When is a 70 foot mooring really a 45 foot mooring....

......when BW want to generate maximum income for the canals!!

This was the bullshit line that BW tried to pass to me when my boat was moved by BW earlier in the year. The reason given was that it was important to maximise income for BW. SO WHY HAVE THEY JUST ALLOWED A 70 FOOT MOORING TO BE OCCUPIED BY A 45 FOOT BOAT !

I can't wait to see if they dare tender another mooring at Hunts lock. What will they tender... the 45 foot one that is now available or a 70 foot mooring and TRY and move many boats to now grow the 45 foot mooring hole back to a 70 foot hole.

The problem with BW is that they have never seemed to understand the passion that goes along with the resource they try to manage - not cycling, fishing, walking, running, but BOATS - the things the bloody canals were built for. We get treated like second class citizens, nothing really changed in all these years as the original boaters were regarded very poorly, a third class citizen if you like.

So another letter to BW's head of boating will be written asking how this circle is to be squared.

Rant over...... back to cleaning bird shit off my boat.

Nev

No offence is aimed at the boaters on Hunts they are a good bunch and trying to enjoy their passion, I will not get in the way of that.

Pigtown.....

We are spending a weekend in pigtown north Wales. Not an insult to the Welsh but the English translation of Mochdre where my father in law lives.

We needed a sea fix so came over this way s it was a little less travel than visiting our friends in south west Scotland. It still took us over three and a half hours as the traffic last night was heavy.

As we had left stuff on the boat the trip was via the boat and it was tempting to just stop on the boat. Fradley had started to go quiet when we collected the bits we needed and this is the best time to be aboard on our mooring.

We have some time off mid August but that will be a choice between a short cruise down the Coventry or a bike trip to Cornwall - nice to have the choice !

Take care

Nev

Calling Halfie...

Can you stretch to this.....Les Allen Tug style

It is a real nice looking and well specc'd boat. Not for everyone as it is a bit limiting for visitors but to own I'm sure would be a pleasure.

I'm tempted to have a look myself. The RN engine has to be the one to go for just a shame the boatmans cabin is not a double - I thought they all were unless it was a compromise when first built.

A real go anywhere boat that would make a great holiday boat/extended cruise boat..... where is my cheque book !

Nev

Stress and excitement on the canals

I really enjoy reading Bruce's blog Sanity Again...... in his latest blog post he includes comments on stress and excitement related to his recent cruising.

I want this type of excitement and stress. It compares very favourably to the issues I and my good lady seemingly deal with in our day to day living (not afloat you may guess) It makes me wonder what is /was the trigger to say, bugger this I'm off to live on me boat...? Come on you alternative lifestyle/livaboards/retirees......what was the trigger that got you aboard?

Nev

What to do.....

Ok, I used to be uncertain but now I'm not sure.......

This weekend I have two days Nev time. Should I ...

Go to the boat and do nothing
Go to the boat and do jobs
Ride my motorbike to Sutton on Sea
Work in the garden
Clean the house
Stay in bed all weekend

Mix and match...!

Comments welcome.... if you can

Sarah on Chertsey (where is Warrior?) does not like to go through the comments moderation procedure when she replies to a blog. So I thought I'd join in and throw off the shackles of having to moderate comments and I have so comment away.

Only thing is I tried to tell Sarah I was going to do this and I got this screen....

Ooopps !!

Automatic boat cleaning service

That'll be the rain - I hope. We had such a lazy day yesterday that the boat roof complete with some bird poo and lots of sap from the Birch tree did not get washed. I am relying on good old God and the wonders of nature to sort out my boat cleaning ;-))

I'm not sure I blogged about the bird poo that was dumped on the boat when we came back after the long cruise. I should have guessed that we were in for a $hit storm as whilst clearing the roof before leaving after the recent cruise I was shat upon by some flying poo bag on a creature. I almost laughed myself whilst looking for my air rifle.

A couple of weekends later I was up the tree Rambo like hacking off the perches of said poo bags. I even went up to the remaining branches and hung some cd's to deter the winged ploppers. It certainly improved it when we next visited. I guess it will be a fact of life now that BW moved us under the trees.

I have some free time this weekend, its a toss up between pottering on the boat of a 600 mile visit to friends in Scotland to see just how good the motorbike is ?

Nev

Inverter in and WIFI sorted

A day of jobs today both at the house and on the boat. General tidy and clean at home including mowing the laws before we got to the boat just after 11.

I set to installing the inverter. The only place I could easily put it was in the engine hole attached to the top of the battery box. Not ideal but until I can get some longer leads it'll have to do. I have a remote for it so that is in the cabin easily accessible.

It does run the Dyson so we now have an option to take the Dyson with us to keep the dust down when we cruise - plus I don't have to lug the genny out so often.

Then I set to tidying all the cables around the TV by drilling a large hole in the top of the counter and feeding the surplus cables down into the cupboard.I got a natty £5 4 way adaptor from Morrisons that allows each plug to be switched on/off so this is sitting in the cupboard now and it has my Solwise 3g wireless router on it.

Thanks to Chris from Belle for this link to a bit of kit that has made the web so much more enjoyable while afloat. We were a dongle out of the window boat but now we have a little router sharing the wireless via the dongle. I opted for a 3g ariel so I know I have the best possible reception - best of all I just turn on the router and laptop and I have wireless 3g.

I brought Rachel an Ipad for her birthday but did not opt for the 3g version just the wireless one, knowing she could use it at the same time as me on the boat. Works a treat. The Ipad is a great bit of kit for mail and web while aboard - if you are thinking of getting one you will not be disappointed.

So plenty done meaning a roof wash in the morning and then we can relax !

Bloody warm aboard tonight ..............

Nev

To the boat

Today being one of the hotest weekends this year we will be heading for the boat shortly.

Stuff to fit including the new inverter that came to time the other day. It will get its first test as we need to give the boat a good vac out after the recent trip. One benefit of owning your own boat (apart from not getting ripped of by a Walter Mitty/Robert Maxwell ) is you can leave it post cruise and catch up later on the cleaning. It was the one thing with the Ownerships schme that we did not like - the end of holiday clean - usually starting the day before. We did inside and out and left it as we would want to find it - others had lower standards.

We will see what the weekend brings - hopefully R&R

Nev

Inverter is on its way....

Keeping with the theme of things being on their way.... I ordered this inverter on Monday and have just received a text to tell me it will be delivered in a couple of hours. I ordered it from Caravan and Leisure who phoned my on Monday after they received my order to say they did not have any in stock but were expecting some later in the week - did I want to wait or cancel. When I said I'd wait the lady said she would phone me when it was in and get it out on a timed next day delivery -excellent service so one company to recommend.

Why a cheap inverter..... well son no.2 came aboard for the last two days of our slow anticlockwise failed Llangollen four counties cruise and tried to use his hair straighteners !! on the 150w inverter we have had since owning the boat. Fuse pops and the replacement fuse pops etc so I had to presume he had done more damage to the little inverter than the fuse should have protected. I brought a cheap Belkein 300w jobbie from Amazon for under £20 which will now be a reserve item on the boat.

One issue we have is dust and pollen at this time of the year... yep not good to be in the country if you have bad hay fever. We have a Dyson that sits in the little shed on our mooring that we can only run from our 2kw genny which is a pain to get out and get going so the plan is to install this bad boy under the bed and link it to our 240v circuit and keep the dyson under the dinette so we can give the boat a good vac out when we are aboard or out and about.... just got to fit it and get the cables through the bulk head to the batteries. The little 300w had a cigarette lighter connection so it was easier to install.

We did not want to spend a fortune on a Victron or similar system so we will take a punt on this - if it works I might be selling my very little used genny.

I should say I opted for the remote control for it so we can have it under the bed out of the way and have the small remote switch somewhere convenient.

Nev

Noah's ark is on its way

Not a reference to any longer spells of rain (remember that stuff?) but a large green narrowboat on the back of a low loader north bound on the A38 just before Burton on Trent. I have just been to Birmingham airport to collect eldest son from his Greek holiday. Maybe it was on its way to Mercia or it could have come from Streethay?

Long time no post for work and health reasons but I'm hoping to get a few updates in after returning from our boat paint cruise.

Watch this space......