![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Blimey. It seems I haven't made an entry since 13th July when we turned the boat round and revealed the new paint job to Fox's boatyard.
That was three and a half months ago, and since then we have finished the paint job including all the decks and doors.
DH here putting a purple spiral on the tiller.
Then in August Son triumphantly left Fox's boatyard while I proudly waved him off, only to realize that he had my car keys on the boat.
That seemed a very fitting end to this part of the endeavour.
Over the course of August, Son, DH and I navigated the newly named Drake's Return back up the River Nene almost to the junction with the Northampton arm of the Grand Union:
The embankment in Peterborough - a nice spot, with a water point, though there was a sunk narrowboat occupying one of the spots, which was a little unnerving.
This one was very rural and you had to walk across a wheat field to get to the car. Also it was very close to a lock where a large number of youths were playing. Some worry that if they managed to open the lock, the water would have drained away, leaving the tied up boat to tilt over, fill up and sink.
Fortunately this did not happen to Son on this occassion, though we've heard from other people to whom it did.
This mooring is at the bottom of a pub garden, also with a watering point. We had a very nice dinner here.
Pull up to the Britannia Inn and you can stay overnight as long as you use the pub. So we had a nice halloumi burger from them.
Until we finally arrived in Northampton marina on August 21st
It's a great location, in the middle of a park near Northampton University. It has shore power and a water point between every two boats. There's a utilities building with showers, toilets, bins and pump-out/Elsan facilities. There's even a guy who comes round selling wood and coal during the winter.
Also - and very fortunately considering how high the river is atm - all the moorings are on floating pontoons, and go up when the water level goes up.
With that accomplished we had a couple of weeks of nervous prostration to recover, taking us to September.
In September we went over to help Son put insulating film on all the windows and the door into the engine room. Then he decided it was time to start decorating the interior too, so son and I stripped the paint off the living room and sanded off the grout where the tiles had fallen off the wall in the kitchen.
(That six months where it stood unheated in the boatyard last winter while the guy tried to fix the engine did not do the interior any favours.)
Anyway, Son has now added filler to all the bits where the filler fell out, (in the living room) and has painted it with primer and a rather startling green. The beams are to be painted a dusky raspberry. (The overall theme is 'Bird of Paradise!')
So much achieved, so much still to go!
no subject
Date: 2023-11-02 05:09 am (UTC)From:But glad to see you back!
So glad the boat project has gone well since July! Though having your keys left on when he left the dock is very "laugh so as not to cry" after the whole saga up to that point. Glad the spot he got to for September seems to be a good one.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-02 12:40 pm (UTC)From:Oh no, they aren't turning up for me anymore either! How weird. I'll have to download them and then upload them to DW instead of trying to link them from Google Photos. I should have known better :)
Thank you :) I really hope that my life could return to some sort of regularity now so that I can take control of my time and get back into maybe writing a bit. That would be nice.
G It was nice to re-read some of my earlier entries and feel that we had nevertheless really made some progress, given how far the boat had come toward being livable. I just slightly wish he'd put the internal decoration off until next summer!
no subject
Date: 2023-11-03 02:16 am (UTC)From:This has been such an enormous, time-consuming project! I definitely hope you can get some bit of your own time and life back!
This is definitely a ton of progress from way back when it was basically entirely non-functional! It looks great!
no subject
Date: 2023-11-03 09:15 am (UTC)From:It really has taken us forever (well, most of a year, at least.) But I think it's been a valuable learning experience for us all. We've had to learn that something will always go wrong and you have to learn to muddle through regardless. Currently the solar panels are not working (for no reason that we can see) but since he's on shore power atm that's not the huge issue that it would have been if he was cruising.
Now if he could only get a job, that would be perfect!
no subject
Date: 2023-11-04 03:07 am (UTC)From:Annoying about the solar panels, though.
Haha, that would help!
Wow!
Date: 2023-11-03 09:35 am (UTC)From:Re: Wow!
Date: 2023-11-03 10:19 am (UTC)From:LOL! It is, as far as I know, one of the easiest boats to become a submarine. They're made of metal and have open hatches just above the water line, so sinking is always a concern. That isn't too much of a problem on the canals, where the water is only waist high anyway, but taking them on a river is a slightly hairier proposition.
The UK's canals are very narrow in places, and these are designed to be as big as they can be while still going through the locks. But they've got bathroom, kitchen, living room and bedroom/s, so they do make a good starter residence for someone who can't afford a flat.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-03 01:54 pm (UTC)From:I walked along the canal from Camden to Regents Park early in October with my niece and nephew and I kept thinking of your family as we saw so many boats!
no subject
Date: 2023-11-03 07:09 pm (UTC)From:Thank you! It really has been exhausting and nerve-wracking. I think that's partly because we've had to learn so much so quickly. The narrowboat community is full of stories of things that went wrong for them, so I think it's the sort of thing you have to expect every now and again. But of course we started on hard mode as the boat was already semi-wrecked and we knew nothing. Should have started with an easier boat and then learning as we went along wouldn't have been so full-on.
They're such beautiful boats though, aren't they? I'm happy to say that we still haven't lost the sense of romance that you get when you see them. And the narrowboat community itself is very welcoming :)
no subject
Date: 2023-11-03 09:23 pm (UTC)From:I'm glad the romance is still alive and well for y'all. I'd hate to see you lose it in the process of reviving it. It'd be a shame to go through all of that trouble only to want nothing to do with it anymore.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-03 10:41 pm (UTC)From:It absolutely is an option for a holiday. There are a lot of boat hire places, and you don't need a license for them. They give you about half an hour's training before you start and then they turn you loose with them! (It's a bit scary tbh, although you soon get the hang of it.)
We went on a narrowboat hire holiday when the covid rules relaxed enough to allow people to hang out in 'bubbles'. We formed a bubble of one family (4 people) and took a narrowboat out for a week. And that was what started us all on this boating lark - we enjoyed ourselves so much that Son decided to get his own.
I would start on a canal first, though. They're designed for canals, and rivers can be tricky and dangerous in comparison. The Thames sounds like starting in hard mode.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-04 09:16 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-11-04 04:01 pm (UTC)From:If you go in a group there's usually someone on board who likes to steer, and then you can do your bit by opening and shutting the lock gates and jumping on and off with ropes :)
no subject
Date: 2023-11-06 09:15 am (UTC)From:It's a wonderfully relaxing way to have a holiday.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-06 09:12 am (UTC)From:I've oft been tempted to own a boat, but have always resisted. No narrowboat marinas in Dorset, for the obvious reason of no canals...
no subject
Date: 2023-11-06 06:11 pm (UTC)From:Thank you! Yes, I think it's very far from being the relaxing pastime than it's made out to be, and if you did buy a boat you'd probably end up having to be on it most weekends. We've still got so much to do that I imagine it will be years before it's fully up to our standards.
Admittedly, you would probably do much better if you bought a boat that was up to spec to begin with! But there is something nice about feeling like we are bringing this one back to life, and it will be very much uniquely Son's boat once it's done.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-06 06:31 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-11-07 08:48 pm (UTC)From:They really are!