Spent all day wednesday lastweek changing the oil filter and engine oil as we had a planned trip witha chap called Phill arranged on the 16th.

How hard is it changing an oil filter??????

I thought they were supposed to be hand tight. Not this one.....thankfully trevour had left in the tool kit a decent 'strap' socket and with a bit of jiggery pokeerry i had the old filter off and new one in place...i then spent the next hour or so filling the engine litre by painfull litre which was only marginally easier then pumping out the old oil litre by litre.

Anyway, job done and the old girl kicked into life after a two month lay up and we set off sunday afternoon for Uxbridge.....This entailed loosening 'Herbie's(our neighbour) bow line so we could slip out in reverse and be free of the mooring. However, Its sunday and every sunday at Iver means.......fishing match...they even had the audacity to ask me to keep the revs down as we mooved off.......it was done all by muscle power and not engine just to be considerate!!!!! and there was sheet ice on the water!!!!

Never mind...one chap did say thanks and wished we had left earlier so we couldve broken the ice up for him prior to him commencing fishing.....Arrived at teh Swan and Bottle without incident apart from ice breaking manouvers on the slough arm and tied up behind a boat called Carrie Anne which has had a RED BWB notice slapped on it for over staying on 24hr mooring......extra 25 squid a day and thats backdated to the 12th...nice looking boat too.

The grub in the Swan and Bottle was as good as ever with all three of us partaking in the wexford mushrooms, Phill then attacking sausage and mash, Swmbo making a meal of the claves liver and bacon and yours truly just being a hog and attacking the mixed grill.

Whats the point in having dessert and coffee when you have all you reqiure on board and just a small stagger away from the exit.

Much merriment was then the order of the evening and if your the vessel moored behind us i can only offer my profound sorrows for the strains of 'Phantom of the Opera' that you may've heard that evening..

Today saw us up eventually by midday and once more cutting our way through the ice pack that is known as the slough arm.

It was thicker and denser.....but with the aid of the dining table leg and barge pole we managed to 'wind' and arrive back at base in time to allow phill his 3 hour drive to do the 30 miles back to his home in Plumstead......Its an Outrage!!!!

My Drisabone was great inthe offing wind but me toes were bloody cold as were me fingers...so much so that i couldnt roll ciggies and had to nick phill's 'Mayfair' while his back was turned

All in all a good trip....however the hull is now in need of re blacking due to our re-enactment of TITANIC