Wednesday 29 February 2012

Improving Leo

One of our projects before we get started on our cruise has been to convert what was a breakfast bar into a double dinette.  This gives us both a proper table for eating, doing crosswords or whatever and, more importantly, the facility to welcome friends for a weekend or a few days during our travels.  The new bed has proper bed foam and seems pretty comfortable, so people will be welcome to join us.


The work was done by Mick Wilson who trades as "Aquarius Narrowboats" and built the boat in the first place.  Suzanne, his wife, did all the upholstery.  We cannot praise them enough.  Mick has done a splendid job and is a joy to deal with.  Sue even left us some spare buttons for the seat back.  You can see from the pictures below that Mick did various other improvements at the same time.


Here are some pictures of the improvements:


Dinette with table
Dinette as bed



Bathroom cabinet
Helen's bedside shelves

Stern locker
Locker with seat
 So now we are all set.  Just a final few bits of painting and other small jobs and then we will be setting 'sail' in April.  It is now looking possible for our son David and his girlfriend Victoria to join us in London via the Grand Union Canal whose summit level is scheduled to reopen on a restricted basis at the end of March.  More rain would still be useful to refill the Southern Waterways to make our life easier.  So we are wishing for a rainy March and the sun to come out again in April.