MASTS AND FLAGS

This is a little quiz. What is the memoire that the following aide memoire helps you to remember?

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (or Pears, Puddings, Pies etc, anything so long as it starts with a P).

(Answers at the end of this post)

Today will be my last day in Brinklow Marina. Tomorrow we head up to Rugby for a bit of shopping, and thence up to Hillmorton, where 'Rosy' is to have her bottom blacked. Last autumn I was in the Hillmorton boat yard to have 'Rosy' repainted. At the time I had no intention of leaving the UK, so I had Rosy's SSR (Small Ships Register) Numbers painted over. Now I need to get the painter back to paint them on again.

I also have the boat insurance bandits wanting a hull inspection done sometime soonish, so I can have that done as well.  Ah yes! There is also a lot of water sloshing about in the bilges which needs pumping out and finding out where it has all come from. I assume it is the result of all that rain, but how is the rain getting into the bilges? I think there is far too much water to assign it to 'condensation'.

Also last year, I ditched Rosy's mast and tabernacle. I don't think a mast in compulsory in Euroland, but it is a boating etiquette to fly the national flag of the host country from the starboard cross trees. This is tricky to do if you do not have a mast. At the stern, of course, the flag of ones country of origin is flown - the Red Ensign for Brits. So we need a new mast and tabernacle - though, with luck, the old tabernacle might still be lying around. A 'tabernacle' is a fitting, screwed onto the deck, into which is placed the bottom of the mast.

I used to fly, in lieu of the Red Ensign, the flag of the Army Sailing Association. I was entitled to do this, but only in exchange for money. Certainly the flag was a talking point, but swapping a fancy flag for a bit more French red wine seems to me to be a better use of scarce resources! Visitors thought so as well, very much preferring a glass or 3 of wine  than an inspection of a flag.

I am finding it tricky to locate a source of decent, white string. I had some on 'Rosy' but it has disappeared. I need some to lash a short length of tubing onto the back of the rising length of the tiller, and into which is placed the bottom few inches of the Red Ensign flag pole.

(Quiz answer: Each initial letters is also the initial letters of a planet (e.g. E = Earth). The aide gives them in the order of their distance from the sun: Mercury being the nearest, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto).

BOATING SWEATERS

Some 50 years ago, before it was normal to have central heating in the average house, and whilst I was young and foolish and, as it happens, reasonably well off, I bought a Guernsey sweater. I seem to remember that it cost about £30. I didn't wear it every day, and I didn't take it around with me when (for example) my boss (HM the Queen - I was a soldier at the time) required me to serve in Singapore. Nor, for obvious reasons, did I take it to Oman. I now have the sweater on 'Rosy' and I still occasionally use it on 'special' days and it is still un-damaged and in good condition.

A few years ago, on my return to the UK from the European Narrowboating adventure, I bought another Guernsey for every-day wear. It is very much lighter than my original one, and cost about £50 to £60 (ish). A few months ago I washed it (by hand) for the first time (in warm water, using soap flakes) and was embarrassed by the blackness of the water.

Before the wash, the sweater was annoying me as the stand-up neck insisted on drooping. Now, it is standing up again.

A few weeks ago I was twiddling on the internet, and looked up 'Guernsey sweaters'. Gulp!!! My original £30 one now needs at least an extra nought!! During the same session I discovered that Barbour (of Barbour Jacket fame) also dabble in sweaters starting (I think) at about £60.

The beautiful Norwegian and Icelandic sweaters have always appealed to me. However, a few weeks ago I saw one being worn in London. The problem is that the traditional Nordic sweaters nearly always have lots of white wool in them. This is fine in a wintery country, but on a wintery day in London the whiteness shows up every speck of dirt and makes them look uckh!

Toodle pip!!

DRESDEN etc

I've just finished reading 'Rifleman', the auto-biography of Victor Gregg. Old soldiers in particular will find this fascinating. He was at Alamein, and then crossed the Med to fight his way up Italy. After that he went through parachute training and participated in the disaster of Market Garden. (The paras went in virtually un-supported. A fight between paras and tanks inevitably leads to a victory for the tanks.)  He managed to escape from his Prisoner of War camp, and decided that it was better to be in a busy town than in the countryside, so he went to Dresden, arriving a few days before that city was severely bombed. Victor was a Londoner, so he knew about the bombing of London, but he still fumes about the in-humanity of the bombing of Dresden. The rest of the book is OK, but not, for me, nearly as fascinating. He was a keen motor-cyclist, and attended several rallies in Germany. Like many of us, he hated the Nazi regime, but holds no grudge against the German people.

I am planning to return 'Rosy' to French waters next year, and I doubt that I will head east. However, when I was last in Europe with 'Rosy', one of the highlights was the time we spent in Germany, and especially Berlin. The Germans were welcoming and friendly - I was whisked off to a disco at one point and invited to a party where 90% of those present spoke good English. At another mooring, a passing person insisted on taking me to their house (not too far away) for lunch. Would that happen in London? I think not.

However, the French canals can keep my interest and enthusiasm for several years, even if one stays north of Lyon. (South of Lyon leads, eventually, to the Midi etc where one can spend many years cruising East-West one year and West-East the next).