A clean(ish) boat but still nowhere to go

After the "we finally, for the first time in 11 years polished all the boat in one year bar the top of the stack" party we wondered what to amuse ourselves with next. The plethora of Covid / lockdown jokes kept us busy for half an hour each morning and after that we had so much spare time. Patrick joined in the general merriment too sending us this:

The cupboard from hell under the cockpit sink had its first proper clean out in years. Sticking your head into it and finding all sorts of unsavoury things in the dark recesses was not nice. That led to another job - the locker and tap was a retrofit in the UK as the original boat owner didn't like the factory fit version. Unfortunately the tap that got fitted was a chrome finish thing which quickly corroded in the salt water. The hose fitting also started leaking a little - just enough to allow some water into the locker and to encourage the  growth of smelly stuff inside. So, a new stainless tap is needed. Such excitement and extravagance.

We had fun cleaning up the RIB after it had been used for hull polishing etc. The marina's resident swans brought around their 7 cygnets quite regularly for a feed:

and the grown ups liked taking food from the dinghy tubes:

The family caused much amusement:

The hull of the RIB was tea coloured when it got lifted out after around 5 days in the water. The stain would not wash or polish off so Y10 (oxalic acid gel) had to be used to remove the marks. Memo to self - NEVER swim in the marina unless you want a semi-permanent tan.

To prove that we know a few people almost as strange as we are, a parcel arrived from Devon (well, the Devon / Cornwall border to be precise. It contained some moist paper wrapped around two home grown radishes:

resplendent with their leaves too. They were delicious but probably cost rather too much in shipping to make it a viable business for the green fingered folks who produced them.

Finally, the Welsh government decided that the Cardiff Bay could open up to boats again. So, there was a manic Monday when loads of people either came down to their boat to prepare it or took it out to play. We decided that the RIB was safest and took it for a little blast. Glorious weather - this pic shows our neighbour in his Princess motor cruiser by the Pier Head building:

The hundreds of birds on the pontoons there have turned the decking surface white. Lovely job for someone when they finally allow folks to moor there again. We also trundled up the river at a sedate pace and had a chat to the lovely Nikki on board the equally lovely yacht "September Moon" - suitably socially distanced naturally:

All that varnish. Somehow polishing fibreglass seems simpler. The harbour folks have said that trips out to sea (day trips only) will be allowed from Monday. A sort of freedom, catching up on what England has enjoyed for a couple of weeks. Our only challenge is going to be moving the poor boat as the weed around us is most impressive. No boat traffic for weeks, loads of sun and hence weed coming up nearly to the surface of the water. Not good at all.