Making the Most of a Minimal Budget. Contact me at: skintsailor@yahoo.co.uk or on Twitter: @skintsailor

Monday 24 August 2015

Battening Down

It was an ideal day for sailing on Saturday, but I had to ferry my youngest from UNI in London back to his mother's in Oxford.

He'd amassed a bit more stuff than he started with a year ago and so needed the Swedish tank to transport the stuff back home. Not a problem the car is comfy and it almost drives itself so I didn't mind the road trip. 278 miles round trip, so you ca imagine it was almost an all-day job. Sure I could have done the trip and been back to sail on the evening high tide, but after a whole day driving I needed to veg out on the sofa. :-)

Sunday dawned pretty rubbish, so me and the Mrs had a pajama morning. We stirred at lunchtime so I could take her off to her daughters and thence to bingo and I could take myself back to the sofa and live coverage of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Later in the day the rain petered out  and after the Grand Prix and bringing the Mrs home, I made a visit to the boat to put the winter cover on. 




Its been such a bad and wet summer that one of the locker tops is starting to delaminate. So the cover should protect it while I get some marine ply ordered, cut to size and prepared. I think this time I'll do a better job, spend a bit more money and make sure the things last. I'm also contemplating fitting better hinges too, so I'll be on the hunt for them over the next month or so. Looks like I've got myself a winter project already!

I got back to the car and watched a couple of motorboats come into the harbour. While I was watching them two Starlings came and perched on the car:


The first came and perched on the mirror, bold as brass and then the second one must have wanted in on whatever he thought Starling number one was getting. As it was I had nothing for them unfortunately. But we eyed each other up uneasily for a few minutes while I took a few photos. They didn't leave until I started the car and they got the message that maybe I wasn't going to feed them and they must have got the wrong wheeled tin box. Maybe the right tin box with the trained monkey inside will be along with the food later. :-)

Maybe they knew I was ordering a takeaway. But tough luck guys, it was being delivered back home. I got back just as the delivery guy pulled away from the house and the Mrs was dishing up. What good timing!

5 comments:

  1. Saturday was definitely the day.. :o) See you didn't get to the boat jumble, me neither, I took one look outside and put the kettle on!

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  2. Yes I was the same with the boat jumble. Took one look out the window and decided that maybe Chicester next month or Netley in October might be on better days. Plus there's not much I really need at the moment so why pay the entrance fee to just mooch around in the rain. PJ's, coffee and egg on toast for breakfast won out for morning activities. The priority is now marine ply and stainless hinges to make new longer lived locker tops. I saw on your blog you had a good day Saturday. :-)

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    1. Good but not brilliant... bit grey and wet... so good to get out though. Have fun with the locker lids, that was project last winter... on the whole very happy with them, the lids are still looking good, the hinges were oversize but they'll last for ever... the hasps were cheap and nasty, one of them broke this week, but my fault as I forced it while I was fitting so probably weakened it..

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    2. My locker tops have lasted about 18 months. My fault for using cheap exterior grade ply. Either proper marine ply or grp locker tops next time.

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