We have been considering for some time that the boat needs a re-paint. It’s a big decision, and a lot of money, so we didnt want to rush it.

Over the summer we had been looking at lots of boats and assessing the colours and style of the paintwork. We had talked to lots of boaters regarding who we might get to do the work and one name cropped up several times, Bob Mitchell from Fenny Compton. As that it only about 5 miles from Cropredy we decided to go to see him.

On Wednesday we first walked another section of the Cotswold way. We started last year and do about 6 or 7 miles at a time. The most recent part was from Dowdeswell to Leckhampton, which is conveniently on the route from home to Cropredy. We drove straight from the walk to Fenny Compton and had a chat with Bob. I had thought that we would take the boat for him to see the next day. But he gave us a price there and then for taking all the vents, windows etc off, stripping back to bare metal and doing a full re-paint. We went back to the boat to think about it.

The next day we intended to take the boat up to Fenny to tell Bob that we would like him to do the job. The weather wasnt too good, quite windy, so we went by bike instead. The towpath on this part of the Oxford isn’t in very good condition. We had to be very careful not end up in the water. We had another good chat to Bob discussing colour schemes etc and booked her in for March.

Lunch was taken in the Wharf Inn, an excellent sausage sandwich (& a bowl of chips !) We chickened out further towpath cycling and went back by road.