Everyone's maintainin'

We've seen quite a lot of this wooden boat during our days at Tixall Wide.

Her name is Tamburo. I suppose she would be called a launch of some sort, but I don't know what the appropriate abbreviation would be – presumably not "NB" even though her width is similar to that of a narrowboat. ML? MV? The owners have been doing a deal of maintenance, as have a number of boaters here during these sunny, quieter days.

Our own painting of bits of Erin Mae has really gone very well. Today I put the first coat of gunwale paint on the stern counter. I put it on with a roller, but wasn't happy with the overall result. I'll hope to put on a second coat all by brush tomorrow, and a get nice, smooth, even look to it.

I took the opportunity of having the gunwale paint out to go down the sides, seeing how easy it was to cover travel-damaged bits with a roller-full. First impressions are that this is going to be really good solution. Rubs and scrapes as you cruise are to be expected, and nothing to worry about. But it is really nice to have a system for restoring it all from time to time, and I'm very happy with our decision to change the original green gloss for Andy Russell's satin black.

So after doing Erin Mae's right-hand side we turned her around to point in the opposite direction and did the left-hand side. The Broad Water (Tixall Wide's proper name) is wide enough to allow for this, just by holding the bows with a line and swinging the stern around with the engine. This has the advantage that, when I put the final coat on the counter tomorrow, I'll be a bit more sheltered from the wind.

The forecast says there'll be time in the morning to do the painting and then get back to the marina before the rain comes (and before we run out of water). Tamburo may well come as well – we found her in the marina when we had a couple of days there last week, and understand she's booked in for the winter.