Who would believe it was the first weekend in February? Having been primed by a rare accurate weather forecast, we awoke this morning and decided to turn Jannock round ready for the protest at Marsworth in a couple of weeks. We have two choices for turning when pointing South, 2 hours (ish) to Winkwell or 4 hours (ish) to Hemel Hempstead. Today we chose Winkwell as I had some plumbing that I wanted to do when we'd returned to the mooring. On the way down, all of the locks were set against us (they tend to be left empty around here) but the pleasant sunshine and lack of wind made this no problem at all. Once through Winkwell swingbridge and lock, Brenda waited lockside whilst I went to try and demolish a tree at the winding hole. If you try and turn with the bows in the centre of the Winkwell winding point, then the tree on the Northern edge becomes very attractive to the boat. Note to self :- remember to aim to the south bank of the winding point next attempt. Back through the lock and swingbridge and we decided to stop on the 48hr moorings for a spot of lunch. Finally back up through the last 2 locks and moored up again for 2:30pm. Once back at Bourne End, I stripped out the skirting board in the lounge area and installed a stopcock on the output of our water tank. Jannock has always been prone to frost damage as the water stopcock was positioned halfway down the boat and I have never left the water tank full over winter due to the possibility of a freeze dumping 125 gallons into the lounge area. Now with a tap at the front I can leave the water tank filled over winter. Looking forward to starting the 2007 cruise early as we are attending the Marsworth protest on 3rd & 4th March followed by a run to Blue Lias for the Cutweb Rally at the end of March.
Graham www.jannock.org.uk
