Bramwith Junction

Last night we kept all the windows firmly shut, only a couple of house flies to pester us overnight, no more midges and more importantly no more bites. The existing ones are being a right pain, even the one I’d doused with cream immediately has decided to join in with the others!

Knowing that Exol Pride would be on it’s way at some point we decided to stay put for the day. The thought being we’d rather be moored on rings, bollards or chains when she comes past than on spikes. Here we have chains. We checked on Vessel Finder to see her position, the Humber. They don’t always have their GPS tracker on and it usually gets turned off when they reach Goole. But on the website it suggested that she was due in Goole this morning, would they continue on up to Rotherham today?

Tilly was given nine whole hours, it being a drier day she made full use of them, only returning to the boat when she really had to.

With very itchy arms and back I needed to find a distraction. I chose the shower, it needed a very good clean. All the edging strips were removed for cleaning. The doors taken down one at a time for a full clean. The rest of the cabinet given a very good going over with cleaner and vinegar. The shower condiment basket was given a good scrub too.

Then the walls and ceiling were attacked. This was doing a very good job of distracting from my midge bites, but in the process I somehow managed to cut stumpy (the tip of my little finger that is no more). It’s nothing major and anywhere else it wouldn’t really bother me in the slightest, but right by the scar tissue…!! Ow!

Redoing the sealant will be the next job for the shower, I’ve been putting this off for a very long time as I hate sealant. We also only have a tube of white onboard and the corner of the cubicle would really want clear as the panels are blue. The shower gets used just about every day, so being able to leave it to cure for a day or two when we are away would be good. All of these are just excuses though, I will get round to it, I will.

At around 2pm Mick could hear an engine coming our way. A quick glance out of the stern doors confirmed that the big blue boat was on its way to Rotherham.

She slowly crossed the aqueduct, speed not possible in the narrow channel. Then once clear she sped up a touch. Though not going at full pelt she still was pushing a bow wave. We watched as she came closer, three crew on board. Blimey she was carrying a weight.

Tilly came to watch too, being asked not to stand on the cat walk whilst Exol Pride passed. Then the wash started to hit us, our ropes taking the strain, maybe it’s time to get the new ropes out as the stern one has seen better days. We’ll save these mangy ropes for our next visit to York with all its silt.

During the day we seemed to have been attracting flies again. Not midges but house flies. Mick spent much of the day trying to suck them up in the handheld hoover, semi successful. Then he made a fly trap from a plastic pot with holes in the lid and a glug of red wine in the bottom. This seemed to attract them to the area, just not into the pot to die a drunken death. So the hoover kept coming out, Mick launching himself at the pesky flies. We still don’t know if the charge at them method works better than the sneaking up behind them method.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 sparkly clean shower, 2 sealants required, 9 hours, 1 hour homework, 1 hour setting up, 1 big boat, 1 bow wave, 27 house flies, 1 boat moving on in the morning.