sanseriffe

Hi ...Just to clarify the story behind the name 'San Serriffe'... it was named by the original owner the late Don McPhee, who was the staff photographer on 'The Guardian'. It is named after an April 1st journalistic hoax in the 1970,s where the Guardian dedicated whole pages in their travel section to a mythical island in the Indian Ocean called (you guessed it) San Serriffe. Name has nothing to do with 'Serifs' (Curly bits on the end of a type face) despite Andy Russell's lettering using a 'Serifs' in the lettering........"what? are you following this?...concentrate......keep up that boy!" Part of the 'clue' was spelling Sans Serif incorrectly......lots of people, especially Guardian readers did not get this and flooded the Guardian mail-room (before e-mails) with letters asking where to book flights, etc. Even spelling the names of the two Islands as 'Upper Caisse' and Lower Caisse' did not seem to give the game away So there we have it.......with or without Curly bits,we are now moored at 'Jacks' Higher Poynton. San Serriffe's Dad (Check out our blog - just put 'travels of narrowboat San Serriffe' into Google ( Two RR's two ff's no serifs)will find us.

I am thinking of replacing a carpeted floor with a (real) Oak wood floor. Has anybody found problems doing this or perhaps give any advice ?

Enjoyed your log of Dipper's jouney to Rufford. We did the journey via the Ashton and the Rochdale 'nine' - going the opposite way from Dipper's original mooring at Anderton on the Trent and Mersey, during 2007. Our journey from Manchester to Ashton was eventful to say the least. A total journey time of 12 hours, because of a lack of water in the Ashton canal stranding 'Dipper' in the centre of the cut near Clayton. After a frantic telephone call to British Waterways, they responded very quickly, opening several locks 'upstream' to allow enough water to float her into the next lock, the gate of which promptly jammed! Using the grapping hook lowered down to me by the B.W crew I cleared the bottom of the gate of sunken large 'debris' and we were on our way. Our first long trip in our 'new' boat 'San Serriffe' during July this year, attracted the same sort of bad luck. We had the rudder smashed off the skeg in a lock on 'Heart-break Hill' on the Trent and Mersey. We did not notice that the previous boat crew had left a paddle open and a strong current ran through the lock forcing the stern of 'San Serriffe' into the rear sill - bending the skeg downwards and ripping the rudder out of its socket. We spent two days of the holiday in a dry-dock in Middlewich, repairing the skeg and rudder - at least it was raining outside the dock!!!!! 'Dipper' (complete with picture) was featured in a 'Me and My Boats' article in the August 2008 issue of 'Canal Boat' Word of advice - Do not add ballast to 'Dipper' as the guy suggest in your text. 'Dipper' if anything is over 'ballasted' considering the new base-plate completed in 2006. If the toilet tank is full and the 'crew' is on that side of the boat, it is possible to get a 'list' to starboard. With the water tank full she is about right in my humble opinion. Kindest regards all who sail in 'Dipper'. Chris