The Wayward Spinner is ‘decked out’ with 4 strings of Christmas Lights, a Christmas Tree with optic fibres and ever-changing colours and a ‘Star’ mounted high on her Navigation pole with ‘rotating’ lights pattern – but it’s too cold outside to take a photo without getting some handshake,however the photo below provides an idea of how she looks.
Sunday 18 December 2011 and the first ice forms in Wigrams Marina, only the thinnest film of ice – but ice nonetheless. Last night was a particularly clear night so it was not surprising we had ice form, it was also a great night for doing a bit of ‘star gazing’ with little or no wind to fetch a ‘chill’, so it was quite pleasant to stand outside for a while just to take in the star filled sky….sadly no meteorites were observed though.
Photo taken through the window…
On Friday Karl (from K C Covers Ltd) came out to the Wayward Spinner and expertly fitted the new stern ‘pram hood’ cover to the frame. Photo below. Now the rear deck area is nicely protected from the elements and it gives Steve plenty of cover for his fishing activities for when the weather is not so favourable.
Work has begun on the Wayward Spinner to fit her with a full Stern canopy. The photo below shows the structure of the main poles system (mostly) bolted in situ so that templates for the actual canvas can be made. These templates have now been completed and so the canvas is currently ‘in production’. Delivery should be within two weeks (give or take a day or two). The whole pram hood has been made quite large to accommodate the ‘lifting’ rear hatch mechanism – and yet by all accounts the canopy should be quite easy and simple to put up, or take down.
Just one Bream, (and missed three others) – Ray G if you’re out there keep watching as the fish get bigger.!!
It has to be said that there always seems to be a form of ‘rivalry’ between anglers as to who has caught the larger fish, so to keep up with the ‘competition’ that exists between Ray G and Steve I am posting the following….photos taken from on-board the Wayward Spinner within Wigrams Turn Marina.
First Ray G’s last catch…..
2nd Steve’s last catch…..
Steve says ‘his’ is bigger than Rays..!!!!
Well on Thursday 6th October 2011 we set off from our mooring just above the ‘Napton flight’ and made our way through the set of locks to eventually approach Napton On The Hill and our destination which was to be Wigrams Turn Marina. Earlier in the morning the weather which had been ‘unsettled’ and more than a little breezy turned very cold and the breeze increased in power and frequency to turn into more of a minor gale on occasions. As we approached our turning point into the narrow marina entrance a large ‘turbulent wind’ hit the Wayward and our Waterways No 1 map book and cover was blown completely off the cabin roof into the choppy waters. The same wind pushed the bow past the turning point so that we had to turn around into the wind and re-approach the entrance.
Well despite the wind Steve did a fantastic job of manoeuvring the boat through the entrance and into the marina especially with the wind continuing to rise, the marina staff also turned out to help us get the Wayward safely ‘berthed’ and we extend our thanks to them for a fine job in the worsening weather conditions.
Nearing Napton Junction and Wigrams Turn
The next few months will give us both the chance to rest and recuperate, and for us to make a few changes and improvements to the electrical system of the boat and for the engine to have a full service. In essence every system on-board the Wayward Spinner has performed almost without fault throughout the whole season, the engine has never missed a beat and we just had the two very minor hiccups which were the toilet getting blocked (human error) and the shower tap not giving out hot water which turned out to be a filter that needed cleaning out; not bad at all for the very first season and our sincere thanks go out to Paul Widdowson who built her and Neil and Helen Mansfield who fitted her out to a superb level.
The blog will slow down now, but as the service and ‘additions’ start to happen the details will get posted…so watch this space.
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