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Hello family, friends and followers.

How did Storm Freya affect you?

For any of us living on a boat, it meant a little rocking and rolling. The trees opposite our mooring were certainly creaking in the wind. My fingers were crossed that none of them would come crashing down across the cut and land on the boat. It did the trick, because we woke this morning to no debri on the roof. I was actually in bed by 9pm last night, with what I think is a head cold. It has not fully come out, so I am just taking paracetamol and waiting to see what happens next. My hope is that nothing happens, because we want to be on our way at the end of the week.
Yes all the preparations are now pretty much done, and so all being well and head cold in check we will be off at the end of the week. To say I am looking forward to going cruising is an understatement. I cannot wait to get cruising again, catching up with folk we know along the way and meeting lots of new people. This cruising season is going to be an exciting one, which I will go into more nearer the time.

In my head I have a check list of the things we need to do on the boat, before we go out.
1. Load coal onto the boat.
2. Wash and rehang back cabin curtains.
3. Wash and rehang all the back cabin plate, replace ribbons where needed.
4. Check gearbox oil.
5. Check engine oil.
6. Run engine and generator to make sure all is well.
7. Stow away onboard, trolley, fenders, shears, loppers, shovel, hosepipes, gangplank and boat poles.
There is another list for the day before we leave as well. But the first list is complete.
I have gotten the laundry up to date, which included washing the galley mats and the porthole bungs. I will do a last laundry wash the day before we leave our mooring. There is never a dull moment, when preparing for the off.

Whilst all the preparations have been going on, I have been getting on with life, which has included sending more blankets to The Border Collie Trust and getting my sewing up together. My issue was my Eighteen year old Brother sewing machine, could not cope and decided to die. It was fatal at just the wrong time. There was nothing for it, but to buy a new sewing machine. We ordered a new Brother machine off of Amazon, with a delivery date given between the 5th to the 18th March. This meant, we may have to hang around for the machine to arrive, which was no big deal.

On the 2nd March, we got a message to say my machine was being delivered and so it was at 3pm. Now that's what I call a good service. I love my new Brother machine. If it is half as good as my old one, I will be super happy. I enjoy sewing, but do not do anything to complicated. It is just nice to know I have the machine handy, even when we are out cruising. So far I have used it to shorten all the sleeves on my shirts. I hate long sleeves and rolling them up can make them bulky, so I decided to shorten them all. Not only do I not have all that bulk, I also have more room in my draw for other tops, so a win, win situation.
Tomorrow we will have our last coffee afternoon, before most of the Winter moorers head off for the Spring/Summer. We meet up at a coffee house and sit nattering about anything and everything. It has been a joy over this Winter and something I will organise again, over this coming Winter.

I have a stash of books on board for when we go out, because we will not have the TV. We could watch a DVD whilst out, but we tend to read or do jobs and of course I will be doing my blankets for the Collies. It is hoped this year we will get more walking and cycling in, but this all depends on the kindness of the weather and good routes to investigate. I will as always try and keep my blog up to date along the way.

Pop back soon xxxx