Painted and ready to roll

Fred and Steve have been toiling away in the drydock to get Diona in trim for her cruising season debut on Friday.  She's looking lovely.  There will be a huge panic to clean all the dust out of her and get the soft furnishings and food loaded, but I'm up for it.

The bottom rollers from SDS arrived this morning and they are a perfect match for the originals they replace.  I've invited James from SDS to come by Canalway Cavalcade over the weekend to admire the canopy and let me buy him a beer.

It wasn't until I had the rollers in the drydock that I thought about bolts.  They should be stainless steel bolts as new as the rollers.  Fred sent me to Clerkenwell Screws, 109 Clerkenwell Road in EC1, about five minutes walk from Farringdon Station.  What a fabulous ironmongers!  They had the bolts exactly as needed and I picked up some stainless steel screws for the blinds as long as I was there.  The blokes were knowledgable and efficient and the prices better than Wickes or B&Q.  Below is the canopy, waiting to go back on the boat.

I've finished two of the seat cushions, but still have more to do.  I'm not quite sure what to use to get a straight cut on the edges of the roller blinds, but will probably make do with a straight edge of some sort and a razor knife.  Tomorrow will be a day of fitting, sewing, shopping and praying the paint dries before she comes out of drydock.

And Fred, as I expected, has fixed the problem with the cooling system.  It turns out that there is already a bleed valve on the water pump, and once opened, the airlock was neutralised and she filled with water as she should.  He took her for a test spin on the canal to make sure, and she remained well within expected temperature range.  He'll show me where it is when we bring her out of drydock and get her ready for cruising.

On the way back home I stopped by Welsh Harp Boat Centre  in Hendon for line and four more new fenders.  On the side street behind the shop the local parking restriction had just expired at 4:30pm.  Welsh Harp is the only chandlery I know of in North London, so is quite handy.  They even helped me carry the stuff to the car.  With the four medium fenders I bought today, I've bought eleven new fenders in total. Even so, I'm told I'll need two huge sausage fenders for when she's moored on the opposite side.

Whatever.  (sigh!)  It's a boat.  It's going to hurt my bank balance, but make me happy.

UPDATE:  The canopy is back on and rolls just fine.  I'm told it requires a bit of a push just at the end as the new rollers are a little lower than the re-engineered rollers they replace on the back.  A couple ring washers will fix that, but it can wait until after the weekend.