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a narrowboat in a white bikini

Entries in this blog

You couldnt make this stuff up

(( Copied from other blog for anyone who is interested in following on from the Honey Ryder experience. ))   As if taking five months to complete the sale of my new boat wasnt enough of a mission and a story in itself, the mission continues.   I completed the sale of my SY Varekai in February, I drove to Gibraltar (where it currently lies) on a mini mission to get it prepared for sailing back at the end of May. During the mission I faffed around moving stuff out before I could move in. Th
honey ryder

honey ryder

1

Wigged out with the neighbours

Mooring in Limehouse for the past week has been most entertaining. we arrived on a Sunday evening, and squeezed into a spot a meter too short. So having knocked on the neighbours boat without a response, we shuffled the boat along a little bit so we could fit along the wall. Just as Mr X was about to tie the boat on again, a bald mans head popped out of the boat wondering what was happening. We explained, he shrugged and left us to it.   thereafter, for the remainder of the week we listened to
honey ryder

honey ryder

1

where's the punchline?

Living aboard a narrowboat on London canals just gets more an more exciting, the adventures never end.   Constantly cruising and trying to adhere to the rules as much as possible means we move. We move frequently. While the rest of the world (it seems) hides inside in a warm cosy place and rides out the winter only emerging in Spring, we continue the battle of finding somewhere new to moor each week or two. Knowing we have to move means a few days before casting off I mentally prepare to mo
honey ryder

honey ryder

1

When engine servicing goes bad

It was a comedy of errors at the weekend breaking every rule in my own rule book.   my motto: Always be prepared and always carry a spare. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. my partners motto: no fucking worries mate   DO: have a look around the engine, find all the numbers of consumables and order in advance so that all parts are ready for the service BEFORE you start.   Dont: poke your head in the engine compartment the day you want to do the service and quickly jot down any old number y
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

Whats under yours?

I don't know if everyone does this, but I get really bored of having my furniture in the same place for weeks on end. I feel the urge to move stuff around.   unfortunately on a boat there's not many places to move stuff to.   I had a good half a day at home today to do some work and while I was there during daylight hours, I also had the chance to relax for once on my sofa. but I couldnt.   Our living room area is a bit awkwardly laid out, the stove is big and takes up too much space t
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

wetter than an otters pocket

A fine weekend for cruising if you are a fish.   This weekend we took the boat away from the sales pontoon to move it to its temporary berth in penton hook marina First we headed off through the massive marina for a top up on diesel and while we braved the sudden downpour we watched the police storm the place, apparently in search of someone or something.   As we waited around on the diesel pontoon for the fiasco to finish, the chap from the marina came talked to us as he filled our tank.
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

welcome to the zoo

I am fed up of being treated like a freak show, I think I shall put a message for all to read upon my roof ( apart from a for sale sign that is)     If you want to have your picture taken on someone's boat, first make friends with the owner. Don't just climb on while Im having my breakfast and let you mate snap away from the towpath. Cheeky bastard.   If you want to have a look around my boat, my home, then get to know me first and wait to be invited. Don't peer through the windows and
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

we must be barking... Part 4

Thats the royal we, Mr X and myself have spent our 3rd and final weekend scraping and painting.   Step 56: don't fear the reaper The finale is in sight, the fanfare and the trumpets will play loudly sometime soon, but not just yet. The base plate was the object of our affections this weekend. With myself doing the "shit" bit at the back around the swim, prop and rudder yann got on with the scraping and cup-brushing with his angle grinder on the base plate.   we were well ahead of schedu
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

Travel Power and electric toothbrushes

Honey Ryder is fitted with the best system I've ever known for supplying power. It's got electrical power coming out of its ears, not literally, but metaphorically.   2kw Inverter, Charger, shore power, comprehensive battery management, small suit case gennie for just in case, solar panel awaiting fitment, ELECTROLUX TRAVEL POWER...   When I bought the boat I didn't know what IT was or how it worked. after asking the questions on the canal forum I got answers for how to make it work,  
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

Travel Power 2

A trip to Cox electrical...   reveals the damage. black box, damaged and repairable if they can source the parts. £350 alternator needs servicing with new winding and copper core £270 postage return £30   =   empty pockets on Honey Ryder... and another month or so until I can consider buying some new wheels.
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

time out with friends

it was the northern posse on cruise patrol this weekend.   a couple of friends toddled on down from the north, to visit me, the dog and the boat this weekend. after insisting on me giving them a postcode of my location (on the river Lee, near cheshunt in herfordshire was apparently not good enough) they found themselves 20 miles adrift somewhere inside the M25 near to the olympic development site. Twat-Nav is a splendid device, especially when you put the wrong postcode in. After a few minu
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

there's.... something on the roof

It's a bit parky out today. I know it's getting cold when, as a motorbiker I decide that 75mph is quite fast enough, compared with the usual 110-130 I like to cruise at. (on private roads)   So I wrapped up warm, thin layers and lot of them for a track day at Brands Hatch motor racing circuit in Kent. It's only 45 miles down the road so it's easy to get to via the motorway. I arrived like a choc-ice. I looked nicely wrapped from the outside but inside I was frozen. And that's the way I've stay
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

them wa' days- shell suits and bad hair

When you move home you tend to find lots of photographs you forgot about, and this is one of them.   I was 15, this was my 2nd dinghy, I had a fibreglass rowing dinghy before this from the age of 10-13. I had moved up in the world with this Astral french rib with inflatable keel. Wooden floor boards were a luxury and behind me out of shot was the awesome yamaha 5hp powerhouse that was my pride and joy. it replaced the old seagull 4hp I had before it. it almost, very almost was powerfull enou
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

the world is my ocean

I do like a good holiday.   It seems odd when I sit and think about it, that I have never taken a holiday on my own boat. I live on it, I move it around frequently but Ive never really thought to spend a whole two weeks of my holiday allocation cruising it nowhere, anywhere, just for the sheer holiday of it.   It also seems odd when I carry on thinking about my choices of holiday, that when I do make the effort to go away, I am magnetized to water. and very often, despite actually not liki
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

The Victoria park posse

Life in London, moored on a busy towpath is never short of activity, gossip and curiosity. Not to mention unruly dogs and children.   This week, life in the nut house involved several events of note, hardly note-worthy on their own, but as a group, collectively they turn from curious to just plain odd.   So it all started on the Saturday morning when both myself and the Man set about a bit of bike fettling, the man was outside tightening up his bottom bracket (fnar) and I was inside struggli
honey ryder

honey ryder

3

the TO DO list

once again it was time to move on, having spent two weeks at Victoria park in London we needed to move to a new mooring spot.   Living on a boat is never dull and rarely boring, there is always something to be done. Whether that is something you actually want to be doing is another matter. Quick frankly, I was all up for a nice cosy weekend of cooking, faffing and sifting. Downsizing my stuff once again, because you can never have too few things. Minimalist is going to be my middle name. Ho
honey ryder

honey ryder

5

the sound of silence and extra ballast

Dear readers out there, you may have read about my crime ridden 2007, having a push-bike stolen off the roof of the boat last april was the start of it, followed by having another push-bike stolen from where I work.   followed by, and not necessarily in the right order: having my car broken into at Tottenham, having a friends car broken into next to mine at Cheshunt, watching kids rifling through a stolen handbag and reporting it to not very interested police, my flat was burgled in Croydon,
honey ryder

honey ryder

4

The Refrigedaire experiment

Coming back from holiday nearly two weeks ago I was faced with a decision, to turn the fridge back or not?   If I turn the fridge on, I know that I need to charge the batteries almost daily. If not, well, that was the great unknown.   So I decided to plump for the living without a fridge option. Surprisingly it hasnt been as hard as I thought it might be. The fridge is still a fairly cool place to keep stuff as part of it is below the water line so its a bit cooler down there, also the weat
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

The red light zone

SO we've had a couple of weeks of rain, its been wetter than an otters pocket and all Ive heard is grumbles from people around me that they cant go outside to play.   Ha! well, what they need is a sewing machine, a nice dry and bright cratch area to sit in and a few yards of fancy fabric.   Yes, Ive been busy, beavering away at my latest boaty improvements. While Yann folded himself into two and painted out half of the engine room with a much cleaner looking grey Danboline I set up my works
honey ryder

honey ryder

1

the magic sponge

As with most modifications, they come about because of an urgent necessity through breakage.   Our travel power has been out of action for just over a week now, ok, it's 2 weeks but I was trying to think positive.   The first symptoms of something wrong happened, er, last year on our maiden voyage away from our marina at Easter. squeaking ( read squealing) bearings in a jockey pulley that stops the large travel power belt from flapping about.   We changed the travel power belt because i
honey ryder

honey ryder

1

the inner workings and lethargical enterprise

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
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

the idiots guide, part 2

The second in my series of how to service a hull.   step 8 take a couple of days off work while the weather is good. having taken some time off ive managed to make good progress on the hull and now all that is left to scrape and angle grind is the bow section, the stern section and around the swims as well as scrape the bottom.     step 9 Be cool with mental neighbours The power supply to the maintenance area of the marina where our boat is, is on a shared basis. however most of ou
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

the idiots guide to hull servicing

Ive searched the world wide web for information on what you are supposed to do with narrowboats when they need their bottom looking at.   i came up with a wealth of hit and miss information, so ive decided to do a "how to" of my own for the benefit of all those "new to steel boats" out there. ive got plenty of ideas on what to do if it was a plastic boat, its so simple i could do it with one arm behind my back.   steel hulls, especially ones that have been a bit neglected are entirely an
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

The cats outta the bag

quite literallly the cat, was out of his bag as I was on a mission this weekend to rehome my beloved ginger moggy, previously a rescued stray and then rehomed with my Grandad in Chesterfield, who recently passed away, leaving a cat in need of a new home. So Ginger ( aren't I creative when it comes to names!) did his best to foil me in my attempts to find him a better life with my boss in the south of england. I originally mentioned to Yann I was thinking of putting the cat on the boat, but bef
honey ryder

honey ryder

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