Friday 21 June 2013

It all feels a little sad....

No blogging recently, I have been to the boat and like most done some painting in the interlude of good weather  My father in law Charles passed away, on Rachel's birthday sadly. I will blog about him when it is right to do so, but for now it has rightly kept us off the boat as we prepare for life without him.

Other challenging stuff it also going on that means the blog has been neglected  but it will be updated on brighter days.

More people are signing off the life on the canals, Paul and Lynn from NB Piston Broke  have now sold and are in the process of moving off, and Heth from WB Takey Tezey is selling up to jet off to Spain and Jacquie and Stein from NB Like Duck to Water are taking a break from blogging.

Who next I wonder?

Take care

Nev

Thursday 6 June 2013

....and so to sleep

One thing about buying a second hand boat is the quality of the mattress.

On Waterlily it was not too bad but when we had the bed extension added we opted for a new mattress. The fact it had an infill made it sumptuous but a pain in the bum to get out and back.... I liked sleeping on it I did not like the faff of getting it out and back.

So when we got Percy a new mattress was on the shopping list. Gill, Tony's wife said she thought we would be replacing it and to be honest I think it might have been the original one that was put on board twenty years ago when Percy was fitted out.

Just before we did the blacking cruise we ordered two new mattresses, one for the back cabin and one for the main bed. Rather selfishly as we knew we would be having my mum and partner for one week then a mate for the other sleeping on the main bed so we kept the old mattress and just fitted the new one to the rear cabin drop down bed.

So today I nipped back over to Elite Furnishings to collect the main mattress and took it with the memory foam topper (hey we might live on this boat one day !!) to Percy.

Due to poor planning I had to do all this myself.... On getting to Fradley I carried the 6x4 mattress to Hunts lock. I met a jolly boater who said... take care getting that over the lock and then walked on to open the Junction lock paddles for his boat !! So no other option other than balance the mattress on my head and walk the top gate.... a one chance journey completed I am happy to say without mishap. Of course I chose to do this on the hottest day of the year. I was able to use the wheels we keep in the forecabin to return the old mattress to the car and it was heavier than the new one... I think horse hair or similar but blimey was it heavy. A further return journey with the topper and all is now set for hopefully a weekend visit to try out the bed !

Another expensive but necessary personalisation of Percy for us.


Tuesday 4 June 2013

Best ever fishing and a Personal Best

...Only an evening session at some lakes a good friend introduced me to.

22 carp in total in 4 hours, got broke twice and finished the day with a personal best. I estimate well over 150 lb of fish tonight.


It does somewhat spoil canal fishing, but when you get good fish from the canal you know you have done well. The one above nearly took the rod, then me in with it, estimated at 16-18 lb click the photo to see me it us in all our hi res glory !

Thanks again Graham for the venue and the bait tip.... !

I checked back on my Waterlily blog here for my best canal carp.....


Both excellent fish... read the story on the link above to find out how I caught the one from the canal !