Boat update

[galadhir]

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!

Comments

Re: Wow!

[galadhir]

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.