the boating life

Another adventure overseas

2016-04-13T16:06:00.000+01:00

Our friends and neighbours left the marina yesterday to cruise the system for 4 months. They intend to explore the Chester ring, the Llangollen canal and of course the Grand Union. I felt a pang of envy as we waved them goodbye. I am really keen to explore the canal network more, but Phil does not share my enthusiasm.

The original idea of moving to the boat was Phil's. It was intended that we would reduce our outgoings and I would not have to work so hard. I was working sometimes seven days a week, teaching from Monday to Friday in school during the days and at home in the evenings and then also teaching on Saturdays and rehearsing on Sundays. It was a crazy time and I was becoming burnt out. It was such a liberating feeling moving onto the boat and the first year was spent relaxing and just working three days a week in school. It was a fantastic time.

I would like to explore the inland waterways, but I understand that the reasons that Phil suggested the move to the boat were not neccesaily due to a love of boating, but rather for my benefit. I respect the fact that he doesnt want to explore. We do get out and about occasionally, which is enough for him and satisfies my love of boating and the outdoors, so we compromise well.

I love travelling abroad and working for several weeks at a time, in the knowledge that I can relax afterwards for long periods. However, it seems that a pianist is always in demand and my periods at home are now being filled with more and more playing commitments. I do love the opportunity to play, but these last few weeks have been jam packed with a recording session and lots of rehearsals. I am giving a concert tomorrow evening and I am starting to feel the stress of overdoing things and those old knots in the pit of my stomach are returning.

Added to that, my 92 year old mother is not well and lives 300 miles away. I had to do a flying visit last week to sort out her appointments and some sort of longer term care for her. Our NHS is fantastic and the people who work for it are committed and helpful, but it is creaking under the strain of a lack of funding. I came home exhausted and frustrated, having had to go through hoops just to get a basic level of care for her. I had hoped to catch up with friends while there, but dealing with beaurocracy is all consuming!

On Sunday, Phil decided that I needed a bit of relaxation, so we had lunch at our favourite hostelry (Snatchams, so named because it was where the press gang operated in days of yore). We just managed to leave before the incoming high tide cut us off, which is a frequent occurence there. I did note a touch of disappointment in Phil's voice as we left, I think the prospect of being stranded in a pub for a few hours rather appealed to him.

We then drove to the other side of the river for a walk, a bit of bird watching and to collect some wood. The high tide had brought in loads of lovely seasoned wood and we filled the car to the brim with it.

A view of Snatchams from the other side of the river - it is completely cut off!

Plenty of wood is washed up, so we are able to replenish our wood stores

More lovely wood!

Hmmmm

We saw lots of bird life

The scenery is gorgeous

Waiting for the farmer to bring the cows in for milking before we could drive through

Otter news is that I caught something on the camera last week which looks very much like it. There was a splash and a line of bubbles. It was definitly something big, which moved very fast, but we didn't capture an image of it. Here is the video, but I'm not sure whether it will play on here. The last one didn't seem to work.

I fly overseas again next week and so at least will get into some kind of normal work routine, but won't be posting for a while.

Back at the beginning of June, cheerio for now!

Al :)

British Summer Time

2016-03-27T20:15:00.000+01:00

The clocks went forward by one hour last night and we are now officially in British Summer Time. You would not know it though, as it is cold, wet and windy here today on Easter Sunday.

In fact, only two weeks ago we had snow and I had a very different view on my walk up to the University to practice my piano:

The canal was very pretty in the snow though:

We are still persistently chasing the otter, but it is getting to the start of the season for the leisure boaters to start turning up and so the Marina is becoming busy, which I think is discouraging it. The Kingfisher is also less commonly seen and again, I think we have missed the opportunity, as it has probably flown to its breeding ground now.

Last weekend, the weather was warm and Spring like, so a huge number of boats took the opportunity to have a trip out. This left the marina virually empty. I noticed on the exposed jetties that there were fish scales and remains on many of the the struts underneath the jetties. I then opened our duck hatch and saw the same under our jetty.

I decided to set the camera up underneath, pointing along the length of the jetty. I had done this before, with no luck, despite being sure that we had heard the otter splashing around on many occasions. This time we put it on the video setting and left it for a couple of weeks. We were very excited to find that it had been triggered on a number of occasions. Disappointingly this was largely by ducks. Then we looked at the following clip. Something, (maybe the otter), was looking very closely at the camera, but it soon revealed itself. A word of warning .... do not look at the video if you are of a nervous disposition!

I have been working in the UK on and off over the last few weeks and have had a concert and some recording work to prepare for, but we did manage to visit two of our favourite bird watching sites on my days off and I managed to get some good bird pictures:

A very colourful Bullfinch

One of our favourite birds - the Wren

Nuthatch

I also managed to get quite a good picture of a goosander which was swimming around the boat. They are flightly wild ducks so I was very pleased

We were out walking the other day when I heard a rustling in the hedge. I just managed to capture this little fellow before he slunk away. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a complete shot of him:

This has been quite a long blog, but there has been a fair bit to report and I have been so busy with work and other projects that I have not had time to post.

I am travelling overseas again soon, but hope to post again a few times before I go.

Al :)

A bit of local history

2016-02-19T16:24:00.001+00:00

The weather has finally changed for the better. Although we still have had some rain, we are now getting cold, crisp bright days. The mornings in particular are icy underfoot, so extra care has to be taken on the jetties.

We have been trying to keep the fire in overnight. We have a slight dilemma here, because coke throws out a lot of heat and warms the boat up effectively, but it burns itself out very quickly. Large lumps of coal in the form of Ovoids are much slower to burn and usually will last the night, if we bank the fire up. This means that we can rescue it in the morning, without having to relight it. However, they do not provide the same intense heat as Coke, which we now need with the very cold weather. Wood is great for bringing the fire on, but as a source of heat it is not enough at the moment.

So it was an icy start this morning. I dont think the kingfisher will be fishing off the perch we put up for him!

There was a thin layer of ice on the canal

The cold mornings have woken me up earlier and so I have been rising early and taking the opportunity to get up to the University where my piano is and doing a few hours of practice, without being disturbed. I have a concert coming up, so am spending several hours a day practising and rehearsing.

The roads tend to be icy early in the day, so I'm reluctant to cycle at this time of year. It takes about 30 minutes to walk the two miles and it is a lovely and interesting walk, so I thought I would share it here.

I walk down the lane past the old mill cottages.

They were built in 1676

It wasn't far for the mill workers to walk the short distance to work

The old mill is now disused and is a listed building. Quite right too as it is the oldest surviving mill in England. It was a silk mill and was in operation from 1739 until 1971.

The church just in front on the Mill. A big church for such a small village

The Graveyard with the hills of Bowland in the background

So sad, so young.

I have only found two casualties of WW1 from the village so far

The River Condor which runs through the village

When I returned from my mornings practice I walked to the end of the jetty to check our mooring ropes and I startled the kingfisher which flew across the jetty and off under the bridge. It had been fishing off our perch, so now that I know that it likes it, I shall sit by the window in the comfort of our bedroom and be ready with the camera! As a friend of ours said the other day, our boats double up as a warm and cosy 'hide'. Perfect for nature watching.

I shall leave you with a picture of a beautiful sunset we had two evenings ago.

Al :)

Gales and missed opportunities

2016-02-01T11:53:00.002+00:00

Typically, the weather improved just as we were flying out to Madeira for our holiday. We had a few days of crisp cold bright weather before we left, but as soon as we returned, the weather reverted to wet and windy conditions and it hasn't changed since! I am currently sitting on a rocking boat with storm Henry beginning to build up around me! Apparently the wind will increase as the day goes on and will reach 60 miles per hour by this evening.

Madeira was wonderful. The weather was warm and sunny, the hotel was first class and the people were so hospitable, as we find all over the world. We explored most of the island, especially the hills and mountains. Here is a picture of Phil at the summit of their highest mountain Pico do Arieiro. At 1818 metres it is the highest we have ever climbed.

Before we went away I had set up the Otter camera on the video setting, but when I came back there was only one video and it was too dark to see anything. All that could be seen was some movement and splashing under a jetty by the end boat, but it was inconclusive. I have reset it on picture mode now and have put it on the bow of the boat next door.

This will hopefully serve a dual purpose of capturing the otter and the Kingfisher. I brought back a stick from our allotment yesterday and have tied it to the front of the boat to encourage the kingfisher to perch on it.

NEWS FLASH!

As I was sitting writing this I heard a splash just under the boat where I am sitting. I looked out of the window and there was the otter! It was so close I could have touched it, its head was out of the water and it was eating a fish. I was mesmorised! Too late to reach for the camera. I watched it for about 30 seconds and then ran to get the camera, but it was too late, it had disappeared. I rushed off the boat and could see it splashing under the jetty two boats down, but it was not fully in sight. Lesson learnt ..... always have the camera to hand! The kingfisher also flew off a boat as I was making my way to the laundry block this morning, so two sightings in one day. I told a fellow boater I bumped into and she said that it often fishes off the end boat where I saw it. I told her about the stick we had set up and she said it would perhaps be too rough there for it and it would prefer fishing in the quieter empty berth by the end boat. This made perfect sense, so I am going to move it from its current position to that jetty. One day I WILL get pictures!!! I am feeling extremely frustrated at the moment!

We are now completely out of wood, both wood stores are empty.

However, it is the time of year when trees are being pruned and felled and I always keep my ears open for the sound of a chain saw. I intend to have a few long walks down the tow path over the next few weeks in the hope that The Canal and River Trust will have been out, tidying up trees adjacent to the towpath. Of course any wood that I collect now will not be burnt until next year as it will need to season. I will simply fill the wood stores and leave it for a year.

I am beginning to get a small collection together and we will need to spend an afternoon chopping it up.

We will still need wood for burning now though, but this is easily obtained after a high tide on the Esturary. We collect wood washed up on the bank and this is always seasoned by the sea. I love foraging for wood and it really does save us a lot of money. We recently calculated our fuels costs for the past year and the total was about £600 for the whole year. This covers coal, gas for cooking and diesel for our central heating and propulsion when we take trips out. It also includes electricty for lighting and appliances.

However, although wood burners are wonderful and cosy and are a cheap source of heating they do have occasional downsides. Because the wind has been gale force, it has blown down our chimney on several occasions, pushing smoke through the vents and into the boat. At its worst it completely fills the boat with smoke and I have to open all hatches and doors and put the fire out.

I will leave you with some pictures of the sun setting over our boat the other evening when the weather was a bit calmer.

I am now even more determined not to miss any more opportunities to capture the wild life on camera. Watch this space!

Al :)

Rain, Rain Go Away.....

2016-01-10T11:33:00.000+00:00

....... and DON'T come back another day!!

I'm sure that old nursery rhyme was composed when rain was probably a fairly regular occurance, but only in small doses. We have now had rain every single day since I arrived back in the UK. Most days it has rained continously without a break and it has on occasion been of a velocity that I am more used to seeing in places like India and Malaysia during the monsoon season.

Apart from the people who have been affected by the floods, the impact on us is minimal except that we find it hard to find opportunities for getting out and chopping wood for the fire. However, it is just so depressing to go through the day surrounded by dark, grey, wet weather.

I did manage to get out for a short walk last week and all the fields were flooded:

At least the canal is full

We have booked a holiday in sunnier climes next week, so hopefully will be able to get some sun and much needed vitamin D!

The inclement weather has also prevented me from getting out to stake out the Otter and Kingfisher properly, but the wildlife camera is now operational again and we have heard the Otter swimming under the boats on several occasions in the early hours of the morning. I'm just hoping that it will pop up in front of the camera one night! As for the Kingfisher, it is often seen fishing off the front of our boats. I caught some pictures of the heron one day sitting on our front button, so I'm thinking it may be worth setting up the camera at the front of the boat to try and capture the Kingfisher.

Add caption

We had an interesting experience of synchronocity yesterday. When the caretaker is not here, we look after requests for fuel from passing boaters. A continuous cruiser dropped by to buy some coal. We know most of the people who live on their boats on the canal, but we hadn't seen him before. It turns out that he is a student in his final year at the University. While I was on the other side of the world, I used my days off to explore and on one occasion I had taken the ferry over to one of the many small Pacific Islands and cycled around it. It turns out that his parents live on that island and I had probably cycled past their house!

On that note I will leave you. More when I return from my holiday....

Al :)

Storms and floods

2016-01-01T19:30:00.000+00:00

I arrived back from the antipodes just before Christmas to unprecedented bad weather. Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank had already wreaked terrible damage on homes near to us. One village was completely cut off for several days, after the river which flowed through it burst its banks and flooded all access roads. Our village was without power for two days and the city centre was inaccessible. There was some shortage food because the Supermarkets near us were either closed, due to being flooded, or because they had run out of food and supplies couldn't get through.

We felt so sorry for those people who have temporarily lost their homes. We realise how lucky we are, since living on a boat is probably the best place to be at the moment. As the canal has risen all we have had to do is to slacken the mooring ropes, to prevent the boat from tilting. We were also not really affected by the loss of electricity, as we lived off our batteries for a few days and recharged them by running the engine.

However, not all boat owners were unscathed by the situation. We are reasonably safe in the Marina because we are moored to solid jetties, but those on the towpath were not so fortunate, as the force of the water pulled out their mooring pins and when the water went down, this was the scene in a number of places along the canal network:

I feel so sorry for this boat owner whose boat was completely submerged

I was also shocked to see pictures of our city centre. Here is a street that I often drive down, completely submerged.

I was saddened to go into town last weekend in the aftermath of the floods to see so many shops near to the river, shut due to flood damage.

I just hope that 2016 is a better year weather wise and that these devastating scenes do not reappear next Christmas.

On to more positive matters now. The Otter is a regular visiter around the boats, usually early evening and in the early hours of the morning. I have had to take the wild life camera down, due to rising water levels threatening to swamp it and high winds which could have damaged it. However, I have a new tactic. I was talking to a fisherman who was fishing on the canal side when I went for a walk the other day and he told me where the Otter's Holt is. I am planning to take a chair down and sit opposite it for as many hours as are neccessary, in the hope of getting a picture. I plan to do that over the next few days, so watch this space.

We have some Goosander who are feeding on the canal and I did manage to get some pictures of them, but because they are wild ducks, they never let me near enough to get a decent picture before taking flight. I have also seen a Kingfisher fishing regularly up by our locks, but again I can never get close enough. I plan to go and sit quietly up there one day to see if I can catch a picture. I have decided that that really is the only way to do it.

While I was overseas I managed to get a few serendipitous pictures of some lovely birds which I thought I would share. Here they are:

White Throated Kingfisher

Bell Bird

Red Billed Gull

Kereru

Tui

Variable Oyster Catcher

I now have a break from work, until I get my schedule for the coming year (if I get any work!). I am self employed so rely on being invited to undertake work by the company I am contracted to, but there are no guarantees.

Until I get any work I will at least have the time to post more frequently.

It just leaves me to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Al :)

Autumn Fruits

2015-10-09T18:19:00.000+01:00

I am finally back posting again, after a long work stint overseas and a busy summer.

I had meant to post as soon as I arrived back in the UK in July, but have spent the summer mulling over whether to continue with this Blog.

I have found myself repeating myself and started to wonder how useful the Blog is to prospective boaters. I had thought that I had run out of relevant information to offer, but actually I dont think that is the case. In addition I have had some postive comments from readers, who like my photos of our area and the canal.

I realise that it can be disruptive with me going away to work for at least 4 months of the year, but I still seem to get a regular flow of readers, so I'm going to press on for now.

A brief update on the Marina front finds us in a much better postion with our Council Tax, which has now been amalgamated into our Marina fees. We have had a refund of our monthly payments from the Council and have been de-listed as individual residences. As far as we know, we should now be paying a composite fee with the other residents, but as yet the terms and conditions of this have not been worked out. Negotiations are going on between the valuation office nationally and our marina provider who have a number of sites across the UK. So far, it appears that in return for a composite rate, we will be required to move berths several times a year, to demonstrate that we are not a static residency. I will keep this updated, as it potentially affects 'liveaboards' across the entire country in the future.

On a lighter note, we have had a wonderful summer. Our marina is now full and everybody, residents and leisure boaters alike, is absolutely lovely. We have a great cross section of like minded and decent people and so it is a very happy place to live! Everyone looks out for each other, while at the same time respecting privacy. It is a perfect combination!

We have spent some time cruising up and down the canal and have had one or two nights of peaceful bliss, spent out moored up on the towpath in the middle of nowhere.

Here are some pictures of our favourite mooring spot:

The plank was needed as it was shallow here

Autum colours reflect on the canal

Sunset over the fields

Sunset reflecting on the water

And some pictures of the canal while we were on the move:

I have also had some lovely walks along the canal recently, I love the open countryside where we live:

The spire of an old country church which is attached to one of the many old stately homes around here.

View along the canal from under one of the many bridges

Resident cat on a moored boat

Apart from that, our allotment has been very productive this year so I have spent some time pickling cabbage and beetroot. The autumn fruits have been late, but I have made Sloe Gin, Plum Brandy and Blackcurrant Rum. The blackberries are not ready yet, but I hope to pick some before I go away and make Blackberry Whisky.

I was walking down the jetty the other day when I noticed these:

I realised that we have a very healthy hop bush growing here. Quite how they got here I don't know, but I harvested enough to make quite a few pints of beer!

Unfortunately, I won't have time to wait for the fermentation process, so I made a couple of hop pillows instead. These are reputed to assist with insomnia, but as I don't have any trouble sleeping, I can't vouch for it!

The marina is looking lovely with the autumn colours and here are some pictures of the scenes I will miss while I am away:

,

I travel overseas next week and Phil and I had our usual trip up to the Lake District before I go. Haweswater is our favourite lake and the weather was kind to us, despite a forecast of rain:

Our favourite Tarn halfway up the fell side

The beck tumbles down the hillside. The Reservoir at the bottom is very low in water though.

I shall be back just before Christmas and will then decide whether to continue to post on a regular basis again, or to finish blogging.

Al :)

Au Revoir until July

2015-05-02T15:55:00.001+01:00

I will be travelling overseas on Tuesday for a two month work stint, so this is my last blog for a while.

Phil and I are trying to fit in some time together before I head off and yesterday we spent the afternoon at our local nature reserve. It is a beautiful place with plenty of wild life. Here are some pictures we took:

Goose hiding in the undergrowth

Proud parents

Cock Pheasant which plagued us for food

Deer in the woods

Gosling Chick exploring

Marsh Harrier looking for food

I have spent the last two weeks catching up with friends and family who I won't see for a while. We are going to spend tomorrow with our two sons and then it is time to focus on work.

There is no further news on the residential status and how it affects payments of council tax. We have complained to our landlords who have robustly defended their position on the lack of progress on this issue, but that doesn't help us who have now paid nearly £3000 in arrears and little reassurance about how much we will have to pay in the future, with 'negotiations' still progressing. It is very frustrating!

I have spent the last two weekends working in the Midlands where the canal network is extensive and we visited a number of marinas which charge much less than we are paying and the facilities are excellent. One of those also has residential status and they seem to have sorted out the council tax issue very successfully. The problem that we have here is that moorings are at a premium on our small section of canal and so the landlords can call the shots. We don't really want to move to the Midlands as we have all we want here, especially fantastic walking country with the hills of the Trough of Bowland and the Lake District so near. However, there is always a tipping point and that may be reached quite soon..... We will see. I will update when I am back in July and I really hope that by then some sort of decision will have been reached. Mind you I was saying that last November and here we are in May!!

I love going overseas and it is great to have such lovely warm weather, but I miss the Englsh country side so much.

Here are some of the things I will miss the most:

The bridge at our marina

Walks in the woods

All the young Chicks, Goslings and Cygnets

Cruising on our boat

sunsets

Views over the bay

I will be back posting in July, when we hope to travel around a bit on the boat so there will be some good pictures hopefully!

Al :)

Easter Traffic

2015-04-08T09:50:00.001+01:00

Another work frenzy is over and we are enjoying relaxing on the boat at our mooring, over Easter.

Now that the weather is getting better, the leisure boaters on the marina are starting to come back and this Easter weekend many have come down who we haven't seen for a while. It has been really great to catch up with them and once again, a whole morning can easily disappear as we make our way along the jetty chatting to people boat by boat!

There is an exceptionally great crowd of people on our Marina at the moment and although we moan about the cost of our moorings and threaten to go elsewhere, I think it is the fantastic community here who hold everyone together and who make that decision to leave so much more difficult. It was not always so and whenever a berth comes free, we all worry about who is going to come in, but so far everyone has been likeminded, with a proper sense of social responsibility and community. Long may that continue!

Out on the cut, things are not so rosy. The season of hire boaters has begun and we collectively groan as they often speed past at such a rate of knots, that we bounce around on our moorings. There are an increasing number of hirers on our small section of canal, as boating holidays become more popular. Not all of the hire companies appear to brief the holiday makers properly, by explaining the etiquette on the canal, so the boats invariably go far too fast causing a disruptive wash. On a number of occasions when we are out cruising we have been hit by hired boats too, when they have been going too fast around corners and are not able to react quickly enough to another boat coming towards them. They also choose our empty berths to turn around in and sometimes even come in and moor up thinking they can stay overnight. They always seem surprised when told that these are private moorings and would they kindly vacate them!

Well, that's my moan out of the way! I know that many people who hire boats are experienced boaters, but we really do have a disproportionate number of hire boats for our 40 mile length of canal and it can become quite congested at times.

Other news is sparse. I keep repositioning the Otter Cam, but so far still haven't managed to get any pictures of it. The kingfishers have now mostly left the canal to return to their breeding grounds. We plan to go to a local spot where they are known to breed and we are going to spend a day there and stake them out. I'm detemined to get a picture of them!

I am now preparing for my next work tour overseas which covers the whole of May and June, so we are trying to make the most of a free April to catch up with friends and get the boat ready for the summer.

We hope to get out for a cruise before I go away, but must take down our winter canopy before we can do this. I spent a very happy afternoon last week, chopping up all of our remaining wood which I had foraged from the tow path and putting it away to season for next year. We now have two full wood stores and although we are still lighting our wood burner just at night now, I can't see us doing that for much longer as the weather gets warmer.

I will post an update shortly on how the residential status is coming along. The main unresolved issue is the council tax and this has been going on for nearly a year now, with the residential boaters having to pay full council tax as well as an element of it in our mooring fees. We are becoming extremely frustrated and angry as the three parties involved (The Valuation Office, The local council and The company who own the marina), all pass the buck to each other, blaming the others for holding the process up. We are the poor guys in the middle and are just about to blow a fuse about it all....... watch this space!

I will leave you with a picture that I meant to post some weeks ago but was too busy. We had the interesting phenomenum of a partial eclipse of the sun which was captured by Bob, a friend of mine:

We also had hoped to see the Northern lights a few weeks ago, as they had been seen as far south as the Lake District which is only 50 miles north as the crow flies, but we had too much light pollution, including a local football match on the village pitch which had floodlights on!

All for now

Al :)

Spring is in the air

2015-03-17T15:18:00.001+00:00

We arrived back from a weeks work in the East of the UK to a very cold boat. It was relatively warm over on the east side of the country, but we had to drive through snow and blizzards over the Pennines on our way home. At least it wasn't snowing on the Marina this time.

We threw all we had at it when we opened up the boat, as it was very cold and damp. We lit the wood burner, put the central heating on, switched on the small panel heater and had the humidifier blasting for about an hour. It didn't take long to get warm and cosy again. We enjoy going away, but are always happy to come back to our lovely home on the boat.

I took the card out of our wildlife camera in the hope of seeing something, but all it had captured was a blackbird and some ducks. A fellow boater said that he had seen the kingfisher a few days ago, sitting on the chair above where the camera is positioned, which is typical! We seem doomed to never get pictures of the Otter or kingfisher, but I will keep trying.

There are signs of Spring on the way with the song Thrush becoming more persistent and frequent in his singing, in his efforts to attract a mate. The Mallards are starting to smarten their plumage up and our resident swan has found herself a mate. I'm hoping to enjoy some Spring walks when this latest work stint is over. I have April free before I go overseas again in May and it would be lovely if the Bluebells are out by then.

Whenever we go away in the UK, I seek out the local canal, as you are never far from an inland waterway. Last week I had a walk along the Grantham canal, which is sadly only partially navigable. Next week I am in South Wales again, so hope to discover more of the Neath canal. Here are some pictures of the Grantham canal:

April sees further developments on our residential status, with hopefully the issue of council tax finally being resolved. We have been offered some incentives in our new contract too, such as one free laundry token per week and it all helps, so if we can resolve the council tax, I will start to feel a lot happier about staying put..... watch this space.

Al

A Trip to Wales

2015-03-01T20:09:00.001+00:00

We have spent the last week in Wales, visiting Phil's brother, sister and other relatives and friends.

I love going to Wales because the people in South Wales where Phil comes from, are so warm and friendly and the scenery is spectacular.

On the way down we stopped at Gigrin Farm to see the Red Kites being fed. The hides are really close to the feeding ground, so I was able to get some quite close up pictures:

We managed to get a couple of walks in, between visiting relatives and we explored the Neath and Tennant canals, which are now not really navigable, but are very pretty:

Welsh for 'Canal'

On one of our walks, we came across this sight in a puddle:

We wondered what it was ....

Closer inspection revealed Toad/Frog Spawn, strange that it was in a puddle, which could easily disappear!

After a lovely few days relaxing and catching up with people we hadn't seen in a while, we returned home to discover the Marina covered in snow!

It's a bit late in the year for snow, but it makes everything look pretty! The boat was very cold, but we soon had the fire lit and it warmed up quickly. We are now warm and cosy despite being surrounded by snow!

All for now

Al :)

Sploshing Otters

2015-02-23T20:00:00.000+00:00

The weather over the last few days has been wet, windy and miserable and put paid to our hopes of Spring on the way. However, there are still some signs of Spring despite the cold, with the Song Thrush opposite our boat beginning to tentatively practice his repertoire and many Crocuses and Snow drops coming out.

I went to a rehearsal yesterday at a friend's house, to practice for our next concert. This time we have quite an ambitious program, which includes a Piano Quintet by Mozart and I have to play many very fast passages. It was here that the contrast between a draughty house and our cosy boat was most marked. Although they had the heating on, my hands were still cold enough to hamper my playing. It was lovely to return to the boat and our wood burning stove, which was throwing out heat throughout the boat.

A number of leisure boaters are returning to the Marina now that Spring is on its way and it is nice to have some company and to catch up with them. There were only three of us residential boaters (liveaboards) on the Marina over winter and it can feel a bit lonely and bleak at times.

On the wildlife front, I have been too busy practising the piano and preparing for my next work stint in March to stake out the Kingfisher, but I did move the otter camera to a position at the end of the jetty pointing at the water, because we hear it very regularly splashing around and swimming under our boats, especially at night. The latest images are inconclusive, but the camera has definitely captured something:

This is the water with no disturbance

There seems to be quite a bit of disturbance under the surface here

I think I can see a rough otter shape and maybe an eye?

Again I feel there is some shape here

I may be mistaken, but there is hope that we can capture something, as I think we are now training the camera on one of his favourite spots. What we really want, is for him to pop his head above the water. I must also remember to reset the date and time on the camera, so we have an accurate recording of when he appears.

On the subject of wildlife, this is the theme for this years village photography competition, so I am starting to sort out some photos. here are a few possible entries:

Bottle Nosed Dolphins near Inverness

Cormorant Catching an Eel

Grebes doing their courting dance

Moorhen Chick

Barn Owl Hunting

Hopefully, one of these might be in with a chance of winning a prize.

I hope that we can get more otter pictures for the next time, watch this space!

Al :)

A possible end to the boating life

2015-02-16T09:18:00.004+00:00

I was going to write this Blog yesterday as promised, but before I could put pen to paper, so to speak, I needed a day to do some sums and consider our options, before I could give an update on our current boating life.

I have occasionally given news of how the Residential status has affected life on the Marina. We were granted this status two years ago and Phil and I really welcomed it. We were very happy to become 'legitimate'. We wanted to pay our way and be officially recognised as living on or boat, rather than skulking under the radar and trying to avoid paying such things as council tax, TV license etc. The main positive about being granted this status is that the empty berths are now full of lovely people, who we really relate to and who have become good friends. Our status has also impacted on how the people in the village react to us. Whereas before, people would often treat the lot of us as social outcasts, we are now treated with friendliness and respect.

However there has been a disproportionate financial impact of this upgraded status, which is hitting us hard.

Our Marina owners have been negotiating a rate of tax with the local council which would reflect the fact that they also pay tax on our behalf and pass the cost down to us in our hugely increased fees, ( we are now paying double what we paid when we first came onto the Marina). These negotiations have dragged on and on and now the council have lost patience and have issued us all with a demand for full council tax for every boat ( the same as an owner of a small house would pay) and have backdated it to the date of the planning application, before Residential status was actually granted. We have had to pay £2600 in arrears to the council.

We have a hearing on this in April, but if we are told after this that we must continue to pay full council tax, while still paying for council services in our Marina fees and an element in our waterways license, then we will move back to dry land.

We have spent this weekend looking at adverts for rented accommodation in the area and we could rent a very nicely appointed flat or house for less than we are paying here.

Our utilities bills are obviously much reduced by living on the boat and I love foraging for wood to keep us warm etc. but things are all starting to turn a bit sour. It seems that these days everyone is after a slice of your money!

I will update on this issue as events unfold. We both love the life and have had five very happy years of boating, but there is a limit to what we are prepared to pay for that privilege.

More news soon and hopefully a more cheerful posting next week!

Al

A Sunday Update

2015-02-08T17:03:00.000+00:00

I have been too busy to post recently and I am finding it quite frustrating. I have a concert coming up and the music I have been given to prepare is fiendishly difficult! This has meant that I have been putting in several hours of practice every day, just to learn the notes. That is just one piece, which is a wind and piano quintet and in addition to this I have several accompaniments to learn for the soloists, who don't usually give me the music until a few days before the concert. Add to this the project I am working on with a jazz saxophonist, who wants to do a gig in April and also to put down a CD and my time is fully taken up. Such is the lot of a pianist - everyone wants a bit of you!

I have now been given my work schedule for this year and I will be away overseas in May/June and October/December, I shall be glad to get away for a rest!

I am not happy with the infrequency with which I post my blogs, so I am going to try and post once a week on a Sunday and see how it goes.

On the boating front, much of our time has been taken up with keeping warm in this icy weather. The canal is frozen on most days and looks very beautiful:

The ducks slip and slide across it in search of food:

We have nearly run out of burnable wood, although we have two wood stores full of unseasoned wood. We have spent many an enjoyable hour chopping the wood we have collected along the tow path. There is much tidying up of overhanging trees going on at the moment and every time we hear a chainsaw, we follow the sound and usually are rewarded with a pile of wood kindly left by the Canal and River Trust! Our new chainsaw has proved to be very easy to use and is efficient at cutting through even quite thick trunks, but splitting them down further has been problematic. The axe doesn't always work, so we have bought a log splitting 'grenade' from ebay and will see how that works:

We are now in urgent need of wood we can burn and the best place for that is the estuary, which is only about 2 miles from the canal. One of our fellow boaters on the marina works at the local tip and had an old bike trailer which had been dumped. I bought it off him for £20 and Phil has done a great job of turning it into an attractive wood collecting chariot!! Here are before and after pictures:

On the wildlife front we have heard the otter swimming about between and under the boats on many occasions in the middle of the night but still haven't captured it on camera. I have now moved the camera to the end jetty after we found a half eaten fish there the other day which could only have been left by the otter.

The kingfisher is also proving elusive and as his favourite perch is currently surrounded by ice, there is not much hope of catching him there and I'm too busy to stake him out at the moment. Here is the empty perch:

There is not much else to report, but I do hope that posting regularly on a Sunday will provide more information on a regular basis. We are about to do a calculation of costs this winter and also hope to have news on our council tax status soon, so that may be interesting and useful for prospective boaters.

All for now. I will leave you with a picture of a beautiful sunset over the marina a few days ago:

Al :)

Kingfishers

2015-01-04T20:34:00.000+00:00

Last night was very cold and even though the wood burner was lit all night, we still felt the cold air, despite being warm in bed. Phil has a heavy cold, so I decided to get up early, get the fire up and running properly again, to warm the boat and to get out for a walk in search of a kingfisher.

I had heard that several had been seen south, but for some reason I decided to walk north up the tow path. It was a lovely morning and the colours were beautiful:

The views across to the Trough of Bowland were very special and made me want to get out on the hills for a walk, but Phil is not well enough at the moment.

A few hundred yards later I was rewarded with a flash of bright blue hurtling along the canal and I knew I had found my kingfisher. Unfortunately, he was always too far away to get a decent picture.

I was pleased to get a shot of him in flight.

I met a dog walker on my way back who told me that she often sees him and she showed me his regular perch, so I resolved to set up camp there one day next week and to lie in wait for him, so that I don't have to chase him along the canal.

When I came back, Phil was up and about and was well enough to do some wood chopping, so we spent a happy hour or two stocking up our wood store with logs from a tree a friend had recently felled and given to us.

All in all, it's been a great day, reinforcing again our reasons for moving to the boat. The closeness to nature and the simplicity of the life is wonderful!

A very happy Al :)

Happy New Year!

2015-01-03T11:40:00.001+00:00

I arrived back from a long work stint in India just before Christmas and am now well over the jet lag and tiredness having done two 'back to back' tours with only a few days in between back in the UK. I love India, the country is fascinating and the people are wonderful, optimistic and hospitable.

So far I haven't been booked for any work in 2015 so I'm feeling just a little bit twitchy. Being self employed is hard sometimes. We could just about manage without me working, but it would be a very much 'hand to mouth' existence. However, that is why we moved to the boat, so that I didn't have to constantly worry about getting enough work to pay the mortgage etc. on the house. I met a number of other musicians on my travels this time and it is interesting to see how so many of them work themselves into the ground, just to ensure they can sustain a reasonable lifestyle. I wouldn't recommend that anyone goes into the music profession as a career, it's too insecure.

We are now in our fifth year of living on the boat and I am still absolutely besotted with the lifestyle. This is a common theme on the marina. Everyone I talk to who is moored here, just loves living on a boat. Currently, most of them are like very similar to us in interests and aspirations, so many a happy hour is spent chatting away on the jetty about recent wildlife sightings and fell walks we have done.

I remember the scepticism with which many of our friends greeted our decision to live aboard. Some kind people advised us to at least give it a year before we threw in the towel! I don't think many thought that we would still be so totally content with the lifestyle five years on.

We have learnt a lot in that time mind you and our existence is much more comfortable as a result. Within days of first moving on we had the harshest winter in living memory and it was difficult to keep warm. Now we have double glazing, a curtain at the door, which helps with insulation, canopies at front and back which provide extra space and keep the rain out, a dehumidifier to get on top of the condensation and a wall panel heater which keeps the chill out. We also are now quite expert at keeping a good fire going and keeping it burning all night. All of these things have made a huge difference to our comfort in cold weather.

This winter, the weather has been quite mild. The canal has only frozen over twice and then with only a thin layer of ice:

We have heard the otter splashing about under the boat in the dead of night, but so far we still have no sightings on camera despite having it positioned at the end of our boat. I'm hoping that our patience will one day be rewarded. I'm also planning to capture a kingfisher on film this winter. We have quite a few on the canal and the marina at this time of year, outside of their breeding season.

On the domestic front, most of the fruit gin which has been steeping over the last few months has been decanted. The sloe gin was rather bitter, so I have added more sugar and left it for another few weeks, but the plum brandy, blackberry whisky and cranberry gin all came out well. What was most successful was the raspberry whisky made with raspberries from our allotment. This tastes absolutely gorgeous and I will definitely make more next year.

The allotment is mostly dug over now until the spring, although we still have some leeks growing for making soup.

On the negative side, Phil has been diagnosed recently with an immune deficiency illness which affects his thyroid and makes him quite weak and weary. He has to have vitamin B12 injections every few weeks which perk him up a bit, but he is finding it increasingly difficult to do the heavy work which is part and parcel of living on a boat. I am very happy to chop wood, empty the toilet etc, when I am here, so for now we can overcome that obstacle, but we are not completely sure how much longer we will be fit enough to sustain the lifestyle.

In addition we are finding it disproportionately expensive at the moment, with the mooring fees probably the most expensive in the country. This is because we have residential status, but our local council has jumped on the band wagon and is charging us full council tax and has back dated it to when the planning permission for residential status was first agreed. Currently they are taking £330 per month from us. Don't get me wrong, we don't mind paying an element of council tax, but when the marina owners are paying business rates and we are also paying them council tax within our mooring fee, it would seem that we are paying twice.

For the moment though, we are battling on and hope to spend at least a few more years living our dream.

I'll leave you with some lovely sunset pictures I have taken over the last few days. The light at this time of year is very special:

It just remains to wish you all a very happy New Year!

Al :)

Off to sunnier climes for a while

2014-10-15T17:39:00.000+01:00

The weather has suddenly become cold and raw and we have lit the fire for the first time in ages. It is currently sending a warm glow through the boat as I write this, which is very comforting and cosy.

One of the main questions which people ask us, is how we cope in the cold weather. Everyone assumes that it will be hard to keep the boat warm. In fact we are warmer on the boat than we ever were in a house, which was often draughty and expensive to heat because of the high ceilings, typical of a Victorian terraced house.

We have three sources of heat on the boat so we know we will always be warm if one of those should fail. We have an electric panel heater which gives out a very low heat and is very cheap to run. Our central heating, which goes on for an hour in the morning, also provides hot water for the morning chores. This uses a small amount of diesel. We light the wood burner in the evenings, which is completely free, because we forage all our wood. It is also really cosy and cheering to sit in front of.

Shortly, we will also be fitting our back canopy onto the stern. This provides an extra room in winter and protects the stern deck from the elements. It enables us to kick off muddy shoes and also adds another layer of insulation. We always wait until we know that we are not going to go out cruising again until the spring, because the boat is very difficult to sail with the canopy up, especially when going under bridges. Many boaters do, but they are much more experienced and confident than us.

I have come to the conclusion that we are perhaps a little over cautious. We won't go out in windy weather, we won't cruise with the canopy on and we hate sailing in the rain, even if we wear full waterproofs. Maybe we are rightly protective of the boat because we live on it, but there are times when I do think we are a bit too careful. Unfortunately this impacted on the Saxophone project. We had a very good dry run, but on all of the days put aside for the real thing the weather was wet and windy. There was one small window of opportunity, when the sun was supposed to come out and the wind drop for a couple of hours in the afternoon, but we would have had to cruise up to the meeting point in pouring rain and stiff winds, so we decided to back out.

I did feel bad, but the chap managed to find another boat on the day, so did successfully record, although I don't think it went quite as well as he had wanted.

Tomorrow I am flying to India for five weeks work. I then return to the UK for a week of other work commitments. I will hardly be over the jet lag before flying back to another part of India for two more weeks work. This is the way my work pattern is, weeks of intense work and then long periods off. It works well for us, but it is draining when I am in work mode. The people in India are wonderful, I get well looked after and it is an amazing country, I feel very lucky and privileged to have the opportunity to go there.

Last week we spent a couple of days in the Lake District, having some 'us' time which was lovely. The weather was poor, but it didn't dampen our spirits and we managed to get out for a bit of a walk.

Here are some pictures from our walk:

That only leaves me to bid you all goodbye for a while. I will be posting when I get back in December and hope to display the results of the fruit gin, which is currently steeping away under the bed.

Bye for now ...

Al :)

Silt in Residence

2014-09-30T14:03:00.000+01:00

After over a year of complaints to the company who run our Marina about the amount of silt sitting under our boats, they have finally taken action to deal with it. Over the last year, we have had great difficulty in getting out of our berths and into the cut, because we have literally been stuck in the mud on the bottom.

The dredger arrived two weeks ago, but has had to stop work before getting to our berth, because the amount of silt which has been extracted is already over the limit which has been agreed can be dumped in the delegated spot in the nearby fields.

Here is the dredger being lifted into the water

Here it is in the water

Dredging commences

Consequently, we are still stuck on the bottom and had great difficulty getting out of our berth on Friday, making us nearly late for our dry run of the Saxophone project. I was really angry! We have been campaigning for over a year to get the silt removed and it has only actually happened when the company decided to build some more jetties and needed to dredge that area. I suspect that the dredging of the remainder of the berths, including ours will now be abandoned.

Overall, I am becoming extremely disillusioned with the company who run the Marina. They seem very keen to take our money, but are hardly proactive in providing facilities to match what we pay. At present, they are the only providers to offer residential status and the security which comes with that, so they are calling all the shots. I just cannot wait for other marinas to start offering the same terms at competitive prices.

We have been fully residential for over a year now, but still the issue of council tax has not been resolved. Currently we are paying full council tax for the boat and this includes arrears for a time when we were not officially residential. Everything is hanging on our marina operators and the valuation office coming to some agreement about what we should pay, but very little seems to be happening. In the meantime, we are left paying more than we should. I don't mind paying council tax, I think it is quite right that we should contribute, but the amount needs to be a fair reflection of our situation. For example, we pay for refuse collection as part of our mooring fee, so currently we feel that we are paying twice.

I love living on this Marina. Every single other boat owner here is lovely, without exception and it is very well situated in a great spot, but I am becoming increasingly disillusioned and cross at the cynical attitude that our landlords have to their customers.

I know that this has been a long whinge, but it is only right that I present the downsides of boating life as well as the good things!

One of the nice things that has come out of this work is the huge amount of wood which came from the jetties, which they removed and the caretaker made sure it came on our direction.

Another recent positive experience is that the dry run of the Saxophone trip went well. I was a little aghast when he asked if we could stop for a couple of minutes under each bridge, so that he could play a whole piece to properly demonstrate the change in acoustics. The idea is, that as a physics lecturer he can demonstrate to his students how sound changes over water and under bridges. In addition he is using it as an advert for the launch of a CD he is producing. He is quite a good amateur player and seems to have a number of gigs set up for the near future. He will be uploading the final video to Youtube, so I will provide the link when it is done.

Friday was quite windy and we did explain that boat handling in windy weather can be tricky. The canal is also very shallow at the moment, so there was also the possibility of us grounding if we lost control. However, we had a successful trip and he seemed pleased with how it had gone. The only problem was when we were mooring up at the end. All the cameras and instruments etc. were in the bow preventing access, so when I brought the front of the boat in to the tow path, Phil could not get access to get hold of the bow rope. The wind took us side on before he could get to it and the next thing we knew we were right across the canal. This was in the town centre where many people come to watch the boats, so it was particularly embarrassing. Our guests seemed completely oblivious to our difficulties until I called upon them to get on the end of the central line and help us pull the boat in!

That is my only worry about this project. The requirements do not completely fit with ease of manoeuvring a narrow boat! We will see how it goes. The proper run is next week, weather permitting. They are concerned that it will be wet, which would ruin the equipment, so would make it impossible. We are concerned that it will be windy and are not sure that they fully understand the difficulties associated with that and may insist on going ahead.

We had a lovely night out after the rehearsal, moored up in the town centre, which made it all worth while!

And to end on another positive note we have just spent a couple of nights in the Lake District having some proper R and R soaking up the scenery and doing some walking:

Al :)

A Party and a Project

2014-09-16T21:10:00.000+01:00

We have had three significant birthdays on the Marina recently, so decided to have a barbecue to celebrate. There have been a number of new people arriving recently and the Marina is now nearly full. These are mostly leisure boaters, rather than residential, but they have all fitted in really well. The barbecue was a good opportunity for everyone to get to know one another and I have to say that it was a great success. It was heart warming to see so many people enjoying themselves and getting on so well together. The Marina is now a place where I really enjoy living and want to be, in marked contrast to a few years ago when there were some very difficult people living here. Everybody now, without exception, is decent and pleasant and it is a wonderful little community.

The bunting was put out especially for the party:

The dogs were all aware that there maybe some titbits of food for them and were looking expectant:

The birthday cake was magnificent, complete with sparkler:

I also discovered something on the Marina which I had never noticed before. Hops!

A boater who has now left, planted them a couple of years ago and they are thriving. I don't think I will use them to make beer as I have so much fruit gin on the go, but I'm going to make a hop pillow with them. I have some lavender in our little garden at the end of the boat, so should get a good nights sleep with a combination of hops and lavender!

Yesterday I had an interesting meeting with a physics lecturer from the University. I had met him a few weeks ago when he wandered onto the marina in search of a narrow boat to take part in a project he was planning. We got chatting and found that we had much in common. He is an amateur saxophonist and is looking for a pianist to accompany him. I found it quite spooky that I happened to be the first person he spoke to. His explained his project to me and I instantly agreed to participate as I think it will be great fun.

The idea is that he and a drummer will be filmed while they play at the front of the boat, which I will be sailing along the canal. He wants to demonstrate the changes in sound when a boat moves under bridges, so it is partly a video for his students, but he also is using the footage as an advert for a gig he is doing locally and for a CD he has produced.

There are many logistical problems, not least fitting a set of drums into the small area at the front and getting a decent angle for the video. He also wants me to stop the boat for about a minute under each bridge and when we arrive at the popular town centre canal side pub, he wants me to hold the boat mid stream for 10 minutes while they play a few pieces. I think it is going to be a challenge, but I'm up for it ..... watch this space for progress on this.

More news on residential status and work on the Marina in the next blog.

Al :)

wildlife and mellow fruitfulness

2014-09-11T17:29:00.004+01:00

We have had no success with our wildlife camera. We have heard the otter splashing around under the boat on many occasions in the night and it has been briefly seen launching itself into the water from under the jetty between boats. We set the camera up where it has been spotted the most, but after two weeks, all we got was floating debris on the water. It did come in useful last month though, when I discovered that something was eating our apples at the allotment. We thought it was a mouse, as the only apples which were touched were near to the ground. We set the camera up and look who was the culprit:

This year has been fantastic for fruits with an abundance of sweet and juicy blackberries all along the tow path and hedgerows. The good thing is that everything is about a month early, so that I can gather it before I go overseas for work in October.

I have made Blackberry Whisky, Plum Brandy, Redcurrant Gin and Damson Gin so far, as well as several jars of pickled Beetroot and many Rhubarb crumbles. We have so many Raspberries growing on the allotment that we are sick of eating Raspberry fool and Eton Mess, so I think I shall also be making Raspberry Vodka too. My next job is to collect Sloes to make gin. These benefit from a sharp frost before they are picked and with the Indian summer we are having, it is unlikely that they will be ready for a week or two. However, I have recently discovered a number of new bushes, many of which are off the beaten track, so hopefully I will be able to harvest them before anyone else gets there. I took the canoe out yesterday and found a whole row of bushes on the offside from the tow path. These being only accessible by boat is a bonus!!

This afternoon we went for a lovely walk. I love the Autumn colours and picked up this beautiful leaf:

We discovered a Badger set as we walked through the woods, so have now set the camera up there. I think we have concealed it well, so hope it doesn't get nicked!

Hopefully we will finally get some wildlife footage. Watch this space ......

I had planned to do the coast to coast cycle ride next week, but a little project has got in the way, which involves a physics lecturer and amateur musician and our boat, which will lead to a fun boating adventure. More about that in the next Blog.

Al :)

Back on the water

2014-08-29T15:11:00.000+01:00

Finally the weather over the last few days has been kind to us and we have completed the paint work. The boat has gone from this:

and this .......

....... to this

and this.

The paint work is gleaming, we have a thick surface of blacking on the bottom and the sign writing has been redone, so that it is now sharp and well defined.

Our hearts were in our mouths as she was lowered into the water. It was a windy day which can be tortuous if the wind is in the wrong direction and catches the boat side on. All that lovely new paint work and the prospect of chipping it off on our journey through the locks, was not an appealing prospect. Apart from a slightly tight run out of the jetty and a blowy sail through the exposed basin, we had an enjoyable and uneventful journey up to our home mooring.

The cost of all the maintenance work is as follows:

Lift out of the water £300

Jet washing the hull and blacking £350

Lift back into the water £300

Paints and materials £400

Sign writing £385

Because we are berth holders of the company who did the work, we got a discount, in that the lift out and jet washing were complimentary. This brought the grand total down to £1300.

This may seem a lot of money, but bearing in mind that this work only needs to be done once every 3-4 years, it's not bad really especially as the boat looks like new now!

The only thing we have to do now, is get on the roof and tidy and clean that. We didn't feel safe doing that while on dry land. At least if we fall off on our mooring, we will drop into water and are unlikely to hurt ourselves.

On other fronts things are moving forward. We are still trying to sort out how much council tax we should pay as residential boaters. I will cover this in my next posting, as it is a complicated issue.

On a lighter note, we have had an early summer and many autumn fruits are appearing already. I have made plum gin and blackberry whisky and my next job is to gather some sloes, before I go away for my autumn work tour in October. More on foraging also in another post.

All for now....

Al :)

It's Raining It's Pouring

2014-08-17T17:31:00.002+01:00

The weather has become unsettled again and we have struggled to get any painting done over the last two days.

Today we have had heavy rain and the wind is howling around the boat. It sounds worse up here at the sea basin because it whines through the rigging of the yachts.

If it continues to be wild tomorrow we are going to sand down the paintwork on the bow deck which is under cover and repaint it.

This is where our water tank is and we have discussed what maintenance work we need to do on this. The normal procedure for a tank like ours is to open up the small entry hatch and try to scrape round the sides and bottom with a brush on some kind of pole or extension. The opening to ours is 2ft by 2ft and in theory it is possible for a small person to get inside and clean it out at close quarters. This is a horrible job though and neither of us fancies doing it.

We know there is a lot of sludge slopping around the bottom because we ran out of water last week. We hadn't expected to be on dry land for so long, but the weather has been against us. Consequently we ran out of water before being able to get to a convenient tap. The water that came out of the taps was clearly coming from the bottom of the tank as it was brown! As it happens we only use the tank water for showering and washing up. We fill up a litre container every day for our drinking water even though we do have a filter which we change every year.

Once the tank has been cleaned it needs repainting, unless it is made of stainless steel, which ours isn't. We really don't want to be doing all of this, so we have researched putting a plastic liner in.

After all the work we have done this summer, we won't be able to afford this until next year now, so our tank will have to wait another year. This won't be an issue, provided we keep it topped up and regularly put sterilisation tablets in, which we do every couple of months.

I will keep you posted about costs and details as we research it more thoroughly.

The village show was held yesterday and I won prizes for my broad and runner beans from the allotment and also I got many prizes and a trophy for my photos. Here are three of the prize winning photos:

Once the boat painting is completed, I will post some pictures of the finished product. We hope to be back in the water by the end of next week.

Al

Some good weather at last

2014-08-15T17:17:00.002+01:00

Finally over the last two days we have had some warm, dry weather which has enabled us to crack on with the painting and sign writing.

Our new sign writer is very skilled and has put right many faults with our original lettering and it is starting to look really fantastic. Photos will be posted when it is finished.

We have painted the stern and all we have to do now is the Gunnels and the rubbing strip, which has quite a few scuffs.

Tomorrow is the village show and I have some photos in and have also entered quite a few vegetable classes, so I will be down at the allotment at the crack of dawn tomorrow choosing and harvesting my best specimens.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Al :)

Boat Maintenance

2014-08-12T17:08:00.000+01:00

It is now 4 years since we moved to the boat and we have never for an instant regretted the decision to change our lifestyle so radically. Neither of us are getting any younger and the lifestyle is very physical and strenuous, so we are aware that at some point we will have to go back to dry land, but for now we are enjoying 'living the dream'.

Usually boats need some attention after about 3 years, so at 4 years we knew that the boat was long overdue for blacking. Some of the scuffs on the paintwork also required touching up. We booked the crane at our local yachting basin for the lift out and sailed through the six locks to get there. One of the new boaters who has recently moved to our marina came with us to learn how to operate the locks and it was good to have an extra pair of hands.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

When the boat was lifted out of the water it was quite shocking to see the state of the hull. She was covered in fresh water Mussels, all the black had come off and there was a fair bit of rust in evidence.

Luckily the weather was good, so we were able to get the bottom blacked straight away the next day:

Looking better already, but unfortunately the weather has now broken, with the tail end of hurricane Bertha causing some disruption to our work plans. As you can see from the picture, we have some scuffing on the paintwork to cover, but frustratingly all we can do for now is look out of the window at the wind and rain and hope that we can get going again soon.

More on our progress soon. I will try to post every day now. In the next blog there will be news on what we have decided to do with our water tank and some adjustments we are planning to make to access our gas locker.

Al :)

Long time no blog!

2014-08-12T13:20:00.004+01:00

Finally I am home from working overseas and have had some time to recover from my exhausting work schedule.

I will now be posting regularly again for a while until my next work session, which isn't until October when I have been booked to go to India.

Lots has happened with the boat since I returned to the UK and I will be posting progress with that and some pictures over the next few days.

At the moment we are in the boat yard near the sea basin with the boat on dry land for blacking and painting, but the internet signal is terrible here, so I probably won't be able to blog too extensively while we are here.

I will try over the next few days to write some details about the mechanics of getting the boat out of the water and the work we have done etc. so please bear with me....

More soon ......

Al