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07/11/2007 A warning - it can happen to you
……………. Been away for a while – thanks to intense levels of
work. We have been enjoying
ourselves for sure, when we have some free time that is. Not a lot of news to report on the
boaty side of things though. We
await some new bow furniture that we have commissioned from Sandhills and we
will post some pictures of that when it arrives (soon hopefully!). We went on the two week cruise around
the four counties ring we planned for September and that was absolutely
fantastic. We made notes every
day and took a stack of pictures and who knows, we might even get time to write
up our adventure on the site, but don’t hold us to it, please! Anyway, back to the ‘A warning – it can
happen to you…..’ bit.
I am very careful indeed when it comes to use of my debit and credit
cards – obsessed one might say.
I keep them with me at all times and I take every reasonable step to
prevent others from seeing them, let alone using them. A recent check of my personal credit
card transactions highlighted that the balance was £100 higher than it
should have been. The balance is
paid off monthly and this card is used only for Internet transactions and I
always use a secure server / encryption for Internet transactions. Closer scrutiny showed that there were
two debits to T-Mobile; one for £70 and the other for £30. I knew absolutely nothing about these
transactions whatsoever. To cut a long story short - after exhaustive
communications with both VISA and T-Mobile, it turns out that some little
sh1t has obtained a pay-and-go mobile phone (cash and no questions asked,
I’ll bet), registered it in my name and address and then gone on to
fraudulently obtain £100 worth of call credit for that phone via
T-Mobile using my credit card details.
After challenging these transactions, VISA has now refunded me the
full value, but T-Mobile is still arsing around when it comes to
disconnecting said mobile phone and/or disassociating me from it. So, I am a little wiser, but nevertheless still wondering
what more I can do to avoid this sort of thing happening again? I am also concerned that the
aforementioned little sh1t, or one or other of their accomplices, might go on
to use this phone for some illegal purpose and that one day soon I might get
a knock on the door in the dead of night from a fully ‘tooled up’
team of the ‘boys in blue’ flashing red dots all over my person,
in the belief it was me that robbed the post office, or whatever. Makes you think, doesn’t it? Anyway, the criminal element is having a really good time
when it comes to scams like this, I reckon. The police do not want to know. VISA says they have refunded me, so
what’s the problem? Dealing
with T-Mobile is like knitting fog.
The moral of this tale is, don’t use credit or debit cards ever
again - use a cheque instead.
Better still, let’s all go back to good old cash! Anyway, consider yourself warned - it can happen to you! |
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29/07/2007 Got a new Buckby Can …………….
We just need to sort out a small mop now, the intention
being to have this sit between the handles on the cans and the handrail on the
cabin roof. Reckon that I shall
have a go at painting / striping the handle on that myself – watch this
space. Looking further ahead – we have managed to wangle
another couple of weeks off work between us around the end of September. So, we are keen to get out on another
cruise. The following route seems
to be favourite at the moment:
If time permits, then we might try and pull in a bit of a
rekkie down the Llangollen. Can’t wait. |
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14/07/2007 Our summer cruise is over
……………. Well, our ‘summer’ cruise is
now well and truly over and we have resumed the rigours of our normal
day-to-day floating / working lifestyle.
Despite the far from ‘summer’ weather conditions more or
less throughout our cruise (i.e. it rained for 13 days out of 14!) we had a
fantastic time overall and we cannot wait for the next one. Our outward journey entailed following
the We will do our best to avoid boring you
with the trivia – here are a few observations and remarks about events
en-route that are intended as an aid for those that may wish to make a
similar journey and/or for general interest:
As things turned out, our journey was made all
the more enjoyable as a result of fitting a custom made brolly attachment to
the stern hatch. Had we not done
this, then something tells me that our journey would have been substantially
shorter because we would have had to moor up for long periods in conditions
such as those shown above in order to avoid a drenching. A cockpit full of water is not
something we relish either. This
simple bit of kit brought about one hell of a difference to our cruising
comfort whilst allowing both of us to stand in the cockpit. We sketched this attachment and had
somebody we know knock it up for us in stainless steel the week before we
departed for our cruise – email me if you want a copy of the sketch. Two points to note here are 1) be
prepared to take the brolly down in good time for bridge holes and tunnels
and 2) ensure that you have a feature that will prevent the brolly being
‘lifted’ out of the attachment by the wind.
The ‘canal terrorists’
mentioned in our BLOG of 22/05/2007 arrived alongside just in time to see us
off. We are not sure if this is
Ma or Pa, but there were three new offspring on her/his back. You can see one of the little fellas
peering out between the feathers.
Cute aren’t they (for now!). Despite their terrorist tendencies, we were
nevertheless saddened to learn when we got back to our mooring that there was
only Ma and Pa and one of the offspring awaiting our arrival. We have no idea as to whether the
other two offspring have met an untimely end due to natural causes or for
some other reason. Ma and Pa
decided to build their nest on the towpath side here – not a wise
decision me thinks, owing to the number of dogs that get walked here and the
relative ease with which those misguided individuals that are far less tolerant
than us and others that mean swans serious harm can get at them. It could have been a fox of course, or
(although I have not actually seen one here yet, there is a pretty good
chance there will be one or more hereabouts) a pike. It’s only a few months since a
full grown swan met its end as a consequence of being attacked by an
unleashed dog accompanied by an irresponsible owner who seemed to be
preoccupied with the natter she was having with another person alongside. Still, let’s hope that said offspring
continues to reach maturity and life goes on for a long time thereafter. Now then, how do we set about training
it not to hammer the sides of the boat?
The canal is definitely a different world
– believe us when we say that things do genuinely appear very
different, even those things seen previously from the road, etc. My camera has definitely reached the
end of its useful life (make a note to
get a new one) and so we do not have any shots that would do justice to
the absolutely stunning scenery we encountered en route, especially on the We say effort, because a cruise along this
canal can be a little tiresome at times when encountering numerous boats
travelling in the opposite direction and/or boats moored on bends and at
bridge holes. There is also a lot
of silt build up, both at the sides and in the middle of the navigation. This also applies to some sections of
the Be aware that the BW ‘veg
pledge’ is not working for the most and that the navigation is becoming
‘choked’ in some places, albeit mainly from the ‘offside’.
You should also proceed on the basis that,
if there is a bend or a bridge hole, then there will be almost certainly a
boat moored on it or in it or very close to it and there is every chance you
will need to slow down or even reverse in some cases to avoid a
collision. Now would be a good
time to highlight that you should have a fully operational warning horn
– we avoided many a bash because we do have one. One does wonder if parts of these
navigations will become impassable in the not too distant future if BW does
not set about managing the vegetation / silting properly – it really is
that SERIOUS. More to come on
this topic soon.
As well as some of the more common habitants,
we spotted a few alligators near Handsacre and thankfully Ma and Pa were not
around when we passed this dinosaur egg on a nest not far from Rugeley.
Having read about the troublesome
experiences of some others when it comes to travelling through Stoke-on
–Trent, we proceeded with caution, expecting gloomy and oppressive
surroundings and the need to batten down the hatches at a moments notice and
take up arms in order to preserve life as we know it. Quite the contrary – it might
not be to everybody’s taste, but we found this section of our journey
interesting and we did not encounter any problems whatsoever. We moored overnight at Trentham. Take a tip from us – engage the
persons on the path that look like they are ‘trouble just waiting to
happen’ in a friendly manner and you will be surprised to learn that,
for the most, you will experience an active dialogue that will probably go
down in your list of plusses instead of minuses. If this works out to not be the case,
then be ready with the camera, because we have found that this does genuinely
serve as an effective deterrent.
We did come across a few youths with air rifles at Congleton on our
outward journey that scurried off sharp’ish when the camera came
out. We also encountered a few
youths ‘loitering’ on top of a bridge at Congleton on the way
back that did the same.
Back to Stoke – some of the old bottle kilns and derelict
buildings reminded us that there was once some manufacturing going on here.
There clearly is a need for some serious re-generation of this area –
seemingly, the matter is in hand if the message conveyed by these signs is
anything to go by. We did spot
another sign above a building as we passed; “Tackle and Bait, Air Guns, Archery, Boats and Engines and Country
& Western Line Dancing” a bizarre combination of goods and
services if ever there was one and we are still trying to figure out the
connection – any ideas? We encountered our deepest lock to date at
Our transition between the
Mentioning the LED’s above has just
reminded me – we encountered 2 failures during this cruise out of the 24
MR16 cool white and warm white LED’s we purchased from Ultra Leds Limited. One was in the bedroom that has not
seen a lot of use since we purchased / fitted a ‘boats worth’ of
LED’s mid-May 2007. The
other was in the galley – this one is used more or less every day. Watch this space - we will update you
if we encounter any more failures.
Whilst on the subject of products failing, the only other failure we
encountered on this cruise was the Johnson ‘UltimaSwitch Combo’
bilge pump. Whilst it was still
possible to operate the pump manually using the switch provided, the
automatic water level sensing function packed up. This sensor failed in the
“ON” mode, so we had to disconnect the sensor from the pump to
avoid having the pump run all the time and in so doing knacker that as
well. We had to remember to keep
checking the bilge level more frequently. A new sensor has now been fitted under
warranty and things are back to normal.
Once on the Macclesfield, there is a
noticeable change in the scenery, this taking on amore rural appearance and
even more so when you get onto the
We reached our final destination wet, but
without feeling rushed. Actually,
we set out for
We had a few hitch hikers on the way
– these little critters (about a dozen of them all told) must have sneaked
aboard when we were moored up alongside some of that extensive vegetation we
mentioned earlier. They were
evicted just as we were entering Stone on our way back and must have ended up
a good few miles from home. We were pleased to find that there are
still some old working boats around – we spotted this one providing a
pump-out and diesel service on the Macclesfield. We could do with his services around
here considering his pump-out was £8 a time and his diesel for sale at
48p / litre.
Thankfully, we encountered only one
incident of ‘lock rage’ on our travels. The Mr & Mrs Boater involved
seemed to have failed to realise that it is essential for the narrowboat occupying
a lock to exit before their own narrowboat can enter. In this particular case, Mr & Mrs
Boater had positioned their narrowboat so close to the lock entrance that
there was barely a couple of inches available for a certain narrowboat called
BELLE to pass them whilst exiting said lock. Mr Boater was clearly getting
‘anxious’ and appeared at one stage to be jumping up and
down. Mrs Boater certainly did
not help matters when she frantically gesticulated to BELLE to get a move on
and clear the lock. In an
endeavour to bring about a better understanding on their part that only one
boat can fit into this particular lock entrance at a time, Mr & Mrs
Boater received some swift verbal critique from the person helming
BELLE. There is no need to repeat
verbatim what was said here – suffice to say that Mr & Mrs Boater
quickly realised the impending seriousness of their situation and backed up
and apologised. One can only hope
that they went on their way all the better for this experience and they have
accepted that a boat exiting a lock must be allowed to do so before they can
enter in theirs. On to other matters. The boat on the left was spotted just
north of the Harecastle Tunnel. A
candidate for some badly needed TLC if ever there was one – it appeared
to have been torched and then sunk.
The boat on the right was spotted just north of Great Haywood
Junction. I don’t think I
have lost the plot, but I reckon that this boat on the right has one sexy
looking shell just crying out for some TLC.
On the whole a really good cruise and a
route / destination we would thoroughly recommend. |
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28/06/2007 For those that need a fix
…………….
By the way, it’s ‘hissing it
down’ here at, no, not Our hope is that the weather will pick up soon
so that we can go and explore the immediate area without another drenching
– too many of those over the last few days. |
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27/06/2007 We have gone
cruisin’…………….
As I type we are moored in a very nice
section of the |
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22/05/2007 For
Hixon Hull – 65’
– Registered 01/12/2003 Joshua Bow with a wide cruiser
stern 5 berth – used as a live
aboard Isuzu IM4LC38 engine with twin
alternators 4 x 110 Ah leisure batteries
– one starter battery Solid fuel stove Webasto central heating and hot
water heater Cross bathroom with hip bath,
shower and sink Pump out toilet with large
holding tank Galley with gas hob, oven and
grill Double sink and 12v.dc fridge Washing machine 160 gallon stainless steel fresh
water tank 12v.dc and 240v.ac electrics 1800 watt inverter Cratch cover Blacked 09/10/2006 Comastic BSS – 4 years £55,000 ONO – Tel 07789 904180 |
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22/05/2007 Canal terrorists………….
Ma and Pa have made our life hell for the
last few weeks, bashing on the hull and trying to drag us off the bow or
stern into the canal at every opportunity, either with or without the meal we
might have on our laps at the time, or a bag of shopping, or just the bag
– they are not fussy and they are prepared to have a go at anything! Even Beth has a good bark at them over the
bow when they turn up, but they just move away for all of 10 seconds, spin
around and come zooming back for some more. It’s like watching the
Terminator or Alien – when’s it gonna stop? Keep off our bloody paint, we keep telling
them, but we are wasting our breath.
Each time we hear that characteristic ‘hammering’ on the
sides like a ‘giant woodpecker’, we know it’s our turn for
some more attention. Give us some
food, give us some more food, more food, more food, MORE FOOD, EVEN MORE
FOOD, NOW! Since this photograph was taken, another new
member of the family has been deposited.
So, it’s our guess that it will not be long before we are
receiving attention from six canal terrorists instead of two – God, all
of our paint will be stripped off! |
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20/05/2007 BW and on-line moorings………. Have we been caught napping –
what’s all this we hear about BW aiming to reduce the number of on-line
moorings? We have not sought any information
specifically for the on-line moorings here at Fradley Junction, nor have we
had any information volunteered to us as yet. So, in all honesty, we have not paid
this topic a great deal of attention.
Maybe we should? Having searched (i.e. before Belle was
launched) for a mooring in a suitably located marina and failed to secure
one, we accepted that we must secure an on-line mooring somewhere
instead. An on-line mooring at
Hunts Lock near Fradley Junction came up and the rest is history. Subsequently,
we have been offered a mooring at a nearby marina, but declined. This
is because we like it here – simple as that. Having experienced
and realised the benefits we have here, we have no desire to become a
‘sardine’ with little by way of a view other than the next boat
alongside on both sides, so as you can well imagine, any serious threat to
our existence here would be resisted vigorously! In saying this, we are OK with having to
travel back and forth to the water point once a week and to one or other of
the nearby marinas for diesel and a pump-out every four weeks, whereas in a
marina these facilities would be readily available ‘on the
doorstep’ so to speak. We are managing our electricity
consumption / generation – we feel the need to make some improvements
in this respect – they will come in time. Most marinas do provide an electrical
shore line and, subject to reasonable charges, this can only be viewed as
advantageous for those like us that ‘live-aboard’, but in itself,
this is not enough to change our mooring location preferences. We
expect that mooring fees at one or other of the nearby marinas would be well
over double what we pay here, another issue that must be reconciled
somehow. Obviously there will be the boater that would welcome and may
even insist upon co-location with the facilities offered by a marina –
each to their own. However, a policy / strategy (BW may have a hidden
agenda on this one) that would effectively force boaters into a marina
– Nooooooo way! We do not have any data to support our
view, but we do sense that the market / boating environment is changing, i.e.
we think that there is less of an influx of new ‘leisure boaters’
and their boats and a greater influx of new ‘live-aboard’ boaters
and their boats. We think that, whereas many new live-aboard boaters
may be attracted to the lifestyle, many like us also see it as a way to
reduce costs. There is also an increasing number that we reckon just
see it purely as a cheaper option and, for some, possibly their only option,
when compared to a suitable land based homestead. Our so called
‘socialist’ Labour government, for a number of reasons, has
totally knackered the housing market from a buyers/users perspective and so
it’s hardly surprising that Joe Public has latched onto the idea that
they could have a ‘floating house’ and save money that way. Having an on-line mooring would allow
them to save a bit more. We
expect that there has been, or soon will be, a boom in caravan sales and an
increased demand for caravan sites as a well! We can understand BW seeking out all manner
of ways to make more money in pursuit of ‘self-sufficiency’. Indeed, they are being actively
encouraged / pressed to do so by the government in one way or another.
The business ethic is becoming more evident (e.g. BWML, etc. – more
sore points) and the ‘custodian of our waterways’ is rapidly
becoming a ‘profit centre’. Having seen the privatisation
of the As for congestion on the waterways and its
effect on cruising speeds. We feel that, in the grand scheme of things,
this has probably got more to do with the number of cruisers and very little
to do with the number of on-line moorers. We have boat traffic coming
past us here all day every day, except for the winter when things do quieten
down significantly. The ‘bottleneck’ here is the lock
flight and the fact that you can only get one narrowboat in one lock at a
time. Our presence here makes no difference whatsoever to the transit
speed – some chug past, whilst others pass us as if there is some kind
of race going on. We venture to suggest that, providing the whole waterway
network is managed on the basis that, wherever there are on-line moorings,
there should also be sufficient space for two boats to pass alongside whoever
is moored there – then problem solved for the most. We can only
say that we do not get bounced all over the place when on our mooring,
regardless of the speed of passing boats. This has probably got more to
do with us being tied off properly. Others may view things differently
of course. Again, using Fradley Junction as an
example, BW should be very careful when it comes to introducing measures that
will reduce the number of on-line moorings. We propose that there is a
delicate balance here and that BW’s income locally, e.g. from their
information centre that also sells stuff as well as promoting the waterways and
their very popular café, etc. could suffer. Having on-line
moorers around benefits them immensely – after all, most visitors come
here to see the boats and soak up some of the canal side lifestyle, take the
dog / kids for a walk and see some more boats at the same time, then go and
spend some dosh in the café or buy something from the information
centre and so on. They talk to the boaters. Basically this place is so
popular BECAUSE OF the boats and the people that own / use them, many of which
moor here on-line all year round. There is a pub nearby – another
key ingredient for sure. The beer is usually good, but the food for
most of the time leaves a lot to be desired. So - what keeps the punters coming for
the most? For sure it’s the boats and boaters. Reduce the number of on-line moorings =
reduce the boats / boaters in the vicinity = reduce the number of visitors =
reduce the BW income / profitability = reduce the overall benefit for the
waterways. Own goal for BW around here and most other places they have
around the waterways network. One
does wonder, even though BW would realise income from the moorers at those
marinas they own, wouldn’t they have realised a significant portion of
this income from the on-line moorings they rent out anyway, the rest coming
from their existing canal side businesses and those undergoing development,
without having to invest mega-bucks in building new marinas or buying
existing marinas, or is that put simply; too bloody simple? BW should concentrate on bringing about
improvements to what they have already by way of a structure and modus
operandi and in so doing make sure that they err more towards fulfilling
their role as custodians of our waterways. Rant over (for now!). |
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19/05/2007 LED’s, LED’s, LED’s…………. Belle has a total of 24-off ceiling mounted
light units that were fitted at OEM with 12v.dc / 20w halogen bulbs. Things have just radically changed
though – after a few email exchanges on the subject of electrical
energy consumption with Mo & Vanessa on the good ship Balmaha and a swell
night on-board slurping their alcofrolic beverages, we have been
‘converted’ to a ‘life of LED’s. Following a week’s worth of
straightforward evaluation of a couple of LED substitutes on Belle, all of
our ceiling mounted light units have now been fitted with them – light
output is very practical indeed and our electrical power consumption for
lighting has dropped dramatically.
Each LED substitute provides a practical
amount of light output in a boat setting and very little heat output. In fact, we were amazed to discover
that, after several hours use, the LED’s are barely warm to the
touch. Each consumes
approximately 150 mA, i.e. about 1/10 of each of the halogen bulbs we were
using – impressive eh? At around £6 a piece, one would be
forgiven for thinking that they are expensive, but when you take into account
the promise of greater life and the dramatic reduction in electrical power
consumption, there is no need to do the maths, it’s actually a
‘no-brainer’.
Although not quantified by the supplier, we anticipate that the life
of one of these LED substitutes should be of the order of 50 thousand hours. So, if the promise re. life
expectancy comes good and we realise the anticipated 50 thousand hours, then
you should not be hearing from us again on this subject for the rest of
Belle’s natural life! Ultra
Leds Limited has assured us that “The
bulb is sold mostly to customers with boats like yourself and we get very few
failures even with the higher voltage” – this was their
response to a question we put to them about the LED’s abilities to
tolerate a voltage of up to 14.5 v. dc, i.e. the voltage to be expected when
we are charging. Ulltra LED provided us with a prompt and
efficient service – in our case, order placement via their website to
receipt of the goods was within three days and everything was fine on
arrival. There is some other
stuff on their website that may be of interest to the boater – in our
case, we are attracted to their LED ‘Dalek’ like head lights and
will probably purchase a couple soon for our forays along the towpath in the
pitch black when loaded up with shopping and/or pushing a wheelbarrow full of
Jerry cans. |
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07/05/2007 Email and Internet access………….
Things today improved immensely when we
installed our latest investment; a small but effective magnetic mount
aerial. As can be seen here, it sits
neatly in front of one of the mushroom vents on the cabin roof. The aerial wire has been routed down
the mushroom vent liner, under our roof planking, behind the cabin wall
lining to emerge under the gunwale next to the laptop. All very neat and tidy. We can now send and receive data using
the 3G (or UMTS as T-Mobile call it) network. Communication speeds here today hit
800 kbps! We purchased this particular aerial from
Boaters Phone Company – the only down side is that they cost around
£60 a piece when supplied with an adapter to suit this data card. |
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28/04/2007 Propeller fixed ………….
The main steps were: 1) dropping the rudder from its
mountings in the stern and skeg, 2) disconnecting the propeller
shaft from the flexible coupling on the gearbox 3) pulling the
propeller shaft out of the stern gland from the outside (complete with
propeller) whilst pushing a ‘dummy’ propeller shaft into the
stern gland from the inside of the boat to stop the water coming in. Dropping the rudder out of its mountings – the
tiller was removed and ropes were tied to the rudder and the top of the
rudder spindle (the bit that the tiller connects to). The stern was then drifted out from
the bank to the middle of the canal so that there was sufficient depth /
clearance under the boat for manoeuvring the rudder out. The rudder / spindle were pulled
upward just enough to disengage the rudder from the skeg and then the whole
lot lowered past the skeg to the bottom of the canal and then pulled to the
bank. The propeller shaft was then disconnected from the
flexible coupling on the gearbox.
A rope was then passed under the stern using the boat hook –
this rope was accessed via the weed hatch and tied around all three blades on
the propeller. The propeller /
shaft were then steadily pulled out using this rope whilst a relatively short
‘dummy’ propeller shaft was inserted into the stern gland from
the inside of the boat, taking care not to damage the gland. Once removed from the boat, the
damaged propeller was easily detached from the shaft and the new propeller
fitted. Our propeller utilises a
keyed taper connection onto the shaft – the whole lot is held on by a
washer/nut and is cross drilled for a split cotter pin. Thankfully the hub length and taper
dimensions relative to the end of the hub for the new propeller were found to
be very close to the old one, so the holes in the nut and shaft for the split
cotter lined up and it was not necessary to cross-drill the shaft again. Refitting the propeller / shaft and the rudder was more
or less the reverse of the removal procedure. The whole job took about 2.5 hours
from start to finish. Not bad eh?
10/10 to Gary and Mark. You can see the bent blade here – and this is after
I had ‘tweaked’ it back using a pair of mole grips via the weed
hatch a few weeks ago. Does not
look too bad does it, but believe me, something like this makes a really loud
annoying chattering noise when the propeller is rotating. |
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03/04/2007 Oh bugger …………. You know we were discussing weed hatches and propeller
fouls and how nice it would be to avoid dry docking the boat in order to
effect repairs? Well, guess what
happened whilst we were on our way back to our mooring this weekend? We encountered a major foul, but this
time it involved the main propeller!
We were in the middle of the channel between two locks with very low
propeller speed (which was fortunate in a way) when “CLONK” - whatever
it was jammed between the blades and/or the hull / skeg. It cleared itself and it did not stall
the engine, but we had acquired our very own ‘chattering’ noise
as the propeller rotated.
Inspection via the stern weed hatch shortly thereafter revealed that
the offending item had actually bent one of the blades! We can feel a dry docking coming on! Pictures to follow in due course (along with details of
the costs incurred). |
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25/03/2007 Bow thrusters v Asda bags …………. A bit of advice to all you good people out there that
intend to have a bow thruster fitted without having a weed hatch incorporated
as well - DON’T DO IT! We put our bow thruster weed hatch on BELLE to good use
this morning whilst carrying out some checks to find the cause of a very
significant power reduction.
After about 10 minutes work releasing all the fasteners around the
weed hatch mounting flange, we were able to lift the entire thruster out to
discover an Asda carrier bag well and truly mangled into the propellers. About 20 minutes later we had cleared
it, fitted the thruster back into place and all was working again as it
should be. Had we not incorporated
a weed hatch, then imagine all that ‘fun’ we could have had
hanging over the sides trying to clear an obstruction like this from either
end of the thruster tube, or indeed dry docking the boat so that we could
remove the thruster itself and get at the obstruction that way. You might wish to note that we have
grilles on both ends of the thruster tube as well to keep the bigger stuff
out (e.g. branches and the like – basically anything bigger than about
25mm diameter). You can be sure
that this slightly more expensive arrangement has just paid for itself
several times over. You have been warned! |
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A belated ‘Happy New Year’
…………. Happy New Year to you all and apologies for taking so
long to provide an update. I have
been absolutely overloaded with work since the end of December 2006 and
finding time for most other things apart from the basics in life like eating,
drinking and sleeping and somehow fitting in a few ‘new’
essentials like pump-outs, diesel fuel collection, battery charging and water
tank filling has been very difficult indeed. Stelle and I have been mucking in
together and she has a new job to get to grips with as well. Blogging simply had to wait –
sorry. We were beginning to
wonder if the canal ‘time zone’ and GMT time zone were totally
incompatible! Thankfully, things are settling down a bit and we are now
getting into a routine, becoming accustomed to managing those new essentials
I mentioned. We have learned just
how long our tanks of diesel and water last and how long it takes us to fill
the waste tank and just how much battery charging we must do every day. Those of you out there (like us) who
have never lived aboard a boat before should bear in mind that you will go
through several weeks of almost constant worrying and monitoring of the tank
and battery gauges, feeling the need to check the readings every hour or
so. Anybody would be forgiven for
thinking we were in the middle of the ocean somewhere and several days away
from help and replenishment! You
do get more relaxed about it after a while, because you know what to
expect. Except of course when the
water goes down even quicker than you had imagined possible when a water pipe
bursts – that sort of thing always comes as a bit of a surprise!
Thankfully, in our case the soaking was limited to the stern end of the bilge
and everything has dried out now.
Apart from that, and not having enough time to fit everything in time
wise, our new life afloat has been absolutely fabulous. We are in a very quiet spot here and most of our
neighbours are very friendly and helpful. There are a couple of arsy ones though
who seem to think that it is their canal and anybody else (other than a select
few) within a Back to the good stuff. There is loads of wildlife here. There is a ‘squadron’ of
ducks that meets us every day beneath the galley hatch to scam some
food. Stelle has not named them
all individually yet, but it’s only a matter of time. There is something (not sure what –
it’s a bit elusive) burrowing a new home into the base of an old tree
stump just a few metres away from where I am typing this BLOG. The hole looks big enough to fit a
Fox, maybe even a Badger. Time
will tell, unless our being here disturbs it and it moves on before we have
been introduced. This mooring has
been empty for about 9 months and albeit there are boats at each end, it must
be tempting for the wildlife to move in.
A new mole hill appears every day. There are Wrens, Blue Tits, Great
Tits, Robins and Chaffinches all doing their best to empty the new nut feeder
we have strung up. Not seen any
Squirrels yet – it wont be long before they arrive, but they will find
this particular feeder tough going – it’s steel. It is that quiet down here, we can
hear the mice fart. We are
wondering if this might change when we are more or less surrounded by
Canaltimes, etc. when the main boating season kicks off in a few weeks time
– we shall see. Things
definitely do go ‘bump in the night’ and the boat does creak now
and again – generally things are so quiet here that your hearing
becomes supersensitive and many things appear to be louder than they actually
are – it’s a whole new set of noises to get used to when you are
floating in a big steel box.
Either that or we have acquired a Poltergeist. Have we missed something? Having read / heard so many complaints
of late about the disturbances many moorers seem to get as a result of
passing boats travelling too fast, etc. we thought that, with us being so
close to such a popular section of the canal, we would be bounced all over
the place. Thing is, we’re
not. We are tightly roped to the
Armco at bow and stern and this seems to be enough to more or less totally
eliminate all of the movement attributable to passing boats. We do get a very small longitudinal
‘heave’ when the chamber at Hunts Lock is emptied, but
that’s about it. Also much
to our surprise, the boat never even flinched in the recent high winds. The cratch cover was buffeted and this
made a bit of noise and there was plenty of noise from the trees outside, but
that’s it. We were more
concerned that one or other of the trees on our mooring might assume a new
horizontal orientation over our boat.
Moving along the canal in a cross-wind though is a different ball
game. We have a very effective
‘65 foot long sail’ and this can be a bit of a challenge,
especially when you have not quite mastered reversing and you are mindful
that there are so many nearby boats just begging you to hit them. So far, so good – we are getting
better. Practice makes perfect as
they say. A few lessons learned:
Oh yes, despite all the stuff above, we are still
‘as happy as pigs in the proverbial ….’ Go buy a boat and live on it – you know you want
to… PS. Gallery
still not updated. BUT, we had Canal Boat Magazine
here this week – we are told that BELLE will be written up in the April
2007 edition, supported by loads of professionally taken photographs
(probably much better than the ones I usually take!). |
|
28/12/2006 BELLE is ours …………. It’s been a very hectic couple of weeks. After all the waiting, sleepless
nights and reorganising our diaries, etc. to account for some slight delays,
BELLE is now at long last all ours.
Handover was on 21 December 2006 and we have spent most of the
following days shifting our stuff aboard, stowing it and then exploring and
fiddling and familiarising ourselves with the various bits of kit. Oh yes, almost forgot, we managed to
fit Christmas into our schedule as well. Wow – Gary and Mark of Sandhills have done us proud
and very nearly everything on-board is spot on. There are a few minor snagging jobs,
but this is to be expected in the circumstances. We took BELLE out for her maiden voyage from Barton Turns
marina up the Trent & Mersey to On the basis that, having carried out the run to
Burton-on-Trent successfully and the likelihood that all of the on-board
systems would continue to behave themselves, we decided to cruise from Barton
Turns marina to our mooring at Hunts Lock, Fradley on Boxing Day. This was a really pleasant run and we
did not encounter any of the problems we were expecting on the section of the
River Trent at Alrewas. For the
last few weeks the water level here has been very high and the current has
been very strong indeed, both in the main section of the river itself and the
by-wash that sweeps the mouth of the narrow lock on the Alrewas side. Things had calmed down a hell of a lot
by the time we arrived at this river section in BELLE. Nevertheless, we took the precaution of
carrying an anchor on board, just in case the engine / propulsion did decide
to throw a wobbler at that very moment we passed the weir. When compared to the sedate pace of
cruising on the canal sections on both sides of the river, the engine
certainly had a lot more work to do when we were travelling upstream in the
river itself. It responded though
and we sensed that there was till a lot of oomphh to spare. We did however encounter some problems getting onto our
mooring at Hunts Lock. This was
because of the silt that has accumulated on the bottom of the canal near the
banks over the last few years.
Eventually, having come alongside the gap between two adjacent boats
and tried several other approaches, we resorted to more or less ramming the
stern in towards the Armco and then swinging the bow around using the
thruster. It was like trying to
manoeuvre in treacle. We shall be
approaching British Waterways early in the New Year to ask them to dredge
this mooring, because otherwise we cannot see how we are supposed to get on
and off safely without bashing the boat at one end or both ends. Our neighbours have suggested that,
having asked British Waterways to do this, we should not ‘hold our
breath’ waiting for them to respond. It was fortuitous that, when we
arrived at this mooring on Boxing Day, one of the boats that would normally
be immediately next to us was out and about somewhere. This provided us with a bit more
linear space in which to manoeuvre.
Under normal circumstances, how we are supposed to get on and off our
mooring with about one metre to spare at either end between us and the
adjacent boats, heaven only knows?
The silts got to go, or we must practice the boating equivalent of
handbrake turn! With all this (and much more besides) going on we have
not yet had an opportunity to take a decent set of photographs of both the
inside and outside of BELLE. We
do have a few photographs of the outside taken on Boxing Day – see the gallery. More pictures will follow soon. We are now turning our attention to managing our
electricity, water and diesel fuel consumption and wet waste production. We will post some information about
our findings after we have monitored our heating, lighting and other
auxiliary system usage + the time spent running our engine to charge our
batteries, etc. for a few weeks.
Up to Boxing Day, we had been using the shore electrical supply at
Barton Turns marina, but now we are well and truly on our own. We are contemplating the logistics of
moving the boat up to the nearest diesel supply point and the pump-out
located two locks up and we are already wondering about the possibilities for
minimising the number of trips we must make to them both. Maybe it would be worth making trips
back and forth using a wheel barrow to collect three/four Jerry cans worth of
diesel as often as is necessary to keep our fuel tanks topped up? As for the pump-out; we have no option
but to take BELLE there as required.
We are lucky insofar as our fresh water supply is just a hundred
metres or so along this section of the canal. This should make our life a bit
easier, but with the silt problem we have described, we are reluctant to move
off the mooring to travel there until our stored water dwindles to the level
where we simply must go to it in order to top up the tank. * * * * * * * * * * * * RED DIESEL - are you aware that there is a petition on the go? As others have said, whilst reversing
the EU decision is most unlikely now, influencing the tax to be levied by
Gordon Brown is a possibility.
So, please go take a look at the petition and, if you agree, please
sign-up. Hit the ‘Seeing RED’
link >>>>>> |
|
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