12^th July

Today was the first free day we have had when the forecast was reasonable, so we were up early and off to the boat to see how Phoenix can cope with her sea legs, all be it that we were not leaving the mooring.

We were surprised at just how many boats were out despite the recent weather; the marina looked quite empty.

* Phoenix on board

I had a few jobs to do so set to with those whilst June took Phoenix a walk around the marina along the roadway as we still have a couple of days to go before her vaccination is fully effective to take her on grass.

The first job was to sort out the TV which had mysteriously stopped working on freeview whilst on our last trip. The reception had been so good that we had rarely used the satellite system. Mark from Sandhills had given me a new aerial and booster kit to use to check which bit had stopped working. After checking the whole system I found that the signal booster had failed and used the one from the kit to replace it so that we now have freeview TV again.

*  Phoenix takes a look into the saloon.

 Decided to take a rest and headed for the Bulls Head at Brinklow (in the car) for one of their lite bite lunches, excellent value at £3.50 per head. Phoenix was a real pain and would not sit still while we had our lunch, not sure if it was the baby in the high chair dropping food on the floor or just being in a new environment.

Back to the boat to fit the filler board which Gary had made and inlaid to one of the lower shelves to form a magazine rack and somewhere to keep the folding table secure whilst we were moving.  It fitted like a glove and only needed gluing in place.

* Phoenix checks out the hatch

After completing a few other jobs including replacing the licence with the new one, now with the     C & RT heading we sat down to watch the quiz show Tipping Point and have some tea. Low and behold the weather could not help itself and it started to rain.

We decided to make an early exit and head for home before the heavy stuff decended on us.