Bathroom Finished and Negotiating Ice in the Marina

Today we visited Baxter's Boatyard at Yardley Wharf to pick up Albert after the bathroom refurbishment.  The new tiles, sink, basin and taps and the joinery required all look very good. We are very pleased with the job that Bob did. With the weather (snow and ice) progress was a little delayed but the job looks the part.

New Wash Basin, Tiles, Taps and Worktop

It was time to move Albert across the marina from the boatyard moorings to our own mooring just a few yards away. As we got Albert ready Mike Askin and Victoria passed the wharf going north with horse boat Mercury in tow as a butty. Unfortunately my camera wasn't to hand.

Mike has recently posted another of his excellent You Tube videos of his escapades with Victoria. This time it was of Victoria and Mercury breaking ice (and braving the snow) on the Tring summit. I presume that today's journey was part of the same trip.

Our trip (yes trip!) was across the marina but it proved to be eventful. It was clear that earlier in the week there was ice in the marina and it was not safe to move the boat. Today with temperatures rising the marina looked calm and the water clear. But what we didn't know that just by our berth there was a large submerged sheet of ice just a few centimetres below the water. We had to break it up to get moored up. Luckily it wasn't thick enough to damage our new blacking but the noise from the prop was impressive and for a while maneuvering was not straight forward.

New Shower and tiles

So early next year we shall spending some time cleaning and tidying up the cabin and then making some other further improvements.