunston Turn.

It was quite a surprise to see so many vacant moorings.  We’d anticipated Braunston would be full.  The water point before the junction was vacant so we stopped to top up the tank and dispose of our rubbish before continuing towards Braunston Marina where we found a good mooring immediately before the last water point.

The first maintenance task for the day was to remove all the timber from the chrome head of the broken boat hook.  I had earlier noticed the timber shaft had failed at the point where the timber enters the head. 

Cleaning the timber from inside the hook wasn’t too difficult and we now face a choice.

• Buy a new boat pole
• Buy a new timber shaft
• Repair the existing boat hook.

A new boat hook is going to cost approximately £40-50.  I don’t have the tools to reshape the end of the existing pole to make it fit inside the hook.  The preferred solution would be to purchase a new timber shaft pre-shaped to fit into the hook.  Midland Chandlers and Wharf House Chandlers don’t sell them pre-shaped.  It looks like we will be buying a wood rasp and I’ll then spend some time reshaping the end of the old pole.

On a more positive note Midland Chandlers had a 9” chrome trumpet horn in stock.

It was very reasonably priced (less than £20) and with a small modification I replaced the temporary car horn we bought in Huddersfield after the first boat horn failed.  This one is certainly loud.

The Boathouse now has a Sunday Carvery which we both selected (buy one get one free).

After lunch had settled Jan got down on her hands and knees to worship me clean the bathroom, whilst I washed and polished Waiouru’s starboard side.  I was halfway through removing the polish when a well known boater passed us on his way back to Braunston Marina. 

Yes, it was Timothy West…… and he didn’t hit us!

I shouldn’t be unkind to Timothy as both he and Prunella have done a lot for the canals.