Dartmoor with Bishop Chris

Maundy Thursday and the continuing heatwave saw the Watsons and Bishops having a outing to Dartmeet on Dartmoor. Chris and I went for a little walk with a bit of puffing and panting.

New Chain Plates for Lucy

A busy morning on River Taxi duty was followed by an afternoon of preparing and fitting new chain plates on Lucy Morales; well fitting one chain plate to be precise. I ran out of colloidal silica (a filler to make epoxy resin a paste) and time - in that order. The results are pleasing, but the acid test will be when they come under load when the shrouds are re-connected. What fun!

London!

Lynn and I had a visit to London to watch the Massed Bands of HM Royal Marines perform in the Royal Albert Hall. We had a meal with Les and Anna, and a visit to Camden Town enabled Lynn to buy some lovely wool. The Grand Union Canal runs through this area. We also took a trip to 'Accordions of London' where I found my next piano accordion - if the money can be found!

Brighton, Birthday and Boats

Easter holidays and once again I find myself driving vast distances on my birthday! We are off to see Hannah, Daniel and granddaughter Sophia, dropping Lyds off at Portsmouth to visit a friend and having sent Jules off to Snowdonia for some excitement. Dan (son) and Sarah joined us for a meal, and great fun was had with Sophia entertaining us.

Dartington Hall gardens

If you have never visited Dartington Hall gardens, then I would recommend that if you can, you do; they are beautiful. A medieval jousting lawn, steps that just keeps going and delicate flowers vie with modern artistic creations to delight your every step.

Lucy M new locker fixings

One of the many jobs needing doing on Lucy Morales was to repair the rear locker (lazarette) fixings. The old hinge had pulled out of the fibreglass, so it was either a fiddly proper repair, or a dockyard bombproof job. I chose the bombproof option as you can see below.

Julia's 14th Birthday

After warming up with a sleep over at the weekend,Julia's 14th birthday finally arrived on Monday. Her chosen dinner presented a challenge for mum, with smoke-screen effect to-boot!