A Party and a Project

We have had three significant birthdays on the Marina recently, so decided to have a barbecue to celebrate. There have been a number of new people arriving recently and the Marina is now nearly full. These are mostly leisure boaters, rather than residential, but they have all fitted in really well. The barbecue was a good opportunity for everyone to get to know one another and I have to say that it was a great success. It was heart warming to see so many people enjoying themselves and getting on so well together. The Marina is now a place where I really enjoy living and want to be, in marked contrast to a few years ago when there were some very difficult people living here. Everybody now, without exception, is decent and pleasant and it is a wonderful little community.

The bunting was put out especially for the party:

The dogs were all aware that there maybe some titbits of food for them and were looking expectant:

The birthday cake was magnificent, complete with sparkler:

I also discovered something on the Marina which I had never noticed before. Hops!

A boater who has now left, planted them a couple of years ago and they are thriving. I don't think I will use them to make beer as I have so much fruit gin on the go, but I'm going to make a hop pillow with them. I have some lavender in our little garden at the end of the boat, so should get a good nights sleep with a combination of hops and lavender!

Yesterday I had an interesting meeting with a physics lecturer from the University. I had met him a few weeks ago when he wandered onto the marina in search of a narrow boat to take part in a project he was planning. We got chatting and found that we had much in common. He is an amateur saxophonist and is looking for a pianist to accompany him. I found it quite spooky that I happened to be the first person he spoke to. His explained his project to me and I instantly agreed to participate as I think it will be great fun.

The idea is that he and a drummer will be filmed while they play at the front of the boat, which I will be sailing along the canal. He wants to demonstrate the changes in sound when a boat moves under bridges, so it is partly a video for his students, but he also is using the footage as an advert for a gig he is doing locally and for a CD he has produced.

There are many logistical problems, not least fitting a set of drums into the small area at the front and getting a decent angle for the video. He also wants me to stop the boat for about a minute under each bridge and when we arrive at the popular town centre canal side pub, he wants me to hold the boat mid stream for 10 minutes while they play a few pieces. I think it is going to be a challenge, but I'm up for it ..... watch this space for progress on this.

More news on residential status and work on the Marina in the next blog.

Al :)

wildlife and mellow fruitfulness

We have had no success with our wildlife camera. We have heard the otter splashing around under the boat on many occasions in the night and it has been briefly seen launching itself into the water from under the jetty between boats. We set the camera up where it has been spotted the most, but after two weeks, all we got was floating debris on the water. It did come in useful last month though, when I discovered that something was eating our apples at the allotment. We thought it was a mouse, as the only apples which were touched were near to the ground. We set the camera up and look who was the culprit:

This year has been fantastic for fruits with an abundance of sweet and juicy blackberries all along the tow path and hedgerows. The good thing is that everything is about a month early, so that I can gather it before I go overseas for work in October.

I have made Blackberry Whisky, Plum Brandy, Redcurrant Gin and Damson Gin so far, as well as several jars of pickled Beetroot and many Rhubarb crumbles. We have so many Raspberries growing on the allotment that we are sick of eating Raspberry fool and Eton Mess, so I think I shall also be making Raspberry Vodka too. My next job is to collect Sloes to make gin. These benefit from a sharp frost before they are picked and with the Indian summer we are having, it is unlikely that they will be ready for a week or two. However, I have recently discovered a number of new bushes, many of which are off the beaten track, so hopefully I will be able to harvest them before anyone else gets there. I took the canoe out yesterday and found a whole row of bushes on the offside from the tow path. These being only accessible by boat is a bonus!!

This afternoon we went for a lovely walk. I love the Autumn colours and picked up this beautiful leaf:

We discovered a Badger set as we walked through the woods, so have now set the camera up there. I think we have concealed it well, so hope it doesn't get nicked!

Hopefully we will finally get some wildlife footage. Watch this space ......

I had planned to do the coast to coast cycle ride next week, but a little project has got in the way, which involves a physics lecturer and amateur musician and our boat, which will lead to a fun boating adventure. More about that in the next Blog.

Al :)

Back on the water

Finally the weather over the last few days has been kind to us and we have completed the paint work. The boat has gone from this:

and this .......

....... to this

and this.

The paint work is gleaming, we have a thick surface of blacking on the bottom and the sign writing has been redone, so that it is now sharp and well defined.

Our hearts were in our mouths as she was lowered into the water. It was a windy day which can be tortuous if the wind is in the wrong direction and catches the boat side on. All that lovely new paint work and the prospect of chipping it off on our journey through the locks, was not an appealing prospect. Apart from a slightly tight run out of the jetty and a blowy sail through the exposed basin, we had an enjoyable and uneventful journey up to our home mooring.

The cost of all the maintenance work is as follows:

Lift out of the water £300

Jet washing the hull and blacking £350

Lift back into the water £300

Paints and materials £400

Sign writing £385

Because we are berth holders of the company who did the work, we got a discount, in that the lift out and jet washing were complimentary. This brought the grand total down to £1300.

This may seem a lot of money, but bearing in mind that this work only needs to be done once every 3-4 years, it's not bad really especially as the boat looks like new now!

The only thing we have to do now, is get on the roof and tidy and clean that. We didn't feel safe doing that while on dry land. At least if we fall off on our mooring, we will drop into water and are unlikely to hurt ourselves.

On other fronts things are moving forward. We are still trying to sort out how much council tax we should pay as residential boaters. I will cover this in my next posting, as it is a complicated issue.

On a lighter note, we have had an early summer and many autumn fruits are appearing already. I have made plum gin and blackberry whisky and my next job is to gather some sloes, before I go away for my autumn work tour in October. More on foraging also in another post.

All for now....

Al :)

It's Raining It's Pouring

The weather has become unsettled again and we have struggled to get any painting done over the last two days.

Today we have had heavy rain and the wind is howling around the boat. It sounds worse up here at the sea basin because it whines through the rigging of the yachts.

If it continues to be wild tomorrow we are going to sand down the paintwork on the bow deck which is under cover and repaint it.

This is where our water tank is and we have discussed what maintenance work we need to do on this. The normal procedure for a tank like ours is to open up the small entry hatch and try to scrape round the sides and bottom with a brush on some kind of pole or extension. The opening to ours is 2ft by 2ft and in theory it is possible for a small person to get inside and clean it out at close quarters. This is a horrible job though and neither of us fancies doing it.

We know there is a lot of sludge slopping around the bottom because we ran out of water last week. We hadn't expected to be on dry land for so long, but the weather has been against us. Consequently we ran out of water before being able to get to a convenient tap. The water that came out of the taps was clearly coming from the bottom of the tank as it was brown! As it happens we only use the tank water for showering and washing up. We fill up a litre container every day for our drinking water even though we do have a filter which we change every year.

Once the tank has been cleaned it needs repainting, unless it is made of stainless steel, which ours isn't. We really don't want to be doing all of this, so we have researched putting a plastic liner in.

After all the work we have done this summer, we won't be able to afford this until next year now, so our tank will have to wait another year. This won't be an issue, provided we keep it topped up and regularly put sterilisation tablets in, which we do every couple of months.

I will keep you posted about costs and details as we research it more thoroughly.

The village show was held yesterday and I won prizes for my broad and runner beans from the allotment and also I got many prizes and a trophy for my photos. Here are three of the prize winning photos:

Once the boat painting is completed, I will post some pictures of the finished product. We hope to be back in the water by the end of next week.

Al

Some good weather at last

Finally over the last two days we have had some warm, dry weather which has enabled us to crack on with the painting and sign writing.

Our new sign writer is very skilled and has put right many faults with our original lettering and it is starting to look really fantastic. Photos will be posted when it is finished.

We have painted the stern and all we have to do now is the Gunnels and the rubbing strip, which has quite a few scuffs.

Tomorrow is the village show and I have some photos in and have also entered quite a few vegetable classes, so I will be down at the allotment at the crack of dawn tomorrow choosing and harvesting my best specimens.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Al :)

Boat Maintenance

It is now 4 years since we moved to the boat and we have never for an instant regretted the decision to change our lifestyle so radically. Neither of us are getting any younger and the lifestyle is very physical and strenuous, so we are aware that at some point we will have to go back to dry land, but for now we are enjoying 'living the dream'.

Usually boats need some attention after about 3 years, so at 4 years we knew that the boat was long overdue for blacking. Some of the scuffs on the paintwork also required touching up. We booked the crane at our local yachting basin for the lift out and sailed through the six locks to get there. One of the new boaters who has recently moved to our marina came with us to learn how to operate the locks and it was good to have an extra pair of hands.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

When the boat was lifted out of the water it was quite shocking to see the state of the hull. She was covered in fresh water Mussels, all the black had come off and there was a fair bit of rust in evidence.

Luckily the weather was good, so we were able to get the bottom blacked straight away the next day:

Looking better already, but unfortunately the weather has now broken, with the tail end of hurricane Bertha causing some disruption to our work plans. As you can see from the picture, we have some scuffing on the paintwork to cover, but frustratingly all we can do for now is look out of the window at the wind and rain and hope that we can get going again soon.

More on our progress soon. I will try to post every day now. In the next blog there will be news on what we have decided to do with our water tank and some adjustments we are planning to make to access our gas locker.

Al :)

Long time no blog!

Finally I am home from working overseas and have had some time to recover from my exhausting work schedule.

I will now be posting regularly again for a while until my next work session, which isn't until October when I have been booked to go to India.

Lots has happened with the boat since I returned to the UK and I will be posting progress with that and some pictures over the next few days.

At the moment we are in the boat yard near the sea basin with the boat on dry land for blacking and painting, but the internet signal is terrible here, so I probably won't be able to blog too extensively while we are here.

I will try over the next few days to write some details about the mechanics of getting the boat out of the water and the work we have done etc. so please bear with me....

More soon ......

Al