No Time for Narrowboats

Today was about anything but boats. Now that my knee is on the mend, I actually mowed the lawn, for only the third time this year! Neither of us has put in any time in the garden this year, but luckily it doesn't look too bad.
Our gardening philosophy is Darwinian, if it survives without much attention, it's still in the garden, if it can't take neglect and it dies, it isn't ... harsh but practical.

Main task of the day was collecting Liz's replacement car from Wellingborough. Doesn't have the panache of the Alfa, but it is a very nippy, practical little beastie.
We paid exactly what we got for the Alfa, and I'm sure the fuel consumption and reliability will be much more realistic.
We intend to use the two cars to hop the boat around the canal system as soon as is practical.

Operation "Watertank"

Let battle commence!

This is my emergency pumping kit, tonight used for pumping out the water tank, after washing and flushing. My cunning "hose on a pole", featuring a "pop sock" filter will drain almost every drop via the old water pump which just plugs into a 12v socket.

After the wash and flush, we part filled with sterilizer and flushed the entire water system, leaving it to "cook" for an hour or so whilst Liz watched the tennis and I attacked the mushroom vents with the Brasso.
After one last drain and flush with clean water, we started to fill the tank properly. In the time available we only managed to 3/4 fill the tank, but it certainly looked and smelled good. Hopefully tomorrow night will see it topped out and ready for cruising!!!

 We had to use 60m of hosepipe, 2 and a bit hose-reels, to reach the tap!

 

 Cool clear water filling the tank at last

A good job well done I'd say Lizzie!

Our Mute friends don't seem to have had any success in the signet department this year :o(
Even though we gave them titbits, they maintained their usual grumpy disdain. Because I'm sure everyone else tells them how beautiful they are, I always insist on insulting them so that they don't get too upperty. Who do they think they are ... they are just overgrown ducks after all.

Once more the sunset, seen as we left the marina was stunning, but I failed to capture it photographically. 

Shiny Black with a Rainbow finish

Tank blacking is drying nicely and after blowing in yet more hot air - not from my usual rantings - with the hair dryer, the chemical smell is definitely diminishing. The blacking is still very slightly tacky though, so still a way to go before it is cured, but it is very shiny and clean looking.

Whilst we were there, the sky gave a most wonderful display, everywhere you looked were clouds of all different shapes and sizes, topped off with a magnificent rainbow, which my photos spectacularly fails to do justice to.

Less Pongy

This evening, we had very little time for Quo, I was doing my blue-arsed fly impersonation, tearing round trying unsuccessfully to find a new car for Liz. Managed to get over around 9.00 pm, and I spent 10 minutes blowing hot air into the water tank with a hair dryer. I do believe that when I'd finished it smelt a little less like a laboratory. Will do more of that tomorrow evening, then try and wash it out.
Debdale marina is a truly beautiful place at sundown, the sky tonight was HUGE and the sunset spectacular ... all to a chorus of birdsong and gently lapping water. If more people could experience that peace and tranquillity, the world would be a much better place.

What a Pong

Only managed an hour or so on Quo today, trying to air the freshly painted water tank.

We played cards, drank tea and ate biscuits hoping that the fresh breeze would clear the fumes from the now-open tank.

I must say though that the pong of the blacking solvent was still pretty strong when we left.
Don't much fancy drinking water that smells like that, but I'm assured that once properly dry, and after a couple of rinses it will be fine .... fingers crossed as we need to fill it for our holiday cruise a week today. Hope the weather is fine on Saturday to let us wash & rinse it out.

Busy busy busy

What a long and varied day Saturday was.

Started by selling our Alfa 147* to a nice guy called Ed who'd come all the way from Torquay after winning the car on Ebay. He seemed very pleased, as he used to own one that was written-off by being hit up the rear, and missed it terribly.

Now I don't want to appear sexist, but the Alfa raised completely different emotions in Liz and I, she was mostly concerned by how easy it was to reverse and park (not) and I with how it drove (brilliantly) and as it was really her car, it had to go :o( 

Ah well, I still have my motorbike for cheap thrills, it is a lot faster and it does use a LOT less petrol.

After banking the proceeds, we watched Jody performing in the town centre with the Carnival Drums (Samba Band) which seemed to go down very well with the audience of passers-by ... my ears were still ringing when we left them!

Next we went over to Quo to hopefully, between showers, finish painting out the water tank. Eldest son James, who we haven't seen for months, was up from Surrey en route to a Florida holiday and was free for the afternoon, so I was able to pick him up and show him around the boat, while Lizzie was inside the water tank painting on the blacking and getting high on the fumes.

After a quick pit-stop at home, I dropped Lizzie and James at Zizzi's to order our lunch, whilst I ran Jody up to Clipston for a Jazz Quartet rehearsal, ahead of a gig in the evening, getting back to Zizzi's just as my Pizza arrived :o)

The meal with James was really nice, especially as he told us he'd just been offered, and accepted a new job paying MUCH more money and seemingly featuring more elements of the things he really enjoys about computer programme applications and Linux. James is self-taught, and has been programming since he was 7, when I first bought a Sinclair Spectrum and he managed to make a little green square move around the screen and play a tune.

Having said goodbye to James, it was back to Quo for Lizzie to paint the last few bits in the tank and a few minutes chilling, then back home in time to pick Jody up from his Leisure Centre gig ..... phew :o)

One really brilliant thing throughout was that my left knee is now actually good enough to allow me to walk normally for the first time this year .... although running and climbing trees may have to wait a while.

We now have to get a new car for Lizzie, one that is small and simple, as Jody will be driving after his 17th in August ... the little Fiat Panda looks favourite.

* we bought the Alfa in haste after Lizzie's lovely old Honda Civic was stolen, joy-ridden and torched :o(

The snowy weather and her new job meant that we never even had time to test-drive it, and only clocked 900 miles in 7 months of ownership

Of Belts and all things Beta

Made several phonecalls all around the country to get alternator belts and filters for our Beta-38 engine, only to end up back at Foxton Boat Services who are the local agents (not listed on the Beta Marine website).

I managed to squeeze a tad more out of the adjuster to tighten the old engine alternator belt, but I'll be happier replacing it before our holiday cruise.
Another minor annoyance that we get when cruising is the prop ringing at low to medium revs, so I Googled, then lifted the weed hatch to examine the prop. All I could find was a small amount of leading edge damage to one blade, all the blades having nicely honed trailing edges (bulbous edges apparently  cause cavitation and resultant resonant ringing). I'll attempt to clean up the damaged edge with a file and cross my fingers.

Watermark

This evening marked a landmark (watermark?) in our narrowboating career. Liz, Jody, Paul, Karen and I cruised down to Foxton Locks,  moored up right outside the Inn, then went in for a meal.

Liz is merely "tasting"my beer, hers is the J2O

We sat on the Veranda, right next to our very own boat, it made me very proud and happy. I could never have dreamed that this would be possible.

The evening even had drama. A hire boat exited the bottom lock and headed, full steam ahead for the swing bridge. Despite much swirling, churning and engine revving, it failed to make the turn and T-Boned a moored boat (the long cream boat in the top picture - NB MEY). I accidentally side-swiped a moored boat once up at Welford, and it was not fun, very embarrassing, but I went back to apologise, and luckily there was nothing broken apart from a dent in my pride. This however was a big hit and I'm pretty sure that anything not nailed down would have ended up on the floor. I hope nothing got broken. 

We pottered slowly back to Debdale and moored up without incident, then just chatted until darkness fell .... a wonderful way to spend one's time. Next time we'll get the guitars out and add a sing-song, Paul insists that we should learn and play "Tales of the Riverbank" :o)
Only minor downside was a growing squeal from the engine alternator belt, which I know is a tad loose, and on it's way out (adjuster at max). We have a spare, and, knee permitting I'll have to change it soon.

Rained-off

On my last post, I said we would try to get the water tank painted out today ... "weather permitting".... well it didn't did it  !

We got to the marina at about 10am, primed and ready to go, just as it started to rain :o(

So we resigned ourselves to having a coffee and watching the Moto GP ... it's a tough life, but someone has to do it :o)

The Black Hole of Quo Vadis

We got to the marina for 10.30 this morning, and immediately set about sorting out the water tank. I used the old water pump to empty the tank, then Liz ... bless her ... climbed inside and dried it out.

Hello hello hello hello hello

She then rubbed /scraped down the rusty bits, and we vacuumed out the resulting debris.

After a well earned cuppa, she got back in and painted the tank with Vactan to kill the rust.
We will now leave this to cure for 24 hours then, weather permitting, Lizzie will be back inside to paint on the Tank Blacking .... I'll be on tea-making duty again.

let them eat cake

As Liz recovered from her exersions, I tested out our nice new frying pan, knocking up bacon, lettuce and tomato rolls for our lunch, which included an invite to the local ducks (they had cake). 

After a quick vacuum around the boat, without a hint of complaint from the inverter, we realised there was still time for a quick "there and back" to Saddington tunnel as a shake-down following the stern tube repair..

It is about 6 weeks since we last cruised Quo, but in no time, we were cast off and away.

The exit from the marina is a very tight 180 degree turn, which so far I've only got right once, and with the aid of the wind, today went down as another failure as I had to 3-point turn using the far bank again ... dammit! Once away though, the full joys of narrowboating soon shone through, along with the sunshine ... glorious. Liz did most of the steering, and we were amazed at how much the canal has narrowed now that the trees are in leaf and the reeds have come through. This part of the canal is particularly river-like, with many tight turns ... enchanting.

Buttercups

As we approached the aqueduct, the weather took a downturn, and rain threatened, so we moored up and put the kettle on while it blew over. A quick tweak of the aerial, and we were able to watch the F1 qualifying .... amazing.

As Quo had an empty water tank, she was bow high, and the rising wind made handling "interesting", so we were glad to get back to the marina by 5pm. Athough my 180 degree turn back into the marina was as bad as the one on the way out, reversing into the mooring went well. Looking forward to getting much more practice.

Skiving

What a lucky bloke I am.

This is always a quiet time at work, and because I have a poorly knee, rendering me fairly useless for lugging washing machines, I managed to skive off the afternoon and pop over to Quo.

I intend to fit some brass wall lights, so I checked out the wiring to the existing ceiling lights, ran the engine to recharge the batteries, tidied up the engine room and just sat and strummed my guitar until it was time to go and pick Liz up from work. 

Having a narrowboat is just wonderful :o)

      

Saw this little beauty back in Harborough, just had to snap it (with the owners consent). My brother-in law Geoff has a red one of these, currently undergoing surgery .... can't wait to blag a ride when it's back on the road.

Flying visit

Had to go to the Robert Smyth School last night (Wednesday) for a meeting about Jody's forthcoming Jazz Band trip to Prague, but then we flew over to Quo to install a nice new set of cream Prestige saucepans to replace the jaded stuff the boat came equipped with.

and a 25m garden hose.

Having sorted all the old pans for disposal, I made a new aerial extension cable which actually worked. Then sat back, watched the Isle of Man TT coverage on ITV4 and drank coffee as the light faded ...... magic!
Excitement is building, when Jo goes to Prague, we go CRUISING for the first time, and I'd like to think we've got the boat as ready as can be.




Just received some nice new cream vinyl number plates.

Barometer

I have now fitted Quo's Barometer, as purchased from Crick Boat Show.

Actually, we only bought it to fill a hole in the wood pannelling above the radiator, but it is interesting to watch the changes in  air pressure.

Liz took a shine to this in a local petrol station - it is actually a solar lamp, and gives a beautiful light through the varied coloured glass pieces. 

All yours for £5.99 ! The home-made felt artwork is courtesy of Karen.

Getting things done

Managed to get over to the boat last night, and to fit a wall bracket to hold the TV.

Just thinking about leaving when who should drop by but James C and sons Daniel and John, who had been on a bike ride to Foxton Locks. We had a jolly good laugh, and when time came to leave, felt really uplifted. Hopefully, they will be aboard when we go up Foxton Flight in a week or so.
I still can't get over not having to mop water out of the engine room any more, as regular mopping has been a fundamental part of my week ever since we bought Quo.
This weekend promises nice weather, and we hope to combine cruising with DIY to get the flooring finished ... can't wait.
Update to TV ... suddenly found that all the BBC channels but BBC4 have disappeared. After much aerial fiddling and retuning, traced fault to the brand new aerial extention cable that I fitted, which worked fine initially. 

Flaming June?

On 25th, Jody is off to Prague to play keyboard with the Robert Smyth School Jazz Band, so it gives Liz and I a chance to go cruising for the very first time on our own boat ... I can't wait :o)
I'm sure we've much to learn, as previous cruises were simply turn up, get the boat from the hire company, then give it back a week later. This may require a bit more planning and foresight, but we have no destination planned, so no tricky deadlines. If we only go 20 miles in the whole week, I'll be perfectly happy just to be on the water with Liz.
For some time now, I have been struggling with a gammy left knee which has severely hampered my DIY aspirations (well any aspirations really) but it was definitely showing signs of improvement .... until yesterday that is!
I have never considered haircuts dangerous other than the possibility of minor blood loss, however, whilst carefully stepping into the chair yesterday, my good leg slipped on some hair clippings, allowing my dodgy knee to twist ! The pain was off the scale, and I was "down the tunnel" for a second or two, but I just had to sit there and have my hair cut. 
Don't remember much about getting back to the car, but I know it took a long time.