It's warming up and the ice is melting.

Yes, a few boats have passed through and broken it all up, and the sun is thawing it as well.
I had a stroll over to Midland Chandlers this morning and priced up the fridges as ours has seen better days, we might be buying a new one.
I've sealed up the bow thruster hatch this morning, another job off the list...

You can just see the seal around the edge.

We're going to move back toward Napton Junction soon and hang around there for a while.

And there's more...

...ice on the cut. This is Braunston. I hope someone comes through with a boat to break it up.

Oh! No, more ice, and it's thicker than yesterday's. 

A bit of maintenance.

After the daily chores, breakfast, cat, ablutions etc. I prepared the Bubble stove for sealing, removing all the white (Previously black) fire cement and replacing it with something I've not tried before - High temperature silicone sealant. Geocel claim it's good for temperatures up to 300°C. It'll be interesting to see if their claim is right.
The old cement came out easily with an old screwdriver and then I vacuumed out the area before spraying it with matt black high temperature paint and allowing it to go off before applying the silicone.

Quite a neat job.

By late in the day the silicone had gone off and is ready to fire up.

We had a lovely cruise into Braunston, brilliant sunshine all the way. We winded in the entrance to Braunston Marina and moored on the water point to fill the tank. With that done we moved TQ up a few yards to the 48 hour mooring and strolled into the village for some previously forgotten sundries. As we headed out of Braunston a kingfisher flew alongside hopping from one hedgerow twig to another many yards ahead and waited for us to catch up. He did this several times until we were well out of the village. We're now heading in a Hillmorton direction just outside of Braunston.

We have moved, but not far.

After the mornings ablutions and breakfast, I got down and dirty in the engine 'ole. All the belts needed tightening, the engine coolant needed topping up and the bilge had to be pumped. While I was down there I checked the air filter. It was in a poor state so I changed it and popped over to Calcutt to buy an oil filter and spare air filter. The daily engine checks were carried out and the engine started. (First time). The strong wind had dropped so plans were made to leave the marina and head to Braunston, but then it rained so we postponed our journey until after the rain stopped. Suddenly the sun came out so we slipped our mooring and headed towards our destination. The black clouds soon caught up with us and the wind strengthened again so we moored up near bridge 101 and the gales had one final blast before abating by dusk.
The draught proofing is working, it's much warmer inside the stern end of the boat now.

Air filters - Out with the old, in with the new.