Welding, Water and a sad ending

We set off on Tuesday from Nottingham along the canal to Beeston, via the river through Cramfleet lock and round the bend at Trent Lock.


We arrived at Redhill on the River Soar by around 4pm after a drop off at the tip with the accumulated water bottles. Thank goodness they have gone, we now have our bow back!

Our builder at Clean Sailing came to make the necessary arrangements for our stern deck and we planned to get the new deck going the following day. We pulled up by the electrics at the boatyard and by the morning Soar Valley Steel Boats were setting up with the welder in place.


So it was off with the old boards, good ridence, and instead we were having the steel plating either side and buffalo boards in the centre.


I had to head off to work so took the pathway along the fields towards the train station.


And when I came home, this is how it looked!


Today Leigh and I worked hard, hard, hard. Leigh did the necessary business of pumping out, we paid the builders, we filled the water tank. Yes we actually do have running water!

Alas, it was not a straight forward event, as with most things. I've realised that having a boat doesn't mean you know what you are doing. There unfortunately were no manuals for our boat, Haynes missed us out! So today we worked out what switches to have on, valves open, where to fill up and, joy! to have hot water coming from the taps!


There were some necessary tweeks involved after the first run of switching on the water pump. The tank takes a good 100litres so after Leigh's calculations of what we have so far been using this should last 10 days, mind you now we can shower it'll probably go down to 7days. The water tank is below foot level so we have to have a pump and small storage tank to get the water up and out of our taps. After some well needed PTFE tape and a bit of Leigh's tightening skills all initial drips from the pump area ceased, we had success! It might be a simple thing but after having not had running water at home since the end of April it seemed like a miracle we were actually running the taps!

Delia is not in our good books today after catching and wounding a small bird.

The tale continues....

Stern deck renovations

We have made arrangements with our boat builder based in Redhill to have our stern deck renewed. The boards currently in place let in far too much rain water to the engine bay and so ready for the winter months we are having this area welded and new boards in place.

We have had to stock up on some provisions, water, cat litter etc, and are due to get a can of petrol and diesel on board tomorrow morning. This is due to the fact that we will be far from any shopping, petrol facilities and with no transport (N.B my pedal fell off from my bike on my journey home from work today) Leigh reminded me that we must plan ahead. So then, tomorrow morning we will set off due West towards the river.

Thinking about moving....

I've just finished reading Haruki Murakami's book "what I talk about when I talk about running". Sat upon the stern of the boat my belly full of delicious burgers, I was getting itchy fingers. In the sense that I needed to communicate my reactions, thoughts and current blast of feelings. So here we are. Fingers, internal voice and you.

This book I mentioned is a wonderful memoir of the writer and his experience of writing novels since he gave up his Jazz bar in Japan as well as his lifestyle of long distance running. It is a solitary act, running, at least in my mind and one mind-set that I share as a cyclist. Prior to my fold-up-able bike, I had several mountain bikes that I would often set off on in the morning in a particular direction and find myself still cycling hours later through woods, along the river, over bridges... I wouldn't have a set route in mind, just a fair idea of the possible venture. I would return home dripping, take a shower and then collapse feeling invigorated and slightly crazed.


In his book, Murakami talks about how he moved on from singularly running to Triathlons. These epic ventures take on three forms, swimming, cycling and running in one long episode. What a wonderful and yet mad thing to want to put yourself through. I really did start to like the idea of all this. Adding to the fact that my bike comes most places with me, I am also a sort of water-baby. Not born in water unfortunately but born by the sea, had salty air in my lungs for 18 years until I distanced my self as far from the sea shore as possible in Nottingham in 2002. Noticably, I've always needed a fix of salt air and discovered the closest coast over an hour away at Gibralta Point. (Actually Skegness is closer but unless you like the crap fish and chips, primary coloured strip lighting and novelty shops it's not really worth stopping.) Where I couldn't easily get to the coast, i've opted for bike rides along the river or canal or swimming.


Swimming is a pleasure. I adore the feeling of immersion in water, holding my breath, seeing through the fog under the surface. It is in the state of different strokes that I find my mind wanders down some rather unusual avenues. I have been known to not be able to stop laughing when doing back stroke, to the point that I couldn't sustain breathing and had to doggy paddle myself to the side. Note here that I am always a lone swimmer.

Today you see, I cycled half hour, from the canal to the fandangled new leisure centre's swimming pool (not a patch on the victorian one I used to go to before the clever council chose to close it's doors and open this one, but what do I know?!), did half an hour of full-on swimming and cycled home again. I realised on leaving the pool that if I could leave my bike there, I would've like to run home and thus have created my own mini triathalon.


So this leaves running and me. I haven't really run (not just for the bus, I mean intended durational running) since I was a Playworker in Wollaton and donned my shorts one morning and ran to work, only to find that I didn't leave enough time to get all the way there (my judgements in timing getting from A to B have and always will be via cycling), so I had to jump on the bus for the last couple of miles stretch so as not to be late. I don't own any proper running shoes nor any shorts or leggings so the practicality of running now isn't really viable. However, since reading this book and having these thoughts, I am feeling inspired to get running. A good friend of mine who lives and works in London has moved forwards in terms of the speed of her moving. She is someone who even after a night out gets up for work at the crack of dawn to enable her to walk the 2 hour jaunt across London to work and she walks home at the end of the day too! She has recently taken up running and told me about her methods of getting up the speed. So, all things are pointing towards my body steaming along the towpath, all I need are a pair of suitable shoes and shorts and I'll see how I go. And I wholly recommend the book, it is an insight to the creative hermit within us as well as the fascinating struggle facing those who exercise to great length.

On another trail but still somehow connected...
One thing I've noticed within me which is bothering me somewhat is that I feel like a 'dabbler'. I feel that this feeling has set in since I got myself entangled in a ridiculous full-time, unsociable hours, team-working job. It seems that my 'free-time' (emphasized as this term is also ridiculous as all time should be free whether employed or not) is taken up resting and recuperating ready for my next shift and that activities dear to me are nothing more than a scent of perfume on the air.

Leigh mentioned this to me, 'it's like scratching an itch' that I devote five minutes to an interest of mine and that is just about sufficient to keep it going on in my life. I do this with, phew, probably everything, from baking to ham radio to music. This I am beginning to feel is against the grain. A solution hasn't fully surfaced and maybe wont, maybe this is how things are for me, maybe. Great at starting something, rubbish at staying it out for very long. But then of course things have phases, things come and go so, maybe this is how it is. I don't know yet, it just feels like a significant thought that's all. Significant to make me wonder why and if I really should go running when I should stay where I am and face things through. Significant enough for me to want to write it down and share it.

We'll see.


On the boat front, it has been another laundrette day, collecting fallen wood on the way home. Leigh has been brilliant, chopping wood, carrying water, cooking dinner, charging electrical things, cleaning, making the fire and caring for Delia and me. Yes, yes, yes, it is still marvelous and I am loving the settling into the lifestyle.

The salads are sprouting showing their bright green shoots...


We have completed the final varnishing of the hatch and it is now firmly in place, securing our exit and entry onto the boat.


Here is a taster of the beauty passing our windows captured by Leigh.

Scrub a dub dub 2

We are currently positioned...


This is the second day since we've owned the boat that we have cleaned her. It takes a good few hours and the sun was streaming down and made it a joyful experience. We've taken advice from other boaters and started using the cut to clean her, plus the fact that there isn't enough water aboard to do the whole 65ft!

Here is how she looked at the end of all our hard work...




Whilst I was off collecting water and petrol Leigh had some visitors pass the boat...


Some baby ones at that!

Browsing round the boat

The other day I thought I would capture some of the spaces in our home as it is all gradually coming together.

Here is my studio...


I am planning on making a drop leaf table top, secured to the shelving so that I can pull out my electronic bits and bobs and get making and creating with ease again. One thing, do you think they've invented a solar powered soldering iron yet?

Leigh's extra special books all made it aboard and fit brilliantly on this shelving sideboard that we picked up from Ikea in their ex-display section at a bargin price.


I saved some of the house plants from the flat, mainly cacti and the lovely peace lilly which has taken very well to the environment, I think all these windows have come in useful!


The heart of the boat requires constant maintenance, even as I write this blog Leigh is brushing away the ash from inside the burner making it ready for this evening's burn. Here is the set up of tools, coal, wood, firelighters, paper...


The utility room has become a bomb site again, I had sorted it out a few weeks ago but still need to remove the old sink and put up the rest of the shelving to really get things in their places. Organise, organise, organise...



The kitchen is holding up very well to cooking beautiful meals and storing foods. This particular night Leigh was cooking one of his fantastic curries (his secret to filling the boat full of morrish smells?? Answer: gently dry toast the spices first!) We have decided not to use the undercounter fridge at the moment as we are managing fine without and it saves on electricity too.


Our lounge area needs a little more shelving in place and as I've newly painted the walls it is ready when we are for this.


My raleigh swift fits perfectly on the stern. Leigh has purchased a tarpaulin sheet which I've now started to cover my bike with as it was starting to rust in areas already and has developed a strange squeeking from one side of the pedals.


And finally, Leigh's gorgeous ornaments and crafts from around the world are being brought out from the wooden box and displayed around the boat...

Washing day

Since leaving the flat we have lost the ease of quick and easy washing machines. We are still yet to fill up the water tank with water for fear of flooding the boat if what our surveryor and boat builder told us was right, the tank or pipwork may have a leak. We plan to fill-er-up when I have a day off from work, the weather is nice and Leigh is fit and well and we want to face the possibility of pumping out water.

So anyway, we haven't used our wonderwash system as I just know that it'll take up too much precious water that we keed for drinking, cooking and washing up. So I planned the day to go to the local laundrette. Fortunately Leigh's bandmate, Ferny was over and willing to lend a hand, after 1 month of clothes piling up there was quite alot. So off we trundled 2 miles to the nearest laundrette, but with great company the jaunt was fine.

£15 later and after a hour of watching pants spin round and round the clothes were sort of dry and we had run out of change. So I folded up the clothes and we walked back to the boat. On the way we discovered some stray items that hadn't quite made it all the way to the laundrette, they must have fallen from the trolley I was wheeling. So these were scooped up and will wait until next time.

When we got back to the boat, Ferny had picked up a bottle of wine, so as the hanging up of clothes took place around the boat, the wine went down extremely well!

Here is a flavour of the washing day...

Delia the adventurer

Leigh and I have made the decision that when we move the boat, we keep Delia inside so that she doesn't accidently go overboard. She is always very intrigued when she gets put inside and the engine whurs and we start bobbing around the canal. She sits atop the highest shelving unit to look from the window and when we finally open the doors into the galley, her bright button face is always there looking out.

When we arrived at Bridge 11, Delia was very excited. We let her out and she explored the local terrain. She has been wonderful at going off and coming back to the boat, finding us without too much bother. However this is her second little antic where she got into a pickle, the first being when she took herself over a bridge and then got intimidated by the local cats and got stuck.

She had been gone for quite some time, a few hours or so. Normally she pops in to tell us what she has been up to in kity cat talk, nibbles at some crunchies, has some 40winks on our bed and cries to go out again, repeat above stages. However it was her first exploration of the area and there was no sign, not even the trusted whistling and rattle of her crunchies gave a rustle of Delia fur in the bushes. So Leigh went in search. I was wondering what was going on after half an hour of him out of sight. He came back in a drama, stern faced telling me of Delia behind two sets of security fences, the little f***er!

Fortunately Leigh has kept a ladder from the flat that we have had to keep on the roof. I wondered why we should keep such a high ladder when really nothing on the boat is over arm's reach. This is why....

Leigh and I took the ladder, a basket and some long rope left over from our mooring ropes along to where scared looking Delia sat behind bars. Leigh had made the plan. We propped the ladder against the high security fence and Leigh went up taking the basket with rope attached. He hoisted it over the fence and lowered the basket to the ground. With some encouragement Delia came close to the basket. Leigh said to Delia "now get in" and at that command Delia stepped into the basket ready to be rescued.

I couldn't stop laughing as Leigh was telling me to stop pulling the rope so quickly. She appeared to fully understand the rescue mission at hand. Brilliant! Leigh was not best pleased with Delia, but with some TLC for the two of them they were both feeling brighter after a few hours.

Bridge 11

Leigh has spoken to Yorkshire-man Brian, who advertises his capentry skills from the side of his narrowboat, about a new hatch. With a great quote for the work we decided to go for it. With this new hatch we hope to improve the security of the boat and make the stern area look alot more aesthetically pleasing.


After sourcing the beech ply from a timber merchants off Lenton Lane, I managed to coerce them into carrying the 8ft board down to the canal and putting on the boat. God knows how Leigh and I would have done this. We had to move next to Brian, so we upped sticks (or ropes in our case) and pootled down the Nottingham canal towards town. Our moring area was busy with folk going to and fro Sainsburys but there is the weir to the side of the towpath which adds to the natural environment of overhanging trees and small shrubs. We were facing the wooden bridge number 11. When cycling along the towpath under the bridge I decided to stop temporarily to aviod the rain, at this moment I listened to stilletoe heels charging their way across the surface of the bridge sounding like thundering drums pounding from above.

Here is the hatch as it currently stands...


It is rather weathered as you can see...



And here is what Brian produced over two days inbetween the rainy spells.


Leigh is in the process of staining and varnishing with Yacht varnish, ready to fix inplace. In the fine weather today Leigh got two coast of stain on, so keep looking back to see the finished article on The Kite Experiment.

Blissing Sunday

I'd decided to play the guitar today, refresh myself with some old freinds and it's surprising what happens when you don't play for a while. With siezing fingers I tried to find the spaces they should be and can't recall many tunes. Playing to Delia made Leigh smile anyhow.

One month later...

I can't quite believe it. It has been one month since my last blog entry and we have finally sucessfully boarded our home afloat!

The move was a real pain in the backside and involved lots and lots of hard graft, trips to the tip, cleaning, selling excess items, charity shop runs, car hires, car borrows... And then we finally did it on the 23rd April, on came the last bits to make our home. We were moored just by Lenton Bridge on the Nottingham canal for the duration of the move and have since cruised the canal to castle marina Nottingham.


We got Delia Derbyshire aboard early on so that she could settle to the smells of the boat and be less disturbed by the rapidly emptying flat. She has been amazing and has really taken to the lifestlye. With the weather change into Spring she has been out more than in and has always managed to find her way home to her floating bed!


Here is Delia checking out the neighbourhood swan's. Her shivering body the first time she saw one from the boat windows has ceased to be a problem and she is managing to find her way in the big outdoors. Oh and yes she has gone in, twice in fact. Not sure if it was a choice thing... she has just come in all spikey and licked herself clean by the burner.

Delia seems to be getting on well, princess and the pea?!


Here is our 24Volt electricity...


and here is our washing machine...




I have been planting up some basic food stuff on the roof in top boxes so that we will have fresh greens throughout the summer


and managed to bring aboard a pot of strawberries salvaged from the flat's garden.


I've been doing lots of DIY aboard, painted up around the walls with mold resistant paint. It now looks lovely and fresh! The bathroom has really been coming together, as I painted and put up shelves and hooks for all our bits and bobs.


This evening I have been completing the sealant around the shower, removing the old stuff (not a job I would like to do again) using white spirit, a scouring pad and the methalated spirits (high as a kite you may think!).


Still it is looking lovely with the strips filling in the small gap from the joint in the wall. I just need to get my hands on one of those guns for the sealant tube to finish off the bottom edging.

Leigh has been a sweetheart and brought home flowers to scent the boat...


Unfortunately our battery power is limited so although I would like to go on blogging all evening and update about all the recent events, I'll have to call it a night before this laptop gives in on me. Oh! the days of on the grid electrics! The burner is going and it's time to sit gazing at the flickers and flashes of amber. Until next time, from the gyptians.