Blanketed, polished, walked and ready for (almost) anything

Having stripped off the old exhaust lagging, the new stuff from the T and M guys (see last post) duly arrived for a DIY fit. Not too taxing a job either. Here is the end result:

Much tidier than before and hopefully longer lasting too! Using straps rather than wire to fix it is way way better. The only fun bit in the job is remaking the connections to the exhaust temperature sender (see the wire at the bottom of the picture) and making sure that it is suitably insulated against the heat. The captain had recently acquired a nice butane soldering iron come heat gun thingy. If anyone is in the market for one, the Dremel Versatip is a great bit of kit and works well on heat shrink for cables too!

The air filter got swapped out as well - now it should not have to ingest all the rubbish falling out of the old lagging and so should stay cleaner for longer. Apart from a last minute check of all the  levels, things should be good to go in the engine room. We even finished polishing the hull and transom too. Despite a chilly start one day, we took the RIB for a run, refitted the anchor snubber line to the D ring on the bow and then lashed down the RIB for the first time in several months, ready for some proper out to sea trips.

What else? Well a train ride to Bristol to watch the (rather disappointing) England v Ireland rugby game with Bernie and Jenni started off a great weekend. Their boat club has a 1885 lightship as a clubhouse and a great atmosphere. Look at Cabot cruising club website. Friendly folks and a great evening. You might remember Bernie as the owner of a gorgeous Dunkirk little ship called Mimosa. She is about to feature in the new Dunkirk film being released this summer. You might also remember Bernie for his collection of old Triumph cars. If you don't, then read some earlier posts!

We also continued the dog exercising thing, taking Bronwen the famous spaniel from the waterbus around the bay together with a gorgeous Golden retriever / poodle cross called Huelwen:

Kind of a Welsh thing going on here, Huelwen means sunshine in English and fitted her nature so well.

Finally, we have a carrot cake update for you. We haven't reported on great or even average carrot cakes recently as we have not discovered any. However, a new gem has joined the top 5 on our list. The Blue Pelican cafe at Hamptons serves up a huge slice of excellent cake. Top 5 - yes, we reckon so.

Our carrot cake sampling has prompted Steve the waterbus man to produce another excellent cartoon though featuring the engine room (even if the John Deere engine isn't green), an illicit still making carrot gin and a drunken Patrick:

The detail is phenomenal. Gin and carrot cake. He knows us far too well, must be time to move on.....