Great weekend larking around in Brighton

The lack of boating activity over the winter period is not nice, so we were delighted to receive an email a few weeks ago inviting us down to Brighton this weekend for a 'boaty gathering' by our friends David & Lisa from nb 'What a Lark'. 

We travelled down on Friday evening after John had finished work and joined the happy band of gathered folk - David & Lisa (obviously), their friends and 'boat sharers' David and Amanda and Joe and Lesley from nb Yarwood whose blog we have followed for sometime but we had never actually met.

We had a lovely evening getting to know each other (and drinking) with only a brief discussion on toilets (compulsory amongst boaty folks). 

After breakfast on Saturday we headed into Brighton by bus. One of the first buildings we came across was The Prince Albert pub with a fantastic mural of musical legends covering the outside wall. Having named many of the faces, it dawned on us that they had all passed away !! The pub wall is also well known for a 'Banksy' picture of two kissing policemen which you can just make out bottom right of the picture

Mural of musical legends

We soon found ourselves in a pub (due to the weather of course) and the ladies decided to sample some of the 40 different gins on offer before heading into town to do some retail therapy, leaving the chaps to fend for themselves in the pub. When we met up again we had an interesting wander around The Lanes and we have never seen such a concentration of jewellery shops which the girls found most interesting !!

The girls enjoying a gin - Amanda, Lisa and Lesley

And off to the shops outside Brighton Pavillion

We then returned back to base camp and watched the rugby on TV as England saw off Scotland on a terrible pitch and Wales got thumped by Ireland which went down quite well too. This was followed by a battle of the sexes game of 'Articulate' which wasn't competitive at all and which saw the boys come out on top :-)

A great host but it was all a bit tiring !!

Today we headed for the seafront for a very pleasant and very bracing walk, including a bacon butty and mug of tea halfway round, before we returned over the top of the cliffs. The wind was certainly fresh, and the sea very lively, but it was a lovely way to spend the morning.

Group shot - Joe, David, David L, Amanda, Lisa, Lesley and John

Waiting patiently for breakfast - Amanda, Lisa and Louise

Seafront with Brighton Marina in the distance

Sadly, after being treated to a lovely roast pork dinner and the most wonderful homemade Bakewell Tart (coming from Derbyshire we know our Bakewells and this was REALLY good) we had to say our goodbyes for the trip home. 

We really have had a cracking weekend. Great hosts, great new friends and all due to the power of 'the blog'.

Heating problems

Another month gone in the blink of an eye and the boating season getting ever closer. Hopefully the rain will stop soon, but at least the white stuff has pretty much stayed away so far.

One problem which has raised it's head for us recently is that the header tank on our Webasto system has started to leak quite badly. PTFE tape was unsuccessful in stopping the problem and enquiries on the various forums seem to suggest that our type of tank, with brass fittings, was soon discontinued due to the same type of problem we were experiencing. 

A bit of web surfing led me to Kings Lock Chandlery and having spoken to Steve their Webasto expert on the phone, I nipped up in the car on Saturday to try and solve the problem. Steve was extremely helpful, discussed the options and supplied all the bits and pieces required to do the job including re-routing some of the plumbing.

So yesterday it was off down to the boat to do the job and in no time at all it was all fixed and up and running just fine. 

The new header tank and plumbing

So if you have any queries or problems with your Webasto heating, give Steve a call and I'm sure he will be able to help.

One point worthy of note regarding heating......talking to my neighbour at the marina yesterday re-enforced the importance of a carbon monoxide alarm. His had been recording readings and after a bit of investigation, he found his chimney was quite badly blocked with gunk. At least he was able to tell the tale thanks to the alarm doing its job.