Chores and a short chug to Heron’s new home, that’s what we did today.

I did a serious clean of the cooker surround this morning. The only thing that worked on the baked on grease was something called Bar Keep’s Friend. It still took me over an hour. Then I touched up some of the gunnel paint. No Heather, not all those patches down the sides. I would have had to hack through all the jungle to do that. Just a small patch on the top of the gunnel that was scratched all the way down to bare metal. I have no idea how that happened, but it must have been in the last 3 days. At least I’ve got the first coat on now.

Then it was just an hour down the cut back towards Scholar Green, to take up our berth in Heron’s new home at Heritage Narrowboats.

We know Heritage quite well. The two different different boats that we owned shares on were based here. So I knew it was going to require some careful manoeuvring to get into the berth I had chosen. Heritage has long jetties that accommodate four or five boats, rather than the single boat jetties we are used to. It means a careful reverse in past other moored boats. I was grateful that the there is virtually no wind today. This sort of close quarters activity is much more difficult when it’s windy.

Of course, when I got to Heritage, most of the staff were outside enjoying their lunch break. So I had an experience audience to watch my entrance and reverse. Thankfully, probably due to the lack of wind, it was almost flawless. I don’t think anyone noticed the very gentle bump I gave to the moored day boat.

Heather is coming up to visit parents and take me back to Chiseldon tomorrow. So, tonight, I’m relaxing. The packing and tidying can wait until tomorrow morning.

That’s the end of this 5 week adventure. The frequency of posts is going to drop significantly. But this won’t be the end of this blog.

Heron has a few more wanderings to come.