Braunston 10 April 2014

Yesterday morning the blacking was finished. I touched up some of the rust on the cabin sides, this is mainly where the white coach lines separate the two shades of blue. For some reason the white reacted with the primer undercoat I used and I ended up with a crinkle finish, that will require sanding off and redoing in the future when its had time to harden properly.

We were due to float at 7 30 am this morning and sure enough dead on 7-30 Jonathan arrived to see us out.

After securing Harnser bow and stern, removing gang planks etc. he drew the two paddles in the gate. By the time I got the camera it had already lowered the water level outside the dock by a few inches and the front of the shed was full of spray.  The turbulence in the front section was quite something as the water made its way down the length of the lock under the beams.

It wasn’t long before we were afloat and Jonathan had lifted the gate and swung it to one side. Starting the engine in the shed and looking out towards the bright sun makes you realise what is coming out of your exhaust.

While the dock was filling Jonathan opened the top gate of the lock for me ready to go down, its the easiest moment to do it as the water flow into the dock makes the level lower than a full lock and the gates just swing apart.

Once out it was backwards through the lock and down to the marina entrance, at least there wasn’t anything else moving about at that time to get in the way. Into the marina for a pump out as soon as they opened and then back on the main line to moor near the marina entrance. While we were in the marina waiting to do the pumpout a new boat arrived for the Shared Ownership show.

Once moored we had our first ever breakfast in the Gongoozlers Rest before heading off down to Gloucestershire to see my son and grandsons for the day.