On the Road

1 Step Forward, Two Back

Was on the road this weekend. Primary reason to grace my mother with my presence for Mother's Day, but also fitting in some other things. After a bit of a nightmare start (getting totally lost a couple of miles from home, getting absolutely b@llocked by a policeman after the satnav sent me down a [temporarily] one way road, entering the congestion charge zone for 30 seconds (£15 please) and generally super stressy London driving) I ended up at Oxford to pick up the Triton Workcentre I had bought of Gumtree a few weeks earlier. I was quite expensive for second-hand, but on the other-hand it was being sold by a social enterprise that helps disadvantaged adults, so I wasn't feeling so dinged. 

The Workcentre (which is basically a fancy table saw) came with a few 'accessories'. I had no idea that they were going to be so large (a lot of it seemed to comprise of basically scaffold poles) so I really had a job fitting it all in. Only by butting up against the windscreen and the back hatch did I managed to fit something, Thank god I went with an estate car. Given the Dacia has a tiny engine and I had just increased the payload by about half a tonne, my plan to drive to Shropshire  via the back roads to see my friend Summer (who recently [temporarily] moved there) was quickly abandoned for another stint on the motorway.

After a lovely evening with Summer and Mike in Clee Hill, Summer kindly offered to let me offload the workcentre in her garage. Thank heavens she did - as the ideal of lugging all that lot into the flat isn't very appealing.

Next day it was a nice drive to Nantwich to meet with Steve at Kingslock Chandlers. Kingslock are providing the motor and generator and to keep things simple, will supply the stern gear being one of the main suppliers for Vetus, The only problem is Steve is one of those business owners that is constantly busy and it is almost impossible to get a response from him on the phone or via email. So I thought turning up in person might help. Although it took 3 weeks to get confirmation that he would actually be around.

In the end, it was work the detour and I got the information I needed and importantly he had a quick look at my engine layout and said it was OK. 

It's been ages since I have been back to Marsden when it is NOT the middle of winter and with the glorious weekend weather I was so nice to see 'home' in, literally, another light. I couldn't resist stopping the car over the way down Standedge and popping up Pule Hill to see the view.

After a lovely weekend of walks and pints and food with my Mother and Michael, it was off to Ratcliffe on Soar (via a quick coffee with my university friend Liz). That's the location of Redhill Marina, which is one of the other protentional places to do the build.

Normal service on the weather had been resumed and it was bitterly cold as I looked around the site opposite the huge power station. Fair to say, it is not quite as a picturesque setting as Debdale.

 Facilities and location-wise it is perfect.And they have storage/workshop containers available. But alas, the prices are much higher than all the other places I have looked. (Why?). the nice lady who I was speaking to told me how busy they are and needing to expand the car-park, so I could see there would be no scope to negotiate any better deal. Given the pain of the actual boat cost, spending another thousand pounds above Debdale isn't really an option.

Arriving back in London (with a brief stop at Christian's parents in Milton Keynes) the updated actual boat cost was waiting for me in my email. Plus more bad news - half the crew at Colecraft are off with Covid this week, so yet even more delays. God knows when I am actually going to get this boat at this rate. But it doesn't seem like anytime soon...