It lives!

Abingdon, 1 mile, 0 locks

Was a bit shocked to find that it was nearly 10am when I awoke this morning, after one of the best night's sleep I've had in ages. Then it turned out that it was actually 9am, because I'd forgotten to reset the bedroom clock at the weekend, which was even better. The sun was streaming through the windows and I felt very positive about the day.

My host knocked on the hull a little after I'd showered and I popped out to have a chat. Even at that time of the morning he was immaculately dressed, with a shirt and tie. I felt quite slovenly in comparison, in my jogging bottoms and polo shirt. We chatted for a while and I said that I was expecting Keith Duffy to return sometime this morning to sort everything out, but that if I hadn't heard anything by 11am I'd give him a ring. We then went back to our respective homes for breakfast. While I'd been out chatting Keith had left a message to say that he had managed to source an 'end cap' for the header tank and that it was in the wrong direction from me, but that he should still be with me by lunchtime.

After a luxurious breakfast of bacon sandwiches, I checked my e-mail and caught up on my backlog of instant messages, then set about making cream of cauliflower soup. I'd bought some cream in Abingdon a couple of days previously with this in mind. The cauli I had was rather small, so I added in the remaining carrot and swede that I hadn't used in the Delia "Cheat" Shepherd's Pie the other day. While that was all simmering away, a sudden movement of the boat and a lot of banging announced the arrival of Keith. He'd brought two end caps, because he wasn't sure what size was right and made a start on sorting out the water pump straightaway, while I returned to my soup making. I was particularly looking forward to using a stick blender that I'd bought in tesco for a fiver months ago. Okay, it's not the one Delia recommends, but I'd already bought it when Delia's book came out. After giving it a good wash, I set too, scrunching down the bits of cauli in a very satisfying way and turning the lumps into mush. Next thing I knew, the blending had stopped and the blade and its shaft were hanging out of the end of the blender. It was broken. Funnily enough I remembered then that Laurance had also bought one of these blenders and it too had broken on it's first use. After giving the blender a quick wash and dumping it all back into its box, I checked on the consistency of the soup and although it was on the thick side and still had some chunks of carrot in it, it tasted lovely.

I went back to see how Keith was doing and sat on the back deck chatting while he worked. He was having a lot of trouble refitting the pump. In the end I offered to make him tea, as an excuse to get out of his way while he worked. When I returned with it, he'd fitted the pump almost straight away--turns out I'd been blocking the light and preventing him from seeing what he was doing, and he'd only realised when I moved away.

With the pump fitted, everything else went back easily and I went off to fill my water canister so Keith could top up the cooling system. By the time I got back, the engine was running and Keith was trying to get air out of the system. With the addition of the extra water, there was a lot of bubbling and then it all calmed down. We ran it for a while with the temperature gauge not moving and we ended up engaging the propellor and running with that thrusting us into the garden for a while. Eventually the gauge moved, but not much, and stayed there. Keith started to pack his stuff away, pronouncing that it was fixed and that his work here was done.

We agreed that I'd take Oothoon up to Kingcraft at Abingdon as a test run. This should prove one way or the other whether the engine was keeping cool and if it wasn't there were plenty of places to stop. Keith helped me pack back all of the gubbins that I'd taken out of the engine room, then left. I got changed into warmer clothing and then went to see my host.

After chatting for a while and then wishing me goodbye, my host helped me unmoor and watched until I was across the channel and well on my way before waving farewell and returning indoors, to the lunch I'd interrupted. I tried to get used to going upstream on the river while keeping one eye on the temperature gauge. It didn't move from rest. After a short while I got close to Kingcraft and came in to land on the opposite bank, and even after I'd taken ages shuffled the boat along the bank in order to tie up properly, the temperature still wasn't registering. It was just like after I left Welford all over again, where I really had to tax the engine to get it up to 50°. Marvellous.

Went over to Kingcraft to meet Keith and tell him the good news. While I was there he pointed out a few things I needed to buy, like a new jubilee clip for the oil pump. We chatted for a little while in the car park and then off he went on his way. He's an interesting chap and it was a pleasure to meet him.

I wandered into Abingdon—really as a way to kill time—and saw the friend of Chris' who had joined us in the Watermans Arms in Oxford, but he was with someone and I didn't want to intrude. Eventually I went into a coffee place and had a Cappuccino and a piece of Pecan Pie, although it wasn't particularly great.

On the way back to Oothoon, I remembered that it was Monday and that I'd promised to give my friend Jan a call. As I was so close (by car anyway) he said he'd come over and see me later. Not long after that he called to say that he'd arrive about 7:30, so I decided to have a nap.

About 7:40 I got up and started to cook dinner. I'd decided that rather than go out, as we often do, I'd make tacos, which we both like. Jan arrived not much later, having called to check he was on the right bank of the river, after which he found the boat with no problem. It was great to see him again, because it seems to have been months since that time in Nether Heyford, He seemed to enjoy my soup too, lumps and all.

I'm now planning what to do tomorrow. The weather forecast is for a repeat of today, although it's very cold outside. If that's the case, I'm going to try to make it to Wallingford. I'm sure Keith would tell me that I could make it much further than that if I wanted, but I think it's a good destination because it's where Keith lives. Insurance, if you like. I also need to find someone who sells smokeless coal, because my reserves are starting to run low and I've probably only enough for a couple more days. There's supposed to be a place a little before Wallingford, according to Nicholson's, so I might be lucky. The alternative is to run the central heating, which will eat gas, however gas might be easier to replace than coal. We'll see.

I'm hoping for another peaceful night tonight. I'm still marvelling at how soundly I slept last night. I guess I must have felt very safe in my floating home at the bottom of the garden.