Pottering around, as you do when you don't work......

It has been very quiet on the blog of late. Mainly because there have been no epic sea voyages to report upon. That doesn't mean no boating of course - no we managed the monster trip across the bay to Cardiff and several runs up and down to give the main and wing engine some exercise last week. Hardly worth switching on the AIS for though....

We rented a truly horrid Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 (nasty little car, ours was in a grim bright yellow colour so a double whammy) and visited the crew's parents, taking a day out to see Cambridge again which gave the crew's mum's hat an outing again:

What else have we been up to? Well, the boat has gone topless again. The bimini cover was removed, this time by us not a big gale force wind. Then all the other covers were given a couple of coats of Boracol. This is the stuff that Stephen (the sailing, shooting and trolley shopper expert) recommended to us. It helps stop all that nice winter green goo from forming on covers and the teak areas too. Hence everything had a couple of coats before the really wet season sets in.

If you are interested / bored with your life, then have a look at Boracol use It is a nice pH neutral biocide and we love the stuff - it really does work.

What other fun and frolics? Well, the big outboard, the Yamaha 20HP on the RIB, had an engine and gearbox oil change for the winter. Not too taxing as it only involves 1.5 litres of engine oil and a filter about the size of two jaffa cakes but rather more expensive.

We also visited Porthcawl, on Welsh Andrew's recommendation. Lovely little town, just a pity that the new marina there has such a narrow entrance gate:

Cannot imagine squeezing the Nordhavn through that little gap on a bumpy day! Too too exciting. The marina itself seemed to have quite a bit of surge inside with the gate open, even though it was very calm out to sea. Think we will give it a miss and stick to visiting by land.

The final bit of fun was an unexpected trip to the theatre to see Al Murray, the comedian. If you don't know him, this might help / jog your memory Wikipedia link.

It was an unexpected trip as Penarth's resident Scousers, Carl and Julie had bought the tickets but then couldn't go along. That wasn't because Liverpudlians are not allowed in although they were the subject of a few jokes.

For any German readers, Al Murray's German language skills are excellent - you have to hear him acting as a Frankfurt stockbroker, talking German in a phone call with London. The Scottish Nationalists in the audience also had a rough time when he talked about their desire to establish the new republic of "Jockistan". A very non politically correct hilarious evening - go and see him on tour if you get the chance

Patrick? Well, he is a little piqued that his sister Poppy hasn't phoned or emailed since she moved in with Andrew and Linda in Weymouth. We think that Poppy is having far too good a time to worry about her brother. So much for penguin family togetherness.