A BETTER ROSY

I've just sent a couple of days in a boat yard.

Rosy needed various bits 'n' bobs done. Some I could have done, others needed experts, so I decided to let the experts do the lot.

1.  Rosy used to be armed with a very good music etc system.  It was based on 2 car radios - one came with a DVD player, the other has a slot for cassette tapes.  I 'lost' them some 2 years ago, when A.N. Other did some work on the boat, and I did not check that all was well until after he had left.

2.  I was un-happy about the amount of water accumulating in the stern, despite having a water pump there.

3.  The taps in the bathroom were dribbling, and I could find no way of fixing them.

Hence I spent a happy couple of days in the Hillmorton boat yard.  I have used this yard ever since Rosy and I have been together, and they have never let us down.

Liam came onto the boat.

He tracked down the problem with the DVD car radio in about 1.5 seconds, and put it to rights in a minute.

The cassette car radio was a bit more tricky, and he eventually diagnosed it as irredeemable.  This is a BIG nuisance, as I have 120 tapes, and tape players have nearly dissappeared.   The solution seems to be to buy a £20 box of tricks that will transfer the tapes to ....... well, something else.  More DVDs perhaps, or an MP3 player (but I'm not sure what one of those looks like, or if they make a 12 volt one).

(Appart from the players themselves, I also have a magic box that takes 12 CD/DVDs and plays them non-stop).

The water in the stern is there because the pump cannot pump all the water out - the last quarter inch just stays there.  So, we put a washing basin under the drip from the prop shaft, and put the pump in the washing basin.  All I now have to do is to sponge away the residual water swilling around, and then Rosy's bottom should be well - and dry.

A new pair of taps has solved the bathroom problem.

When the work was all done, I escaped from the boat yard.  As of now (Saturday) I am moored just just before the Newbold tunnel, and will stay here today and tomorrow.  Monday will see us moving up to Brinklow Marina - in-shallah (an Arabic term meaning 'God Willing') - where we plan to over-winter.