Beer and wind... thankfully unrelated

So Leia wanted to go for a walk and the pub was on the way. What are you supposed to do, we need to keep these local pubs going.

I scrabbled around in my pockets and found just enough for a pint so the Mucky Duck got a bit of my custom. It was cold and windy out on the benches but knowing I'd be warm and fed up 24 hours later when back in my office I went for the beer with a view experience.

True to its reputation for a gongoozlers paradise a boat came very slowly up the Coventry and turned north onto the T&M. They then tried to moor just up from the pub but very quickly got into difficulty with the wind. As the fella was off the boat the front end caught the wind and soon had the boat across the canal. At this point I stopped being a gongoozler and became a boater again and went to help. Eventually we got the boat into the bank and moored up. The lady companion told me they had been to the shipyard (!) to have the boat checked out and they had only owned her for a week. It was a Teddesley plastic top just like Comet our first fully owned boat. I was somewhat humbled when she told me the fella was 70 and his dream was to own a narrowboat, this was it. I gave some comforting words about boating in the wind and practice makes perfect and left them to a cup of tea, they both looked frozen. It did so remind me of out first trip out to Streethay... 

Anyhow prior to the walk the grass got cut, I am really pleased with my £50 mower, does the job and it is always there. I ran the engine this time while mowing and it took 3% from the batteries rather than 27% last time.

I still could not get the cap off the chimney so it will be destruction next time after buying a replacement on the way from MC.

Stuck solid !

Well I made it to the boat.... to cut the bloody grass again. I thought it would be nice to light the boatmans stove but the chimney cap is stuck solid. Lesson learnt there, apply a smear of oil before capping it next time.

I have given it a blast of easing oil and will look at it later. Plan B is destruction !




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Location:United Kingdom

It could not be more opposite

If our initial plans had been realised we would have been chugging off to Great Haywood today. Instead we were looking at flats in London. The trip on the boat was for Rachel's mum who is not too well. It turned out her health and the predicted weather stopped that plan short, and coincidently our youngest pans for flat viewing in London had changed so we drove down, completed a loop of the M25 and saw three flats !

That life is so opposite what we are aspiring to, its a young persons life with so much to offer that has no attraction to us. We look forward to the day we can visit by boat to see him.

Glad to be back but sad not to be on the boat.

Nobody will talk to me....%-( (PS NB Rock and Roll is for sale)

I read and hear of recession. However the I think the canny are scaling back to increase the demand, or certainly not expanding and chasing business.

I have asked for contact by personal visit and email for boat painting quotes and internal reconfiguration quotes...... all quiet. At home I have chased three arboriculturists for quotes to remove three big conifers from my garden, chase being the operative word.

It is hard work trying to get work done, especially when you have a day job.

Anyhow, work (slow) in progress on that one. I should have booked Norbury for painting when I had Percy blacked but they were quoting September at the beginning of the year.... and today's date !!

Anyhow what can I say, part time boater me. I can't even blame the bike, its just lots of life things penning me back. I was on a treadmill at the Royal Derby covered in electrodes last week, thankfully the problem is not a problem, well that one was not. Other scans and visits make me feel old age (51!) has little to commend it.

Anyhow I'll stop being a moaning old bugger and look forward to the day the trees come down and the wood I'll have to burn on my patient lonely stove. It is one of the blessings of boating a wood burning stove and the autumnal colours on the cut (before the leaves drop and stop your progress).

Two final thoughts. Read Les & Jaqs blog, challenging times but no better fighting force than deep love and affection, you are in my thought every day you pair.

Another blogger seems to be onto other things (edited now as I have read they are having a widebeam built so staying on the cut) resulting in the sale of their boat. Link here to the blog with the details and link here to the Apolloduck ad. It is a fantastic liveaboard boat. My loyalty to Percy was tested for a short while, but the green tint has gone and the old lump still hold my affection and fascination.

Just need to get aboard, but off now to talk to a man who hopefully will turn up to discuss replacing some misting up double glazing and the house.

O and some plans are forming.... watch this space !

When not to go boating

Is there such a time? Well if you want a busy cut then try August bank holiday Monday !

So to catch up..... the week before saw us overnighting and staying put but we had a great walk to Streethay. We wanted a price on boat painting, I could not talk to anyone there so left a number, I was phoned back but am waiting now on an email enquiry, recession what recession ?

The towpaths are as full as they will be all year

Darley looking good

In the evening after late food we were hailed by NB Cepheus who asked if they could have temp moorings on the pilings next to us. Not really our call but it was 9.30pm dark and Mandy our neighbour was away and they said they would be gone first thing.

The following weekend we were only able to get aboard for the day, and fancied moving Percy, only problem was it was August bank holiday Monday. We were hailed twice by blog readers, sorry I did not get your names, but it was nice to know someone other than me reads my musings.

There were boats moving at very regular intervals and despite volunteers on the locks it still took us over an hour to get past Junction lock.

Zoom in, and check the centre line mooring, to his credit it was well above head height.

What a great sight, we have met Chertsey a few times on the cut and always seem to get the approach shot, a quick hello then the stern shot ....

Not heard much from this fella recently.

We had a nice lunch, winded at the Hatherton junction then a slow cruise back, still many boats on the move after 6pm.

Then back to work !

Time to winterise .....

....the mooring that is. It will be a few more weeks before we have to worry about the gas heater and frosts.

Yesterday (19th August ) was my last day on holiday and we had returned to Percy Sunday evening after going home for a birthday meal with my sons and one girlfriend on Saturday night.

So Monday AM I drove Rachel to work then returned to the boat via Shobnall chandlers where I brought a new gas cylinder and some raddle red top coat, plus a full english for the workers!! I then popped into B&Q and brought a small 900 watt lawnmower so as to not have to keep lugging my heavy petrol mower from home. The little Flymo did the mooring running off the inverter and used about 20% of the batteries.

It was a trade off between weight and power and lightness and time. We can keep the little mower on the mooring now so always available for a quick short back and sides.

Re the winterisation, our mooring is sloped to a flat strip adjacent to the pilings and there were three steps of a kind, far from ideal and all with small landings on them.

I brought 4 x cheap slabs from B&Q and now it looks and performs a lot better, plus a lot safer in the wet and frosts, remember them?

On Saturday we went for a walk to Streethay. I think about 6 miles. We have not done this before but it was quite a nice walk and puts the Plough into the equation especially if we taxi back after a meal and a couple of drinks !!

Nice sight

 Full summer vegetation makes the tow path quite beautiful 

It's my birthday - where else would I be !

I don't do birthdays, not in the big celebration sense, they are there just to remind me I am getting older so need to do more stuff.

We have been doing stuff, starting with a ride up to Scotland, Moffet to be precise with a great group of friends. That was last Friday and we were taken on some great bike routes. there are no chicken strips on my back tyre and it is looking well scrubbed up !

Part of the reason for the get together was to celebrate Jason's 40th, he comes over from Dublin each year for this ride out.

We stayed in Moffet until Monday then we went on to our friends farm house on the tip in the rhins of Galloway peninsula.

We enjoyed great company and much enjoyed seeing the twins again growing up every time we see them. I got a good education into radio controlled airplanes and the technology available to fly then, can you believe they have autopilots and gps in them now. John also has been putting cameras onto his airplanes and has been getting some great images…. it helps having 24 acres as to play in and no neighbours, my kind of place !

Rachel playing with Isabella 

John's plane is in this shot somewhere.... bit like spot the ball?

This is Stranraer from the castle. It is a ghost port now as the ferries all go to Port Ryan so the town has lost all of its ferry related activity.

Isobella and Alba doing some dressing up

 This is the view from the room we slept in at John and Carrie's. You can see Arran on a clear day and the north Antrim cost road from the other side of the peninsula at night.

We came back on Wednesday and yesterday I had a lazy day while Rachel had to go back to work. Today I am on the boat, I was going to move it but it is so busy here today I will stay put and mow the mooring then fish and drink some beer - not a bad life !!

Leia likes it as well !