Tuesday was a bit of a nothing day, got the 10 o’clock bus into town, visited Tesco, well someone’s got to help them out, I am sure my £24 will keep them afloat a while longer, then bus back.

It was chilly but in the afternoon I re-roped the existing fenders and replaced the two broken and missing ones.

Bright New Ropes

As with all things boaty I am very much on a steep learning curve and that includes Knot tying, these are called a Halyard Hitch (if I've done them correctly), 12 of them in all, I think they look quite neat, just have to see if they hold when I “brush” ever so slightly against something.

So that was my day, settled down to dinner, a shower and a bit of TV before sleep.

Wednesday, the smokeless fuel I have had on order was delivered, a sigh of relief, should be able to keep nice and warm for the next month or so, I have been using ordinary house coal as that was all I could get, I found it smelly, smokey, sooty and creates a lot of dust in the boat, so I am glad I was able to get the smokeless.

Exciting times ahead, today I booked my passage back down the Basingstoke, you have to arrange it, to conserve water the locks are not open every day, it makes planning a simple 32 mile cruise quite interesting but hey ho, and only 29 locks in that distance, I told the man I was a novice and single handed to which he replied, “don’t worry, by the time you reach the River Wey you will be an expert at dealing with locks alone!” So I will be leaving the safety of my present position on either Sunday or Monday depending on the weather and how I feel, and should reach the River Wey on Sunday 21^st, a nice leisurely cruise, apart from Wednesday when I have to get through either 14 or 18 locks depending again on how it goes, hopefully the sun will shine, the temperature will soar, the wind will disappear, and the locks will magically open to let me enter and close when I leave, but where would the fun be in that J