Introducing ...

Water Tiger

And Metal Rat

We now have his and hers Tiller Pins!

Mine still needs a bit of work.

Instant garden - I hope

I brought this little lot home from Rob's and have laid it like carpet in a corner of the front garden. Okay over to Mother Nature - done my bit!

I've ridden around here you know!

I used to do endurance riding and so am often found to say as we drive somewhere obscure that I have ridden around here and it really annoys people. At the weekend we went up to Northumberland to stay with friends of Rob. I used to live in Newcastle for about two years and as I loved the area so much when I was back in London and later I returned to the area for week long riding holidays which were brilliant.

The horses stayed at a different farm every night and we were ferried back and forth to a hotel via coach. Except one holiday when we had a coach crash thrown in for free and various farmers were pulled in to take us about in their smelly cars.

So by chance on the way home yesterday we passed the crash site and I was also able to say I've crashed around here you know!

It was on a very steep hill and vehicles are requested to test their brakes before they go down it. Our driver had tested ours and found he didn't have any. We had no inkling that there was a problem until he lurched the coach into the side and into the run off area provided hitting the crash barrier for good measure. He then leapt out the coach and went back up the hill to a Pub for a stiff drink to calm his nerves leaving us all on the coach wondering what had happened!

Because he had put the coach so emphatically in the run off area a crane was required to remove it. So it stayed there all week. Brilliant.

We went out Saturday night to the new Armadillo (not the real name) in Newcastle for a Jazz Concert by somebody we later discovered was the leading Jazz singer of our time! She even had a write up in the Sunday Times the next day. I think her name was Carol Martin but I could be wrong.

We had Tapas before and crossed over the Millenium bridge that was open to allow the trip boats under and made us late. It is supposed to look like an eye opening but I will take their word for it. Good design though. I tried to take photos but they are crap.

Much has changed since I was there, shame we didn't have time for a wander around the university and where I lived.


Anyway ...
Back to the boat.

Liz has painted the bows.

shiny, shiny

Very difficult to photograph the black as all you get is the reflection of the tarpaulin. Still the first coat is on and it is very shiny shiny. Liz has done a good job I think.










The back hatch is now lieing on the tug deck waiting for Liz to paint - you can see the horses peering through the gap.

As you can see they are bomb proof and the flapping of the tarps and the occasional thump of the bags of stones and large boulders being chucked off the wall by the tarps don't bother them at all.

It is a pain putting the weights back on the wall as the electric fence is about 18 inches away from the wall. I am pretty certain it isn't switched on but all the same I am careful not to touch it with my bare hands! Liz being smaller than me is not able to do the funny hop to get through the gap so she crawls underneath!












Demonstrating the clever temporary hatch that Bryan has made for while the big hatch is not at home.

So exciting

I have received a text from Liz saying she is starting with the first top coat on the field side of the boat and would appreciate no interruptions!

So exciting ...

Gazebos - so versatile

Small boy and I put up this lovely Gazebo from Argos. The tarpaulin is tied to a bush in the field over the wall and the legs of the Gazebo are tied together under the boat so hopefully it won't blow away!

I plan to put in some more pegs once I have found my mallet. I had to use a stone. Ugg Ugg.

And now

For something completely different!

Using the potatoes that had grown arms and legs I planted them in to these flower pots. Shallow at first then as they grew gradually adding more compost until they reached the top. The blue one I did first so yesterday I dug around in there and




This is what I got. The little ones are Anya potatoes and the larger ones ordinary ones - provenance unknown.

I think I will have mash tonight.

One side undercoated

and topcoated under where the portholes go






and in the gas locker. Just look at the shine on that!

Liz has also done the front part of the hatch runners ready for the brass straps.

which I will be picking up tomorrow. Hope they get fitted before all the paint gets scraped off again.

I have removed the ports on the starboard side so Liz can crack on and undercoat the windy side. Although to be fair today was a lovely quiet day. Wind wise.

Paint and Tarpaulins

Yesterday Liz and I had an abortive attempt to cover the front of the boat but this was definitely 'experimenti no worki' so I dismantled it. Liz had taken this picture on her phone whilst we were still trying to get control.

Today Rob and I called in quickly at the boat so he could use his mouse to sand down the join on a couple of the ceiling boards. We took a picture of the first lot of undercoat on this side.

and as I had brought some tape we decided to patch up the holes in the tarpaulin.












Liz again caught this moment on her phone and emailed it to me with


'insert caption here'

So go on captions please!

More preparation

Now you see this is where I would have failed. I would be itching to start painting and the preparation work would have been severely skimped.



Still hopefully tomorrow Liz will be able to start undercoating. It got too damp today by 3pm apparently.


So the boat is naked for another day.


Liz will - once the undercoats have been done - be putting a bit of topcoat under the portholes so that once they are back in they do not have to be removed again. Phew.

I entertained myself by painting Plastidip inside my battery box. Got a bit intoxicated by the fumes.

It has survived another night and windy day

Just.

I hope it lasts a bit longer as Liz has taken all the portholes out down one side of the boat so I feel a little vulnerable.

It will be worse when she does the other side as that is the windy side. Still hopefully by the middle of next week the wind will have died down a tad.

Please keep all your fingers crossed over the weekend.

Thanks

It rained last night

So of course the tarpaulin over the frame was full of water when I did a quick recce on my way to work this morning. But it appeared to still be reasonably okay.


Got a message from Bryan to say that it wasn't okay, that it was full of water and leaking everywhere and I should come back and deal with it.


So after work I went back and it was very very full of water. I managed to get onto the roof of the boat and by lieing on my back was just able to move the water out of the pairs of gaps in the framework. Picture me if you will in my best work clothes inching my way from one end to the other on my back, pushing up with hands and feet. (The frame is only just over a foot above the roof of the boat.) In the middle the inevitable happened and where the two tarps cross over the water took the easy way out. On me.


Actually to be fair the middle wasn't as bad as the stern end.


I then had to try and get the HUGE amount of water now in the side panels up and over the edge. I didn't realise anyone had arrived so kept drenching them. They thought it was just the wind until I popped out one end to ask for assistance as the last panel was just SO heavy. Mel and I together struggled to manouvre the water up and over but we did manage it in the end. Would not have been able to do it on my own that's for sure. I was wet through and exhausted on the drive home and had to tuck into a bowl of cereal as soon as I got in the door or I would have passed out.


Andy will come back tomorrow and put some more lats in to make the frame squares smaller. Of course hopefully it won't rain quite like that again any time soon? The wind should keep normal rain drops from landing and staying put I hope.


Liz will have to hurry up and do her painting as I'm not sure with this wind how long the tarps will last.


Can't wait for the boat to be on the water and all this excitement to be behind me.

Frames R Us

Andy knocked this up by lunchtime.

And by 4pm we (Andy, small boy and me) had wrestled with the two tarpaulins (each 7m by 9m) and got them fixed down, at one point I thought I was going paragliding.

Now we have to see if it can withstand the gales that rush across that field. Unlike the other boats in the yard we have no protection from that side and of course that is where the prevailing winds like to come from. The field side is held down with 4 x 10kg gazebo weights which may double up later as ballast and/or mud weights. Plus 4 x very heavy duty marquee pegs. They should keep us securely tethered once on the canal!

On the way home small boy and I called in at the Leisure Centre to enquire about adult swimming lessons and guess what? They have a promotion - if you can put your name down for at least 6 sessions and bring a friend who can swim (that would be me then) they are free. So that is where I will be at 9pm tonight!!!

We then rushed around to Tesco's to get small boy a swimming costume and there they were half price £3.00. Bargain.

At least now he has the incentive to learn that he didn't as a smaller boy. He needs it to get into the RAF Regiment.

With witnesses around I may not be able to drown him.

The downside of ...

Of laying the galley tiles is that we had to cut the legs off all the galley units!

Rob and I did the 12 on the starboard side on Monday and on Tuesday I dragged small boy out of bed to help me do the 12 on the port side. Not only did we have to cut a cm off the bottom we also had to file them all around the top so that the cup feet would agree to go up that extra cm!

Bryan lent us his tools.

Hopefully he will now be able to join them all back together put the Corian back on top and slide them under the gunwales again.

Bryan has nearly finished doing the wooden surrounds for the double glazing units in the pigeon boxes. This has kept him busy quietly in his workshop whilst chaos reigned on the boat!