My new blog is finally being made public.
its growing from both ends at the moment. All of my notes and diary taking over the past year is being added at the same time as the new stuff.
if you are interested in finding out how my boat search and buying process went or simply to know what its like to live on a yacht, female, alone, in the middle of a river, and still holding down a day job in London... then this is for you.
http://sy-varekai.livejournal.com/
or
http://syvarek
Why is it that the flange for the flue ,where it exits through the roof, is slightly too small for a standard 5" flue pipe? This made what should have been a simple task of fitting a stove rather difficult..
We had to cut slits in the pipe and "squeeze" it up the flange. The fire surround is made from 8mm steel sheet, which will have an air gap behind it.
The new stove fitted into Sleepy Hollow,
I put the new exhaust system on Casper. It is now much quieter, almost whisper mo
What a relief to awaken just before light and no rain. That meant we were clear of Stoke by 9 and batting round the pound when I notice the auto bilge pump working overtime. Thought is was the rain water draining through and thought no more of it. Around Castlethorpe thought I should take a further look and discovered that the bottom engine water pipe from the pump to the cylingder was leaking badly and squirting in a direction that I was unable to see when normally oiling up. I took the steelso
Well, after my little chug I decided to fit silencer. I took the exhaust system off and made a new one with a flexible part and a Fordson Major Tractor silencer.
I used a mig welder as the steel is fairly thin. I can confirm that i'm not very good with a mig, but they are easy to stick things together..
Thanks to KeithL and a trip to Stourport, Casper now has a "new" exhaust stack. I can't cruise with it on yet as my bodged exhaust allows fumes into the boat if the stack is on so I have to remove it to run the engine.
5.30 Monday morning saw in the dark shadows Michael bow hauling Emu round the turn and by 6 we were on the move.
Came out of top of 'morton around 11 and crawled through Braunston around 1. We then we flew up and over in 3 hours. Stoke was clearly on the agenda until the heavens opened.
Emu' bolinder was settling in and going round a treat. Rain, Real Rain, More Rain. Michael suffered more than me as I had the benefit of a roaring range. Settled for Blisworth as it got dark b
The trip really started two weeks ago after Kangaroo and Australia headed to Beale Park.
five 2 ton bags of railway line was delivered to the yard for transhipment to Watford.
It being sods law the JCB had a puncture so we had to position it and use the back hoe as a static crane to unload the lorry. Pete Gilbert then came to the rescue with his hi-ab and we managed to load into the boat although it was very precarious as his hi-ab only handles 1500 kgs 3 ft out !!!
The plan was that we s
I was asked on my recent trip why I have not been blogging on my way.
I admit it is bit of a trial with a loaded boat, back cabin, bolinder and summer traffic!
However if there is interest I shall write it up this week.
We took the Jag loaded at Alvecote to Watford with railway line ballast for NB Roger.
We did find the time to go to Shakerstone and actually met up with Kangaroo and Australia at Marston Lane Junction.
Lawrence, Matthew and Caz had left Beale Park with 32 tons
Chugging up Frankton locks was a bit of a nightmare, well I exagerate slightly. I got to the bottom early as I had heard that over 12 boats were due up, I was still 5th in the queue. Saturn was being pulled up and 2 old working boats. There is limited mooring below the locks and I, along with 2 boats behind me, had to hover in the channel for 15 minutes, luckily it wasn't windy. I heard later that a lady had fallen in above the locks, but I missed that..
Ellesmere boat rally was a good weekend
Well, today is Saturday. I have just started my early shift part of my work rota. Early shifts mean I get up at 0315 hrs to get to work for 0430 hrs. I hate early shifts. however, I also hate middle and late shifts. in fact I hate working for somebody else TOTALLY. The only good part of early shifts is that on Thursday I finish at 1220 hrs, and start work again at 1515 on the following Wednesday. This means I get 5 days on the boat. Yippee.
I must sell the house so we can get away from this
Moored at Queens Head, still on the Monty. This must be one of the noisiest moorings, considering it appears to be in quiet contryside. The little country lane next to the canal has lorries and tractors thundering along it all day and into the night too. I've only ever moored here this time of year so could be harvest season traffic..
Had a very nice meal at the Queens Head pub. Rather too much food for me though, but that is hardly something to complain about.. I made a small effort to ware of
Our 3 boats lined up on arrival at Maesbury, shame about the vegetation and the dog cr*p..
Casper, with the usual ghosty things all over it.. We had to trim the vegetation with a pair of shears.
My daughter was put straight to work cleaning the boats, she loves it really...
I think a good rally was had by all, do it again in 2 years.
set off 19/08/10 after picking my grand-daughter nicola up, who came with us for a crusing holiday. we set off for paddington basin in london. travelling on the conventry canel down to sutton stop then on the oxford canel to brauston, onto the grand union, taking us to all the way down to paddington. one or two misshaps on the way, as my grand-daughter fell in the canel, & i twisted my ankle, eldest son came down from lichfield by train to hamel hempstead. we had a few pleasent days' in the
Over this weekend we chugged, in convoy, the families 3 boats down to the end of the Montgomery canal. Going in convoy was not the best plan as there isn't room to moor 2 boats above each lock. It also took us quite a while having 3 boats to put through the locks. The canal is very weedy and you can only really moor where they want you to. We had a very nice meal at the Queens Head.
The nature reserves are becomming quite nice. It's supposed to be an area or outstanding natural beauty but where
Today I chugged past a boater who said he liked the sound of my engine, I said it was too loud but he didn't agree. After chugging for 5 odd hours, over 2 days, I checked the engine. The small bucket, which is hung from the engine to collect the oil from the head, had filled too much. I only put a couple of squirts down the oilers but the bucket was almost full (it holds about a cup full) On taking the rocker cover off I could see that the injector screws on both injector pumps leaked slightly,
Another fun few days on the boats. SWMBO's sister came to stay and see for herself why we are mad enough to want to live on a boat. She lives just south of London so caught the train into the wicked city and National #Express coach to milton Keynes. I picker her up in the car and we set off for a short cruise, heading south past Milton Keynes. I like to show off by cooking guests at least one special meal which aboard our vessel, so Friday night was Beef Stroganof. It was an acclaimed sucess, so
A couple of coats of paint; primer and undercoat. I'm not sure what the final colour will be but I like the grey.
Couln't post a picture without sneaking Casper in too..
My Dad said from the beginning that my engine not having a silencer was a mistake and today I agree with him. Cruised Casper 3 hours up the canal and the exhaust was very very noisy. I even wore ear plugs though it was still quite loud even with these. I wanted to fit an expansion tank but that will probably make it even noisier..
Just as I got to a long straight and went to open it up a little the throttle bar moved forward and made the chain come off, so no throttle control, and this was just
I've somehow escaped the work this time but my Dad and my brother have gone to their boats. I got a text today saying that they were painting down one cabin side with primer. I hope it dried quick as 40 mile south, where I am, it has been raining all afternoon..
I managed to solve the slight seep in the day tank. Filled it to the brim with diesel and welded up the leak. After the day it was still dry so that seems to have fixed that. Welding a full diesel tank is a bit unnerving, you can hear the diesel bubbling from the heat and it even continues to bubble for a few seconds after you stop too .
I finished the floor in the back cabin and also put up a bit more trim. I've left the boat all tidy, clearing out all the 'junk' that had been accumulating i
In a couple of weeks Sleepy Hollow will be going to the Maesbury Rally on the Montgomery Canal. We 'bodged' up a simple, but fairly crude, throttle and gear control to cruise it to it's mooring but it was not easy to operate. The throttle was a cable from a lawn mower which wasn't long enough and ended by your feet and took both hands to operate. The gear lever was a manual stick which also needed both hands to operate as it was too easy to go straight from forward to reverse , missing neutral a
Progress on Sleepy Hollow has been continuing with wide pine tongue and grove panels on the cabin sides and the roof. My brother has done this work himself and it's coming on well. We need to concentrate on the engine controls and wiring so it is ready to cruise to the Maesbury rally in a few weeks.
Casper is now all wired up and the alternator is working fine. The only problem now is with the exhaust pipe, which also needs amending on Sleepy Hollow. I copied another boaters idea and put the ex
Check out my next door neighbour:
My first thought is "wow. that must be bloody hot in the summer", followed by "wow, it must be bloody dark too". I've not seen anyone coming or going in the last week, but if I do I'm going to have to ask them how it's going and report back. As far as I know when you buy these things they're full of seats and nothing much else. They are dirt cheap second hand though, I've seen em for 4k or so and I don't think you have to worry about the c
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