Summer Cruise 2008

The following entries were originally posted on the Canal World Forum Blog and rather than do it all again and miss out on important bits due to memory loss i thought id try and copy them here for the benefit of those of you that missed the original tale and also because this is now the official site for our travel stories.
Ill put em on here one by one to simulate the original postings

If the pics dont come out ill have to try and find them and re post them but Im sure the text will speak for itself......apologies if you have read all this before

Geoff.

Original post......02/06/08

Only six days to go before we cast off and head down to Brentford for our grand cruise of the Thames ring.
We finished work Saturday morning and that was my last day at work till 3rd July...yippee, Unless of course you count my long service ceremony next Friday. (its only a year late)I wasnt initially going to bother going but then i read the small print and noticed that it was treated as a 'tour of duty' so I emailed em and let em know Salty, Nora and mumsie would be attending and to make sure there were sufficient supplies of sandwiches and cups of tea to mark our attendance.

So I have the best part of a week to get Lady Elgar ready for the cruise. The outside is ready for a good wash again following all the rain and wind weve had however the Brasses are still shiney thanks to the lacquer i sprayed them with a couple of weeks previously.
One thing that is still of concern is the starter motor problem which trevor mentioned previously. Steve at Iver asked me the other week if the starter still gave problems and he suggested maybe it was a power problem? so ill pop over to the office on Tuesday and discuss getting a heftier cranking battery to see if that makes a difference, A couple of times last week even the magic wire didnt work and seeing how your required to switch off in every lock id like to know at least shes going to turn over even with using the magic wire.

We took LE out for an overnighter last week upto harefield and had a very enjoyable BBQ moored on the offside by one of the large mere's along there. On the return We filled up the fuel tank ready for our holiday. 50 odd litres at 86ppl......dont think it will be long before it reaches the £pl mark.
I added a quantity of fuel additive but had to guess the tank volume as i have no idea what her capacity is. Hopefully it will ease some of the some smoke from the exhaust which has got a bit better since cleaning the air filter and changing the fuel filters but maybe the dear Perkins is ready for the injectors being looked at.

So, Ive dug out the Video camera and will pop into town tomorrow and get a small tripod so we can shoot while cruising hands free, Also on the list is a visit to currys or comet. Our TV decided it was going to give up the ghost this week and Nora wont survive without it......well, only for a few of her programs The good news is for the last couple of years ive been saving £2 coins in a 'Piggy' so we counted em last night and have just over 400 squid which will buy the new tv and pay for our intended fuel use on the grand cruise with some pennies left over to treat Nora to a chippy supper one night