This morning the boat was again surrounded by ice but I had already decided that today was the day to go up the locks and I even had help with me. Luckily 2 hire boats went past and broke up the ice so I followed them. Unfortunately I was the first boat to go up the locks and the ice between the locks was fairly thick. I had trouble exiting one of the locks.
I forgot my camera but my daughter did manage to get some pics with her phone..
The daughter helping with the locks.
My
Back to work on the boat again so soon which is nice. Just wish I could have every weekend off but don't think work would allow it! Glad to see work Debdale are progressing well with the work they are doing for us.
Started on Friday evening by painting a first coat of blacking in water tank space under front deck. It's a very tight space to be working in with all the fumes from blacking!
Saturday and its time to put some insulation up. After thinking about the various options I decided
We've had a few days of nice weather and decided that a good use of this was to top all the trees at home. There are quite a few trees both at the front of the house and the back. My brother was the person chosen to go up the ladder.. It took ages to do them and we had a rather large bonfire to get rid of all the brash. A few of the trees were just too big for us to tackle so a couple of friends were called in. One went up the trees with his chain saw and some rope, it's handy to know a tree sur
A very quiet New Year this year for us - a bit different to our usual Hogmanay celebrations in Scotland!
Not many photos this time as the camera was broken.
We arrived late afternoon New Year's Eve having driven up in the camper and the van so we could have the luxury and heating of the camper and leave it up there until the boat was a bit more comfortable to sleep on. Unpacked the tools I thought we'd need from the van and showed Becky the progress as she hadn't been up for a few weeks
WE HAVE SET UP A NEW BLOG TO KEEP UP TO DATE THIS YEAR. CLICK HERE. The old blog will be updated to fill in the gap as time permits !
Following Hannah and Craig's wedding we could really get to work and finish ripping out bathroom and bedroom - no need to keep shower in any more!
Starting to strip out bedroom - no going back now!
Before
After
All that remains of the bathroom is some plumbing
Looking towards kitchen showing the pile of wood growing and our only toil
We could hardly contain our excitement when we arrived at Whilton on Friday 27th August to pick up the keys for the last time for what was now our own boat. The plan was to settle in on the boat and move everything aboard we might need for the trip and set off on Saturday lunch time. We also had one of our cats Mars with us as he was recovering from a broken leg and needed to be kept in a confined space for another 2 weeks.
We reconnected the water pipes at the front and proceeded to carefu
Doorman advised me that the ice was now gone on the canal after being broken up by a few boat movements, so, I went with my dad and my daughter. The boat is now moored in a much better place. The engine started without trouble and as the weather was fine it was a good day for a cruise.
Here's a short video..
At our visit to the boat in early December, we had arranged for a carpenter to come and quote for some alterations. We wanted a glass sided cabinet fitted on top of a cupboard in the galley to increase storage areas for glasses and bottles, some cupboards fitted around the porthole in the main bedroom, a cabinet fitted above the wash basin in the bathroom and one of the beds raised in the rear cabin so that we can store a keyboard underneath it. Also an arrangement to allow the fore and aft bed
The River Severn by our Hut is frozen in quite a dramatic style today. It looks more impressive as sheets of ice have drifted down the river and all got stuck here. There used to be a ford here many years ago so the river is probably shallower.
Not sure if this will work but I took a short video this afternoon.
Too much snow and ice on the track down to our hut so a walk down there today. It's a nice snowy scene by the river.
The track looks okay but no cars can get up it just a 4x4.
Our hut..
The daughter's hut..
The River Severn by the hut.
And just for Bones, here's a pic of the lego castle me and my brother made with my daughter...
It has been -12 degrees here at 9am the last 2 mornings with even colder temperatures at night. It snowed a bit the other day and that has now frozen solid. Little effort seems to have been made to clear the roads.
Our drive home from the pub!, We only just made it back before it started snowing again. Within 10 minutes the roads were covered with snow..
Delivering our Christmas cards by foot in our village.
My brother went on friday to house sit in a large old farm house
One final worry was when we arranged to go to Whilton on 17th August to make payment and have a look at what would now be our very own boat. We had a phone call from them just as we were about to leave Somerset to say not to come up as there was some problem with finance. It turned out the previous owners had not paid off the balance of finance and as our offer was less than outstanding finance the finance company couldn't release the boat until it was all sorted out but not to worry it should a
Next was arranging survey but as the boat was at Wigrams Turn Marina and had to be moved to Whilton Marina we asked if we could come for the trip. This gave us a lovely day out on 7th August moving the boat as well as a chance to see how she handled and make sure the engine ran ok and there were no major problems. Some photos of the trip can be seen below:
Leaving Wigrams Turn Marina
Braunston crawl!
Working through Braunston Locks
We somehow got to the top of Braunston Locks (
After much discussion and asking for advice on here we decided to ignore all your advice and go with our hearts and made a stupidly low offer in July. Needless to say this was refused and the seller said he was insulted by our offer! We then wrote a long email detailing all the faults we found and asked them to let us know if they changed there mind. Some of the faults can be seen in the pics below:
Poor standard of workmanship with doors that didn't open; tiles falling off the walls; messy
Now then, I seem to recall us being in and trying to get out of a recession.
You'd think that this would spark off a little urgency in the working people, those who run small businesses and so on.
Well, ive been trying to get someone to come and have a look at a p bracket that needs 'a fixin' and blow me if they all can't be bloody arsed. Ive been told its because marine engineers dont take women seriously. I find thid hard to belive. My money and boat is no different to anyone elses is it
This is going to be a blog on the purchase and refit of narrowboat Diesel & Dust that we bought from Whilton in August. I'll be making a few entries initially to bring the story up to date then hopefully keep this up to date as work progresses.
To start off with here are some photos from the sales brochure that made us curious enough to view Diesel & Dust.
We wanted to know more about this boat and particularly what was going on with the gates in the boatmans cabin!
Today, me, my brother and my Dad decided that we would try to cruise Casper the 400 yards or so to a better mooring so Casper is not stuck against this concrete ledge when the locks reopen at the weekend.
The engine was not too keen to start, needing bleeding first, still a problem with the injector bleed screws and I also had to realign the starter motor again. I'll have to fix that properly later.
With my brother sat on the front with a scaffold pole breaking the ice I set off. Only a coupl
The Previous post was written some days ago before I found out how to use the blog.
I sat here the other night (at home), staring out the window at the snow, it's -16 degrees out there, and my thoughts are with those out there on the cut. How are they coping ? God, I've so much to learn if I'm to be one of them next year.
''Can you imagine being out there on our boat right now'' I said to Brenda, -'' No bloody chance'' says she, as she turns the thermostat up a few degrees. Mrmm, not th
There's nothing more life changing than when you have your life, (as it was) taken from you. Lost my job,as I couldn't protect myself,was never to ride my bike to a motorbike rally, and my right arm, (which I used for everything) hangs uselessly at my side. But hey, 'I'm lucky to be alive' they told me.
My wife, of 2 years at that time,'Brenda' gave up her career to look after me, as I needed 24 hr care at the time.
After 23 operations to date,I'm back on my feet, though my arm still has
Plain sailing from Braunston. It was very sad to see Clent looking sorry for itself. I have some very fond memories of her and her Captain in 1998 !
We got to the top of Atherstone about 3.30
The Jag looking and sounding a bit better then last time here with the blown top joint. Only a small weep this time although Luce looks a bit the worse for wear.
http://narrowboatsalesltd.co.uk/botather.mp4
Bloody good trip
Thanks Luce ! Love You ! You can come boating with me an
A very sore captain kicked off in the morning. And of course with rain I suspect waterways had opened a few drain off paddles as it took me 45 minutes in the rain to get off the mooring ! After that though progress was swift and were through Stoke by midday.
Plain sailing now and on way down braunston I sent Luce in the Nelson for some beer. She came back and said She had booked a table as they stop servig at 8.30pm I had to send her back and cancel as how can we tie up in the light !
Got a good start despite waterways filling up Apsley top pond and having to run water below Berko.
Agter filling two pounds we managed to bounce through and progress was good to we were able to scrub the boat up a bit !
Made Leighton Lock before 5 pm so looking good for Milton Keynes.
After Stoke Hammond it was time for a scrub off ( Me that is as boat already done). I have a tap on the water outlet which is fine for washing hands when in the engine 'ole. Not so fine for a man
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