28th, 29th & 30th January
We’ve had a couple of days focussed on Braidbar, followed by one of domestic concerns. On Thursday, our last morning in the yard, we got up in good time and Sheila started a last load of tumble drying whilst we ate breakfast. Then we rigged the hose to top up the water tank before getting ready to pull out of the yard.
For the first time in a month we did some boating that took more than ten minutes as we plodded gently up to High Lane. Peter had said that the shell was due to arrive at about 11.15 and that he expected to be ready to lift by half twelve.
We got there just after 10.30 and I went to buy a newspaper and some sandwiches for lunch. This was only partially successful, as the Costcutter has closed, so that there is no longer a general store in High Lane that I can find. We got some good sandwiches from Danny’s Deli, however, and he told me that he had seen the shell go past just a little while before.
This implied that the lift might be early, and anyway we were sharp set after our bit of boating, so we had a very early lunch at 11.30 and then walked round the arm to the club house. Here we found Dave Ballinger, the new owner, anxiously watching out for us; he told us he had just been wondering where he could get a very large outboard motor if we didn’t turn up.
We reassured him, and indeed there was the usual delay whilst the bow thruster, prop shaft and prop were installed. The lift went smoothly and we were soon towing shell number 121 back to Higher Poynton.
After I’d winded Sanity, I discovered I had missed a phone call which proved to be ABNB with an appointment for viewing on Monday morning. Since the details only went up on their web site on Tuesday, this is encouragingly quick work.
Yesterday, Peter had asked us to postpone our arrival at the yard since he had some shopping to do on the way in. Accordingly, we decided to do a couple of maintenance jobs in the morning after a lie in, and then to go round to the yard at lunchtime. We’d just about finished breakfast when Peter rang to say he would be in earlier than he’d thought.
It can be hard to know how to deal with some boatbuilder's idea of timing.
We postponed the maintenance jobs, got to the yard at half ten and had another good review session as recorded on the other blog. We also had a brief chat about manning the Braidbar stand at the Crick show this year; there’ll be more about this in due course.
After a late lunch, there was nothing for it but to get on with the maintenance. This consisted of two tasks: tightening the domestic alternator belt, which had started squealing when the engine started up, and pumping out the toilet tank. Both of these were completed with no more than the usual hassle and we were able to relax for the rest of the day fully possessed of a sense of virtue.
We woke this morning to find a quarter of an inch of ice on the canal. It seems unlikely that it will be as big a problem as it was in the New Year, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn’t get any worse.
We walked down into Poynton to shop for fresh food and once more finished too soon to catch the bus back. We ended up walking back, which at least means that we’ve had a decent amount of exercise, and the loads were not too heavy as a result of the Ocado delivery strategy.
We’ve had quite a lazy afternoon, though a creative one. Sheila continues to crochet, and I’ve been roughing out some designs for the Beale Park Newsletter. Tomorrow, we’ll need to clean the boat ready for our viewing on Monday, and, if possible, we’ll pop down to the water point to refill the tank. This is provided that the ice remains broken after today's traffic has mashed it up.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Busy again
26th & 27th January
If the days covered by the last post had been a bit quieter, the last couple have been rather busier. Yesterday, we woke early for no particular reason, and at around half nine took Sanity down to the water point. The cunning plan for the day was based on Peter’s statement that they would be shuffling boats around in the yard “first thing” and that we could bring Sanity in immediately afterwards.
Being a little sceptical about time keeping in the average boatyard, we had thought that leaving it for an hour and a half, plus the time taken to fill the water tank would be an adequate allowance. We had also booked a substantial Ocado delivery for the 11 to 12 slot. Sure enough, the yard wasn’t ready for us and now planned the boat shuffle for half ten. It was still just ten o’clock after we had watered. Normally under these circumstances we would have dropped back onto the hire boat’s mooring on the towpath, but a boat called Heartbeat was ensconced there and clearly had no immediate intention of moving.
Accordingly, we boated down to the winding hole and came back and moored on the Deeps, in a position from which we could see boats emerging from the yard. We settled down with cups of coffee to wait for this to happen. Part two of the plan promptly gang agley when the Ocado van turned up at 10.40. I abandoned my coffee and went and took delivery, temporarily storing the bags and bags and bags in the bungalow.
At around midday we were just thinking of making lunch, when things started happening, and by half twelve we had Sanity settled in the yard. In the course of the afternoon, Reg sorted the stroppy door from the bathroom to the bedroom and Andy had changed the leaking water pump.
Owing to the shell for the next boat not arriving until Thursday, there is no great pressure on space in the yard at the moment so we are able to stay here until we go to do that tow. This means that Sheila is able to have an orgy of laundry, since we are on shore line power and have easy access to a water supply. In particular, she’s able to use the tumble drier and so run several wash loads in succession, where normally we have to allow time to air dry one load before we can run another.
In the midst of all this, my order of 45 metres of black softline rope arrived and we cut it up into four equal lengths. I’m about half way through putting eye splices and back splices into these to make the mooring lines for Sanity Again.
Today, we got up in good time to find that the weather is truly disgusting; not freezing cold, but with a sleety drizzle falling for much of the day. I had a GP appointment in the middle of the morning, and used the spare hour at the beginning to start teaching myself to use the page layout mode in Pages which we will need for producing the newsletter at the IWA National.
I had a long wait in the GP’s, but at the end of it was reassured that the problem mole on my face is not a source of concern. On the way back to the boat I picked up some greengroceries from the Co-op and arrived just in time for lunch.
The rest of the day has been taken up with laundry (we’ve nearly caught up with the backlog that built up whilst we were minimising water use) and with making mooring lines. We’ve refilled the water tank again, and will top it up once more tomorrow before we go to tow the shell.
If the days covered by the last post had been a bit quieter, the last couple have been rather busier. Yesterday, we woke early for no particular reason, and at around half nine took Sanity down to the water point. The cunning plan for the day was based on Peter’s statement that they would be shuffling boats around in the yard “first thing” and that we could bring Sanity in immediately afterwards.
Being a little sceptical about time keeping in the average boatyard, we had thought that leaving it for an hour and a half, plus the time taken to fill the water tank would be an adequate allowance. We had also booked a substantial Ocado delivery for the 11 to 12 slot. Sure enough, the yard wasn’t ready for us and now planned the boat shuffle for half ten. It was still just ten o’clock after we had watered. Normally under these circumstances we would have dropped back onto the hire boat’s mooring on the towpath, but a boat called Heartbeat was ensconced there and clearly had no immediate intention of moving.
Accordingly, we boated down to the winding hole and came back and moored on the Deeps, in a position from which we could see boats emerging from the yard. We settled down with cups of coffee to wait for this to happen. Part two of the plan promptly gang agley when the Ocado van turned up at 10.40. I abandoned my coffee and went and took delivery, temporarily storing the bags and bags and bags in the bungalow.
At around midday we were just thinking of making lunch, when things started happening, and by half twelve we had Sanity settled in the yard. In the course of the afternoon, Reg sorted the stroppy door from the bathroom to the bedroom and Andy had changed the leaking water pump.
Owing to the shell for the next boat not arriving until Thursday, there is no great pressure on space in the yard at the moment so we are able to stay here until we go to do that tow. This means that Sheila is able to have an orgy of laundry, since we are on shore line power and have easy access to a water supply. In particular, she’s able to use the tumble drier and so run several wash loads in succession, where normally we have to allow time to air dry one load before we can run another.
Drying the porthole doilies overnight
In the midst of all this, my order of 45 metres of black softline rope arrived and we cut it up into four equal lengths. I’m about half way through putting eye splices and back splices into these to make the mooring lines for Sanity Again.
Today, we got up in good time to find that the weather is truly disgusting; not freezing cold, but with a sleety drizzle falling for much of the day. I had a GP appointment in the middle of the morning, and used the spare hour at the beginning to start teaching myself to use the page layout mode in Pages which we will need for producing the newsletter at the IWA National.
I had a long wait in the GP’s, but at the end of it was reassured that the problem mole on my face is not a source of concern. On the way back to the boat I picked up some greengroceries from the Co-op and arrived just in time for lunch.
The rest of the day has been taken up with laundry (we’ve nearly caught up with the backlog that built up whilst we were minimising water use) and with making mooring lines. We’ve refilled the water tank again, and will top it up once more tomorrow before we go to tow the shell.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Monday, 25 January 2010
Quieter days
24th & 25th January
It has been a much more relaxed couple of days after all the activity at the end of last week. We’ve been able to have something of a lie-in both mornings (by our standards, anyway) and we’ve taken the opportunity to get a little exercise.
Yesterday morning, I spent a bit of time online, firstly with an Ocado order and then ordering 45 metres of 14 mm black softline rope from Trafalgar Marine to make up into mooring lines for Sanity Again. Last week’s Ocado order was so successful that we have made an even bigger order this week.
After lunch, and despite continuous light rain, we went for a walk along the towpath to Mad Jack’s moorings and then across country through Jackson’s Brickyard, ending up on the Middlewood Way. Despite the weather, it was very enjoyable; the local council has invested a lot in footpath development around here, and it was good to see a reasonable number of people making use of the paths.
We actually ended up walking a little further than we intended (Sheila says: no change there) and so felt justified in a very lazy evening.
This morning I walked down to the paper shop and called in at Braidbar on my way back. Peter confirmed that we should be able to take Sanity into the yard tomorrow for a couple of jobs which need doing. They will replace the leaking water pump, and sort out the door between the bathroom and bedroom which has been sticking ever since she came off the dock last year.
Last time we shopped in Poynton I treated Sheila to a ripe Camembert, and it’s been a bit risky opening the fridge ever since. She tells me it was very tasty, and had the last of it this lunchtime. I don’t think that we should have another one on board until we have sold the boat; every time you opened the fridge you got the impression that something had crawled in there and died a while ago, and I don’t think that will encourage potential purchasers.
The weather threatens to turn cold again, although hopefully we are not in for such a serious freeze as the last one. We thought we ought to turn the heating back on in Just Siviting, just to be on the safe side. When we did so we dipped the fuel tank and found that it was a bit over half full.
Accordingly, we backed her down to the Trading Post and filled her up again. It’s always interesting manoeuvring someone else’s boat; the steering position feels all wrong but nonetheless we made it down and back without incident.
Back at our own mooring, we popped another bag of coal on board together with a supply of kindling so that we can, if needed, stay in the boatyard for a few days without running out.
It has been a much more relaxed couple of days after all the activity at the end of last week. We’ve been able to have something of a lie-in both mornings (by our standards, anyway) and we’ve taken the opportunity to get a little exercise.
Yesterday morning, I spent a bit of time online, firstly with an Ocado order and then ordering 45 metres of 14 mm black softline rope from Trafalgar Marine to make up into mooring lines for Sanity Again. Last week’s Ocado order was so successful that we have made an even bigger order this week.
After lunch, and despite continuous light rain, we went for a walk along the towpath to Mad Jack’s moorings and then across country through Jackson’s Brickyard, ending up on the Middlewood Way. Despite the weather, it was very enjoyable; the local council has invested a lot in footpath development around here, and it was good to see a reasonable number of people making use of the paths.
We actually ended up walking a little further than we intended (Sheila says: no change there) and so felt justified in a very lazy evening.
This morning I walked down to the paper shop and called in at Braidbar on my way back. Peter confirmed that we should be able to take Sanity into the yard tomorrow for a couple of jobs which need doing. They will replace the leaking water pump, and sort out the door between the bathroom and bedroom which has been sticking ever since she came off the dock last year.
Last time we shopped in Poynton I treated Sheila to a ripe Camembert, and it’s been a bit risky opening the fridge ever since. She tells me it was very tasty, and had the last of it this lunchtime. I don’t think that we should have another one on board until we have sold the boat; every time you opened the fridge you got the impression that something had crawled in there and died a while ago, and I don’t think that will encourage potential purchasers.
The weather threatens to turn cold again, although hopefully we are not in for such a serious freeze as the last one. We thought we ought to turn the heating back on in Just Siviting, just to be on the safe side. When we did so we dipped the fuel tank and found that it was a bit over half full.
Accordingly, we backed her down to the Trading Post and filled her up again. It’s always interesting manoeuvring someone else’s boat; the steering position feels all wrong but nonetheless we made it down and back without incident.
Back at our own mooring, we popped another bag of coal on board together with a supply of kindling so that we can, if needed, stay in the boatyard for a few days without running out.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Saturday, 23 January 2010
The ice has gone at last
21st, 22nd & 23rd January
As I said yesterday, in future I’m going to do a post covering three days every Saturday, so that I never have to do two posts on Fridays.
Thursday was a very busy day; in the morning we walked down to Poynton for some shopping and finished just too late to catch the bus back. Rather than hang about for an hour, we walked back, which was hard work after all these weeks of taking the bus. The strategy of shopping with Ocado once a week means that we don’t have so much weight to carry, but it was still a bit of a slog coming up the hill.
We called in at the boat yard, as Peter had rung and asked us to move Skye out of the yard to her new mooring here at Marineville. We collected a bit of post and agreed to come back after lunch to move the boat; there was still enough ice about that not all the pontoons were available, so we needed to see where we could moor Skye.
After lunch, we went and got her; it was very pleasant to be steering a boat again.
In the evening, I cooked a chicken curry from a recipe in the curry cookbook which Sheila gave me for Christmas. It’s one of these books of more authentic Indian cuisine, and the result was indeed much lighter and less greasy than the typical British interpretation.
Yesterday morning saw us reviewing progress on Sanity Again as described over on the other blog. In the afternoon, we extracted Sanity from the mud which had collected around her in the nearly four weeks since she last moved, and boated in heavy rain down to the Trading Post for a lot of diesel.
Having filled up, we went on to the water point and filled that tank and then, rather than reverse, I had the pleasure of boating through the Deeps to the winding hole and so back to her mooring.
Having caught up with the Building Sanity Again blog, uploaded some pictures to Flickr and brought the fuel records up to date, we quietly collapsed for the evening.
The weather has been much quieter today, if rather foggy. I walked down the hill to get a newspaper in the morning and on my return had a chat with Martin off Skye who says that he and Denise are content with the mooring we have given them for the moment; they’ll have a choice of some others later in the year when the Brycelands have refurbished some more pontoons.
After a relaxed lunch, we took a short walk up and down the moorings to check that all was well now that the ice has gone, and then crossed the canal to the towpath for a bit of a stroll. Back at the boat, we watched the second episode of The Colour of Magic before wrestling with this week’s jumbo general knowledge crossword in The Independent.
As I said yesterday, in future I’m going to do a post covering three days every Saturday, so that I never have to do two posts on Fridays.
Thursday was a very busy day; in the morning we walked down to Poynton for some shopping and finished just too late to catch the bus back. Rather than hang about for an hour, we walked back, which was hard work after all these weeks of taking the bus. The strategy of shopping with Ocado once a week means that we don’t have so much weight to carry, but it was still a bit of a slog coming up the hill.
We called in at the boat yard, as Peter had rung and asked us to move Skye out of the yard to her new mooring here at Marineville. We collected a bit of post and agreed to come back after lunch to move the boat; there was still enough ice about that not all the pontoons were available, so we needed to see where we could moor Skye.
After lunch, we went and got her; it was very pleasant to be steering a boat again.
In the evening, I cooked a chicken curry from a recipe in the curry cookbook which Sheila gave me for Christmas. It’s one of these books of more authentic Indian cuisine, and the result was indeed much lighter and less greasy than the typical British interpretation.
Yesterday morning saw us reviewing progress on Sanity Again as described over on the other blog. In the afternoon, we extracted Sanity from the mud which had collected around her in the nearly four weeks since she last moved, and boated in heavy rain down to the Trading Post for a lot of diesel.
Having filled up, we went on to the water point and filled that tank and then, rather than reverse, I had the pleasure of boating through the Deeps to the winding hole and so back to her mooring.
Having caught up with the Building Sanity Again blog, uploaded some pictures to Flickr and brought the fuel records up to date, we quietly collapsed for the evening.
The weather has been much quieter today, if rather foggy. I walked down the hill to get a newspaper in the morning and on my return had a chat with Martin off Skye who says that he and Denise are content with the mooring we have given them for the moment; they’ll have a choice of some others later in the year when the Brycelands have refurbished some more pontoons.
After a relaxed lunch, we took a short walk up and down the moorings to check that all was well now that the ice has gone, and then crossed the canal to the towpath for a bit of a stroll. Back at the boat, we watched the second episode of The Colour of Magic before wrestling with this week’s jumbo general knowledge crossword in The Independent.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Friday, 22 January 2010
Back tomorrow
No post here today, I'm sorry; I've just been rushed off my feet with one thing and another today, including our weekly visit to see progress on Sanity Again, do the blog post about that and put up a set of pictures on Flickr.
I'll do a post covering three days tomorrow, and I think I'll adopt that as the pattern until Sanity Again is finished. So there will be posts here on Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday, and a Building Sanity Again post on Fridays.
See you tomorrow...
I'll do a post covering three days tomorrow, and I think I'll adopt that as the pattern until Sanity Again is finished. So there will be posts here on Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday, and a Building Sanity Again post on Fridays.
See you tomorrow...
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Busy, busy...
19th & 20th January
It’s been a couple of days that have involved quite a lot of activity, considering it is supposed to be the quiet time of year. Yesterday, we got up fairly promptly and finished the cleaning before Paul Smith from ABNB arrived, almost exactly on time.
His visit went very smoothly and we were impressed with his professional approach. He had said it would take five hours, which seemed a lot, but it did indeed work out almost exactly; he arrived just after 10.30 and left just after half three. A lot of photographs were taken and he made careful sketches of both the floor plan and the side view.
I think Andrew Denny has commented in his Granny Buttons blog about the high charges boat brokers make; 6% of £60,000 is £3,600 after all, which is quite a contrast with the 1.5 to 2% that an estate agent would charge. It must be borne in mind, though, that a thorough broker like ABNB will also perform some of the functions of the solicitor in a house purchase.
We had to show Paul the documentation that establishes our ownership of the boat, and when the sale is made they will manage the cash transfer from buyer to seller. If necessary, we will have at least three months free mooring at Crick if the boat hasn’t sold by the time we need to move her from our winter mooring here.
On his advice, we have set an asking price of £63,000; in future any enquiries about viewing Sanity should be directed via ABNB; contact details are on their web site.
Naturally, after the excitements of the day we had a quiet evening. The good news is that the ice is retreating very quickly now and we are confident of being able to move the boat on Friday. In fact we would probably be able to move the boat tomorrow, but there is a lot of wind forecast and so it makes sense to shop tomorrow and water and diesel on Friday.
This morning, Sheila went off for a hair appointment. I spent a bit of the morning changing the home page of our web site to direct inquiries about buying Sanity to ABNB.
As well as Paul Smith, another welcome visitor yesterday was the sludge tanker, which pumped out all the marina's septic tanks. By the time Sheila came back with a new hairdo, I had almost finished pumping out Sanity’s tank, giving us one less thing to worry about. Sheila gave me a hand to finish off after which we had a quiet collapse in the saloon for coffee and then lunch.
I finally solved the problem of the DVD disk which will not play in Apple DVD player. There is a useful freeware program called VLC which will play almost any audio or video format on a Mac. Using this, we’ve been able to watch most of the extras that came with The Colour of Magic.
The retreat of the ice and confidence about getting more water means that we feel able to use the boat shower again; Sheila had one yesterday and I’m just off to get one now.
It’s been a couple of days that have involved quite a lot of activity, considering it is supposed to be the quiet time of year. Yesterday, we got up fairly promptly and finished the cleaning before Paul Smith from ABNB arrived, almost exactly on time.
His visit went very smoothly and we were impressed with his professional approach. He had said it would take five hours, which seemed a lot, but it did indeed work out almost exactly; he arrived just after 10.30 and left just after half three. A lot of photographs were taken and he made careful sketches of both the floor plan and the side view.
I think Andrew Denny has commented in his Granny Buttons blog about the high charges boat brokers make; 6% of £60,000 is £3,600 after all, which is quite a contrast with the 1.5 to 2% that an estate agent would charge. It must be borne in mind, though, that a thorough broker like ABNB will also perform some of the functions of the solicitor in a house purchase.
We had to show Paul the documentation that establishes our ownership of the boat, and when the sale is made they will manage the cash transfer from buyer to seller. If necessary, we will have at least three months free mooring at Crick if the boat hasn’t sold by the time we need to move her from our winter mooring here.
On his advice, we have set an asking price of £63,000; in future any enquiries about viewing Sanity should be directed via ABNB; contact details are on their web site.
Naturally, after the excitements of the day we had a quiet evening. The good news is that the ice is retreating very quickly now and we are confident of being able to move the boat on Friday. In fact we would probably be able to move the boat tomorrow, but there is a lot of wind forecast and so it makes sense to shop tomorrow and water and diesel on Friday.
This morning, Sheila went off for a hair appointment. I spent a bit of the morning changing the home page of our web site to direct inquiries about buying Sanity to ABNB.
As well as Paul Smith, another welcome visitor yesterday was the sludge tanker, which pumped out all the marina's septic tanks. By the time Sheila came back with a new hairdo, I had almost finished pumping out Sanity’s tank, giving us one less thing to worry about. Sheila gave me a hand to finish off after which we had a quiet collapse in the saloon for coffee and then lunch.
I finally solved the problem of the DVD disk which will not play in Apple DVD player. There is a useful freeware program called VLC which will play almost any audio or video format on a Mac. Using this, we’ve been able to watch most of the extras that came with The Colour of Magic.
The retreat of the ice and confidence about getting more water means that we feel able to use the boat shower again; Sheila had one yesterday and I’m just off to get one now.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Monday, 18 January 2010
Early Spring cleaning
17th & 18th January
It’s been a very busy couple of days as we prepare for the visit of Paul Smith from brokers ABNB. As I said in an earlier post, we have been cleaning the boat compartment by compartment, doing a thorough spring clean so that she is all bright and shiny for the photo session tomorrow.
Yesterday it was the turn of the galley, this process being made more interesting by the fact that I was also preparing a pan of Cream of Cauliflower soup to give Peter and Jan for lunch. I’m pleased to say that both tasks were completed successfully and we had a very pleasant visit.
Just as they arrived, the watering squad turned up and Peter found himself pressed into service helping to pour the contents of the 25 litre drums into the tank, since I was busy putting the finishing touches to the soup. We felt a bit guilty about not being of more help with the fetching and carrying of the water, though in truth there were plenty of willing hands to do the work.
After lunch, we walked round to the yard and had a thorough inspection of Sanity Again. It feels very strange to be able to walk about without worrying about falling over, but the snow has almost entirely disappeared.
Today, we had the engine room and the saloon to clean. We also had an Ocado order being delivered at the boatyard between eleven and twelve. Before going round there, we stripped everything out of the engine room, and took a load of recycling with us to the tip. We collected some post and the A4 laminator which we had bought from Amazon, and at 11.45 the Ocado van arrived.
This is our first experience of using Ocado and we were very impressed by the efficiency and accuracy of the delivery. Our previous experience of ordering groceries on the internet had been with Tesco back in North Wales, when you could only have a two hour slot and I don’t believe we ever had an order delivered which contained everything we’d asked for.
Whilst at the yard, we took the opportunity to try the problem DVD in the DVD player there, and it played with no difficulty. Elanor frequently plays DVDs on her MacBook, and tells us that she has never had a problem like this, so it looks as if we are just unlucky with this disk.
After lunch, we made ourselves finish the cleaning before playing with the new toy. These last two compartments are the hardest work, of course, but it would not have made sense to do them too soon. We had got it all done by mid afternoon, and, after a cup of tea, laminated this year’s licence disks very satisfactorily. We find laminating the disks much the best way of ensuring that they survive a full year’s cruising, and this is the main excuse for buying the machine.
It will however come in handy for protecting things like Sheila’s crochet patterns, and, since it is not much larger than a PC keyboard, it doesn’t present much of a storage problem.
Tonight we are treating ourselves to a pub meal on the excuse of not getting the galley dirty. Paul Smith is not due to arrive until half ten, so we shall have time in the morning to clean and tidy the well deck and stern deck, and to give the bathroom and galley a final wipe over.
It’s been a very busy couple of days as we prepare for the visit of Paul Smith from brokers ABNB. As I said in an earlier post, we have been cleaning the boat compartment by compartment, doing a thorough spring clean so that she is all bright and shiny for the photo session tomorrow.
Yesterday it was the turn of the galley, this process being made more interesting by the fact that I was also preparing a pan of Cream of Cauliflower soup to give Peter and Jan for lunch. I’m pleased to say that both tasks were completed successfully and we had a very pleasant visit.
Just as they arrived, the watering squad turned up and Peter found himself pressed into service helping to pour the contents of the 25 litre drums into the tank, since I was busy putting the finishing touches to the soup. We felt a bit guilty about not being of more help with the fetching and carrying of the water, though in truth there were plenty of willing hands to do the work.
After lunch, we walked round to the yard and had a thorough inspection of Sanity Again. It feels very strange to be able to walk about without worrying about falling over, but the snow has almost entirely disappeared.
Today, we had the engine room and the saloon to clean. We also had an Ocado order being delivered at the boatyard between eleven and twelve. Before going round there, we stripped everything out of the engine room, and took a load of recycling with us to the tip. We collected some post and the A4 laminator which we had bought from Amazon, and at 11.45 the Ocado van arrived.
This is our first experience of using Ocado and we were very impressed by the efficiency and accuracy of the delivery. Our previous experience of ordering groceries on the internet had been with Tesco back in North Wales, when you could only have a two hour slot and I don’t believe we ever had an order delivered which contained everything we’d asked for.
Whilst at the yard, we took the opportunity to try the problem DVD in the DVD player there, and it played with no difficulty. Elanor frequently plays DVDs on her MacBook, and tells us that she has never had a problem like this, so it looks as if we are just unlucky with this disk.
After lunch, we made ourselves finish the cleaning before playing with the new toy. These last two compartments are the hardest work, of course, but it would not have made sense to do them too soon. We had got it all done by mid afternoon, and, after a cup of tea, laminated this year’s licence disks very satisfactorily. We find laminating the disks much the best way of ensuring that they survive a full year’s cruising, and this is the main excuse for buying the machine.
It will however come in handy for protecting things like Sheila’s crochet patterns, and, since it is not much larger than a PC keyboard, it doesn’t present much of a storage problem.
Tonight we are treating ourselves to a pub meal on the excuse of not getting the galley dirty. Paul Smith is not due to arrive until half ten, so we shall have time in the morning to clean and tidy the well deck and stern deck, and to give the bathroom and galley a final wipe over.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Thawing out
15th & 16th January
It’s been a tiring but much more upbeat couple of days. The thaw has continued apace and the boat is rocking as we walk around in it again. Yesterday’s rain, which continued off and on overnight and into this morning, has pretty well completely disposed of the snow. The only ice left on land is where it had been compacted by vehicle movements. The ice on the canal is still with us but in retreat. It will be a few days before there is a serious chance of boat movement, but things are definitely going the right way.
Yesterday morning we did our regular Friday visit to the yard; the progress on Sanity Again is recorded on the other blog and in a set of pictures on Flickr. We took the opportunity to run a washload and to have showers; it may be that this is the last time we need to do this, as the plan is to do a communal rewatering exercise this weekend and with luck we will be able to move down to the water point next weekend.
One of the bits of post we collected was a Hipkiss press stud kit; the cover over the Houdini in the bedroom was originally attached with press studs in the same way as the covers over the portholes. Because it did not have reinforced corners, we had a problem with the press studs pulling through the material. For the last few years, therefore, we have used Velcro fastenings, but this in turn has had problems with the Velcro coming unstuck from the wooden corners of the Houdini frame.
I decided to return to plan A, with the modification that Sheila would stitch reinforcing into the corners of the cover; hence the purchase of the kit. Her part of this project went very smoothly, aided by the fact that we had deliberately overpurchased the material for the covers, and so still have a good supply for these kinds of repairs. My end of the deal was less straightforward. Fitting the poppers to the material involves using a small drift to crush a narrow tube so as to hold the two parts of the popper together, one each side of the material.
Previous kits have had quite a soft metal for this tube, which has crushed quite readily. This time, it was much more reluctant to succumb, and at one stage I was hitting the drift with the lump hammer. It will readily be seen that it is important in these circumstances to hit the drift squarely, but by popper number three fatigue makes this increasingly difficult and, perhaps inevitably, my left thumb was the loser.
Those who have ever done any serious DIY will know that there is a vicious circle here. The plaster needed to stop the bleeding makes it even harder to work skilfully, though at least it provides a bit of extra protection when you next hit your thumb.
I had screwed the studs back into the corners of the Houdini frame using the holes left from the original fixing. Naturally, the cover has shrunk a little over the years, and two of the studs had to be repositioned a few millimetres further in. This was another straightforward job, except that one of the corners was so disturbed by the process of drilling a pilot hole and screwing the stud on that it fell off.
This morning, we walked down to Poynton to shop and took the opportunity to buy some high performance No Nails exterior grade fixative. This seems to have done the trick, although it will not be until tomorrow that we will find out if it has attached the corner securely enough. Since the press stud kit was £15 and the tube of No Nails £7.50, it has set us back nearly £25 to do this simple task. We do of course have spare press studs and most of the tube of No Nails left, but again DIY aficionados will know just how likely it is that either will be used before they get lost/set rock hard in the tube.
We actually walked back from Poynton rather than waiting for a bus and so were well exercised when we got back to the boat. However, that only made lunch more enjoyable and afterwards we found enough energy to spring clean the study bedroom and wash the galley floor. The rest of the galley will be done tomorrow morning, leaving the saloon and engine room to be blitzed on Monday.
Tomorrow, further evidence of the thaw will be apparent when Sheila’s brother and sister in law finally arrive for the lunch we have been promising them since before Christmas.
It’s been a tiring but much more upbeat couple of days. The thaw has continued apace and the boat is rocking as we walk around in it again. Yesterday’s rain, which continued off and on overnight and into this morning, has pretty well completely disposed of the snow. The only ice left on land is where it had been compacted by vehicle movements. The ice on the canal is still with us but in retreat. It will be a few days before there is a serious chance of boat movement, but things are definitely going the right way.
Yesterday morning we did our regular Friday visit to the yard; the progress on Sanity Again is recorded on the other blog and in a set of pictures on Flickr. We took the opportunity to run a washload and to have showers; it may be that this is the last time we need to do this, as the plan is to do a communal rewatering exercise this weekend and with luck we will be able to move down to the water point next weekend.
One of the bits of post we collected was a Hipkiss press stud kit; the cover over the Houdini in the bedroom was originally attached with press studs in the same way as the covers over the portholes. Because it did not have reinforced corners, we had a problem with the press studs pulling through the material. For the last few years, therefore, we have used Velcro fastenings, but this in turn has had problems with the Velcro coming unstuck from the wooden corners of the Houdini frame.
I decided to return to plan A, with the modification that Sheila would stitch reinforcing into the corners of the cover; hence the purchase of the kit. Her part of this project went very smoothly, aided by the fact that we had deliberately overpurchased the material for the covers, and so still have a good supply for these kinds of repairs. My end of the deal was less straightforward. Fitting the poppers to the material involves using a small drift to crush a narrow tube so as to hold the two parts of the popper together, one each side of the material.
Previous kits have had quite a soft metal for this tube, which has crushed quite readily. This time, it was much more reluctant to succumb, and at one stage I was hitting the drift with the lump hammer. It will readily be seen that it is important in these circumstances to hit the drift squarely, but by popper number three fatigue makes this increasingly difficult and, perhaps inevitably, my left thumb was the loser.
Those who have ever done any serious DIY will know that there is a vicious circle here. The plaster needed to stop the bleeding makes it even harder to work skilfully, though at least it provides a bit of extra protection when you next hit your thumb.
I had screwed the studs back into the corners of the Houdini frame using the holes left from the original fixing. Naturally, the cover has shrunk a little over the years, and two of the studs had to be repositioned a few millimetres further in. This was another straightforward job, except that one of the corners was so disturbed by the process of drilling a pilot hole and screwing the stud on that it fell off.
This morning, we walked down to Poynton to shop and took the opportunity to buy some high performance No Nails exterior grade fixative. This seems to have done the trick, although it will not be until tomorrow that we will find out if it has attached the corner securely enough. Since the press stud kit was £15 and the tube of No Nails £7.50, it has set us back nearly £25 to do this simple task. We do of course have spare press studs and most of the tube of No Nails left, but again DIY aficionados will know just how likely it is that either will be used before they get lost/set rock hard in the tube.
We actually walked back from Poynton rather than waiting for a bus and so were well exercised when we got back to the boat. However, that only made lunch more enjoyable and afterwards we found enough energy to spring clean the study bedroom and wash the galley floor. The rest of the galley will be done tomorrow morning, leaving the saloon and engine room to be blitzed on Monday.
Tomorrow, further evidence of the thaw will be apparent when Sheila’s brother and sister in law finally arrive for the lunch we have been promising them since before Christmas.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Thursday, 14 January 2010
A thaw on the way
13th & 14th January
Yesterday was a dozy sort of day; we had neither of us slept particularly well the night before and the weather, although a shade less cold, was windy with snow blowing on the wind. We therefore spent the whole day indoors in a rather gloomy mood.
We need to do a thorough clean of the boat by next Tuesday, when Paul Smith from ABNB is coming to take photographs of her, so we made a start in the bedroom. We swept and washed and dusted until it was looking very bright and shiny. The challenge is to do all this without using huge amounts of water, of course, although we will be refilling the tank over the weekend.
In the afternoon, we cheered ourselves up by watching the DVD of The Colour of Magic, which was as entertaining as we had hoped it would be.
I also followed up Snowyowl’s suggestion that Magic Radio might provide a substitute for Wogan in the morning by finding the right channel on the DAB radio. We did indeed listen to it this morning, but it was a bit bright and bouncy for our taste, though nowhere near as bad as the dreadful Evans. It is actually the North West version so not the same as the one referred to by Snowyowl.
This did encourage me to hunt about for other options, and we’re going to try Smooth Radio tomorrow.
Today we had a very lazy start, and it was nine o’ clock before we were up and about. The slow thaw is continuing, and scheduled to speed up over the weekend. It means some wet and windy weather, but at least we will be able to boat about again.
It was the bathroom’s turn for cleaning today; the cunning plan is to do a room a day so that each gets a decent level of attention.
We tried watching the second disk which came with The Colour of Magic, but there is a problem with it and it will have to go back to the supplier.
A trip over to the other side of the canal to dump some rubbish showed that the road up to the boatyard is now quite passable. We’ve placed an Ocado order for delivery on Monday morning, by which time there should be no trouble at all over access.
Tomorrow will be our regular review of progress on Sanity Again, and we’ll go shopping in Poynton on Saturday morning, hopefully in the rain.
Yesterday was a dozy sort of day; we had neither of us slept particularly well the night before and the weather, although a shade less cold, was windy with snow blowing on the wind. We therefore spent the whole day indoors in a rather gloomy mood.
We need to do a thorough clean of the boat by next Tuesday, when Paul Smith from ABNB is coming to take photographs of her, so we made a start in the bedroom. We swept and washed and dusted until it was looking very bright and shiny. The challenge is to do all this without using huge amounts of water, of course, although we will be refilling the tank over the weekend.
In the afternoon, we cheered ourselves up by watching the DVD of The Colour of Magic, which was as entertaining as we had hoped it would be.
I also followed up Snowyowl’s suggestion that Magic Radio might provide a substitute for Wogan in the morning by finding the right channel on the DAB radio. We did indeed listen to it this morning, but it was a bit bright and bouncy for our taste, though nowhere near as bad as the dreadful Evans. It is actually the North West version so not the same as the one referred to by Snowyowl.
This did encourage me to hunt about for other options, and we’re going to try Smooth Radio tomorrow.
Today we had a very lazy start, and it was nine o’ clock before we were up and about. The slow thaw is continuing, and scheduled to speed up over the weekend. It means some wet and windy weather, but at least we will be able to boat about again.
It was the bathroom’s turn for cleaning today; the cunning plan is to do a room a day so that each gets a decent level of attention.
We tried watching the second disk which came with The Colour of Magic, but there is a problem with it and it will have to go back to the supplier.
A trip over to the other side of the canal to dump some rubbish showed that the road up to the boatyard is now quite passable. We’ve placed an Ocado order for delivery on Monday morning, by which time there should be no trouble at all over access.
Tomorrow will be our regular review of progress on Sanity Again, and we’ll go shopping in Poynton on Saturday morning, hopefully in the rain.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Two more days on ice, but a thaw in prospect
11th & 12th January
It will not have escaped most of my UK readers that yesterday was the first day on which Chris Evans presented the Radio 2 breakfast show now that Terry Wogan has moved on to less strenuous commitments. We started listening at around half seven and endured about an hour of it, which choice of words will indicate our reaction to his style.
We had been determined to give him a hearing despite our reservations. In the event it was about as bad as we feared, the low point probably being the telephone interview with the man who has just entered the Guinness Book of Records for the shortest time to blow up and burst a hot water bottle. It’s not just the whole dumbed down format, but the frenetic, hyped up presentation style which makes such an appalling contrast, not just with Wogan, but with the whole tone of the rest of the station’s output. He is just so SHOUTY.
It’s particularly the case that at that time of the morning we look for a calm, soothing introduction to the day, rather than a style of entertainment which is reminiscent of Radio 1 in the nineties. Evans does of course have his supporters, and I’m sure they are very pleased with having two and a half hours of him in the morning. The thing is, there is no lack of other stations on which you can get this frenetic “zoo radio”, but those of us who prefer not to have our nerves wound up to screaming pitch now have nowhere else to go.
There’s nothing for it, we shall be listening to Radio Four for the next few months. Actually, I think Sheila may be right when she suggests that Evans is a tethered goat on this occasion; no presenter with an ego smaller than Broadcasting House would believe that he or she could follow Wogan and maintain audience figures. We’d be not at all surprised if Evans comes off in about six months time and is replaced by one of the other established Radio Two jocks such as Richard Allinson or Alex Lester.
Gosh, I’m glad I’ve got that off my chest.
Apart from that, yesterday was quite uneventful. The weather is slowly improving and we ventured out to dispose of our recycling. We also had a chat with Luisa Bryceland; she and Iain are off for a few weeks holiday shortly, and they’ve asked us to look after a couple of boats which will be coming onto the moorings once the ice clears.
Wd also spoke to Paul Mudie at boat brokers ABNB; we plan to place Sanity with them as soon as they can get the brochure prepared.
In the evening, we started a thread running on both the Canals List and the Braidbar Owner’s Group about the time it will take to boat from Oxford to Reading in June next year.
We plan to take Sanity Again down the Oxford Canal, then visit the Kennet and Avon before returning to Beale Park in August to work at the IWA National Festival. As a workers' boat, we get one special rate Thames licence to cover our trip to Beale, our time there and the trip off the Thames again, but seemingly we can't leave the Thames without surrendering it.
That means we'll have to buy a short term licence for the Oxford to Reading segment, either a set of one day licences or a single 15 day. The arithmetic is such that 3 one dayers will be cheaper than a 15 day, but 4 won't.
The consensus view is that it can be done in one long day and certainly in two. I think we shall probably do a first day from Thrupp to about half way and then finish off on the second by mooring in the arm by Reading Gaol.
This morning, we did another shopping trip to Poynton. By dividing our forces on arrival we managed to get it all done in time to take the next bus back up the hill. For a while, it looked as if inefficiency in the management of Morrisons checkouts meant we weren’t going to make it, but in the event we did it with a few minutes to spare.
After lunch, we went over to the boatyard to beg showers and to run a washload. An internet order from Julian Graves had arrived for us, so we were able to give Peter a belated birthday present of two bags of liquorice. (He’s very fond of liquorice.)
We’re looking forward to another quiet night, and indeed to a quiet day tomorrow. It looks as if it’s going to be a slow and erratic thaw, so it’s probably going to be a couple of weeks before we’re able to move the boat again.
It will not have escaped most of my UK readers that yesterday was the first day on which Chris Evans presented the Radio 2 breakfast show now that Terry Wogan has moved on to less strenuous commitments. We started listening at around half seven and endured about an hour of it, which choice of words will indicate our reaction to his style.
We had been determined to give him a hearing despite our reservations. In the event it was about as bad as we feared, the low point probably being the telephone interview with the man who has just entered the Guinness Book of Records for the shortest time to blow up and burst a hot water bottle. It’s not just the whole dumbed down format, but the frenetic, hyped up presentation style which makes such an appalling contrast, not just with Wogan, but with the whole tone of the rest of the station’s output. He is just so SHOUTY.
It’s particularly the case that at that time of the morning we look for a calm, soothing introduction to the day, rather than a style of entertainment which is reminiscent of Radio 1 in the nineties. Evans does of course have his supporters, and I’m sure they are very pleased with having two and a half hours of him in the morning. The thing is, there is no lack of other stations on which you can get this frenetic “zoo radio”, but those of us who prefer not to have our nerves wound up to screaming pitch now have nowhere else to go.
There’s nothing for it, we shall be listening to Radio Four for the next few months. Actually, I think Sheila may be right when she suggests that Evans is a tethered goat on this occasion; no presenter with an ego smaller than Broadcasting House would believe that he or she could follow Wogan and maintain audience figures. We’d be not at all surprised if Evans comes off in about six months time and is replaced by one of the other established Radio Two jocks such as Richard Allinson or Alex Lester.
Gosh, I’m glad I’ve got that off my chest.
Apart from that, yesterday was quite uneventful. The weather is slowly improving and we ventured out to dispose of our recycling. We also had a chat with Luisa Bryceland; she and Iain are off for a few weeks holiday shortly, and they’ve asked us to look after a couple of boats which will be coming onto the moorings once the ice clears.
Wd also spoke to Paul Mudie at boat brokers ABNB; we plan to place Sanity with them as soon as they can get the brochure prepared.
In the evening, we started a thread running on both the Canals List and the Braidbar Owner’s Group about the time it will take to boat from Oxford to Reading in June next year.
We plan to take Sanity Again down the Oxford Canal, then visit the Kennet and Avon before returning to Beale Park in August to work at the IWA National Festival. As a workers' boat, we get one special rate Thames licence to cover our trip to Beale, our time there and the trip off the Thames again, but seemingly we can't leave the Thames without surrendering it.
That means we'll have to buy a short term licence for the Oxford to Reading segment, either a set of one day licences or a single 15 day. The arithmetic is such that 3 one dayers will be cheaper than a 15 day, but 4 won't.
The consensus view is that it can be done in one long day and certainly in two. I think we shall probably do a first day from Thrupp to about half way and then finish off on the second by mooring in the arm by Reading Gaol.
This morning, we did another shopping trip to Poynton. By dividing our forces on arrival we managed to get it all done in time to take the next bus back up the hill. For a while, it looked as if inefficiency in the management of Morrisons checkouts meant we weren’t going to make it, but in the event we did it with a few minutes to spare.
After lunch, we went over to the boatyard to beg showers and to run a washload. An internet order from Julian Graves had arrived for us, so we were able to give Peter a belated birthday present of two bags of liquorice. (He’s very fond of liquorice.)
We’re looking forward to another quiet night, and indeed to a quiet day tomorrow. It looks as if it’s going to be a slow and erratic thaw, so it’s probably going to be a couple of weeks before we’re able to move the boat again.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Still cold, but an end may be in sight
9th & 10th January
We’ve seen a bit more action over the last couple of days, especially yesterday. I’d set the heating to come on at half seven, and by eight we were drinking tea and thinking of getting up. The boat now being reasonably warm, we were able to wash, dress and breakfast in comparative comfort.
Shortly after nine we set off down the hill to the bus stop, where we caught the 9.25 into Poynton. Visits to the butchers, the bakers and Morrisons (no candles were required) meant that we had sufficient shopping to see us through the weekend.
We found ourselves with over half an hour to kill before the bus back to Higher Poynton, so went into Cafe 31 and regaled ourselves with a luxury hot chocolate and a decaff latte. The buses had managed to keep to time quite reasonably, and it was just after half eleven that we got back to the moorings.
Here we discovered that a cunning plan to supply all the boats with water had been put into effect. 60 metres of hose pipe had been passed across the canal to the water point, being brought ashore just at the start of the moored boats on our side. One of the 4x4 SUVs was loaded up with 25 litre water containers and was shuttling backwards and forwards, leaving a full set at one boat and collecting the empties from another.
We went back to Sanity, unpacked and put away the shopping, and managed to get a soup and sandwich lunch before it was our turn for the water. Having filled our tank, we went and did what we could to help with what was now a very efficient operation.
It was another good example of members of the boating community helping one another, like the fact that we found that one of our neighbour boaters, Will from Badger, had swept the snow from the edge of the mooring alongside both our boat and his.
Today has been quieter; the weather is noticeably less cold, though paradoxically it makes the packed snow trickier to walk on, as it is becoming wet on top. Up until now, the cold has been so fierce that the snow has remained dry and crunchy even when stood upon or driven on. We’ve spent most of the day in the boat, mostly doing internet stuff.
I had remembered some things I had meant to include in the Building Sanity Again blog, so I’ve done an extra post there. We’ve also caught up with various emails, and Sheila has started a new crochet pattern.
We did venture out this afternoon, with the excuse of taking some rubbish to the skip, but the weather is now rather damp, windy and generally not encouraging, so we’ve been happy to stay in by the fire for the remainder of the day. The forecast is gradually becoming more hopeful, with some strengthening indications that we can look for a thaw to start next weekend. Even if this comes to pass, it is likely to be a couple of weeks before there is any prospect of moving the boat, so thick is the ice.
We’ve seen a bit more action over the last couple of days, especially yesterday. I’d set the heating to come on at half seven, and by eight we were drinking tea and thinking of getting up. The boat now being reasonably warm, we were able to wash, dress and breakfast in comparative comfort.
Shortly after nine we set off down the hill to the bus stop, where we caught the 9.25 into Poynton. Visits to the butchers, the bakers and Morrisons (no candles were required) meant that we had sufficient shopping to see us through the weekend.
We found ourselves with over half an hour to kill before the bus back to Higher Poynton, so went into Cafe 31 and regaled ourselves with a luxury hot chocolate and a decaff latte. The buses had managed to keep to time quite reasonably, and it was just after half eleven that we got back to the moorings.
Here we discovered that a cunning plan to supply all the boats with water had been put into effect. 60 metres of hose pipe had been passed across the canal to the water point, being brought ashore just at the start of the moored boats on our side. One of the 4x4 SUVs was loaded up with 25 litre water containers and was shuttling backwards and forwards, leaving a full set at one boat and collecting the empties from another.
We went back to Sanity, unpacked and put away the shopping, and managed to get a soup and sandwich lunch before it was our turn for the water. Having filled our tank, we went and did what we could to help with what was now a very efficient operation.
It was another good example of members of the boating community helping one another, like the fact that we found that one of our neighbour boaters, Will from Badger, had swept the snow from the edge of the mooring alongside both our boat and his.
Today has been quieter; the weather is noticeably less cold, though paradoxically it makes the packed snow trickier to walk on, as it is becoming wet on top. Up until now, the cold has been so fierce that the snow has remained dry and crunchy even when stood upon or driven on. We’ve spent most of the day in the boat, mostly doing internet stuff.
I had remembered some things I had meant to include in the Building Sanity Again blog, so I’ve done an extra post there. We’ve also caught up with various emails, and Sheila has started a new crochet pattern.
We did venture out this afternoon, with the excuse of taking some rubbish to the skip, but the weather is now rather damp, windy and generally not encouraging, so we’ve been happy to stay in by the fire for the remainder of the day. The forecast is gradually becoming more hopeful, with some strengthening indications that we can look for a thaw to start next weekend. Even if this comes to pass, it is likely to be a couple of weeks before there is any prospect of moving the boat, so thick is the ice.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Friday, 8 January 2010
Keeping warm
7th & 8th January
This really is going to be a short post, as we've just been lurking in the boat for the last two days, sallying forth to get water to top up the tank once a day and otherwise pottering about inside with the fire blazing away.
Yesterday it was cold enough that the Houdini frame had frost on it, on the inside, at midday.
The main event this morning was our trip to see how Sanity Again was coming on, and that's covered in the post I've just done on the BSA blog. We took the chance to get showers whilst we were over there, and to run a wash load in their machine.
We are only very slowly using the water in the bow tank this way, so hopefully we can last out for a few weeks yet.
It looks as if we may have to.
Tomorrow we are going to summon our courage and make an expedition to Poynton for supplies, since the bus service is running once more.
This really is going to be a short post, as we've just been lurking in the boat for the last two days, sallying forth to get water to top up the tank once a day and otherwise pottering about inside with the fire blazing away.
Yesterday it was cold enough that the Houdini frame had frost on it, on the inside, at midday.
The main event this morning was our trip to see how Sanity Again was coming on, and that's covered in the post I've just done on the BSA blog. We took the chance to get showers whilst we were over there, and to run a wash load in their machine.
We are only very slowly using the water in the bow tank this way, so hopefully we can last out for a few weeks yet.
It looks as if we may have to.
Tomorrow we are going to summon our courage and make an expedition to Poynton for supplies, since the bus service is running once more.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Snow has fallen, snow on snow...
5th & 6th January
The weather has continued over the last couple of days as it seems to be intent to go on for the foreseeable future. We had heavy snow the night before last and there’s about six inches now lying where it’s undisturbed. I nipped out immediately after breakfast and took some pictures:
In the middle of the morning we walked over to the yard to see if we could beg a shower apiece, but Peter Mason hadn’t made it in and the bungalow was all closed up. A handful of the men had arrived so some work was going on.
During the morning I had an email from Austin Siviter with a scan of the manual for his Webasto timer attached. This was very helpful, and I forwarded it on to Susan Mason. To my surprise the email bounced with an error message, as did a copy sent to Peter.
I gave Peter a ring on his mobile to let him know that this was happening, and he called back just after lunch to say that they had been having the problem which I described in my last post here. He had made it in to the yard, and was happy for us to come and use the ablutions.
When we got there he was investigating the problem with their web host and I was able to give him some advice and support as he did so. In the event, he’s been able to get everything back up and running today and emails are once more getting through.
The moral is to use large and well found operations for web hosting if your business depends on it. Third party resellers may appear to offer simple and attractive deals but you are always vulnerable to them just disappearing overnight and leaving your customers wondering why you are not replying to their emails.
We had planned to go shopping today, but it is still very treacherous underfoot, so we have spent the day in and around the moorings instead. It has meant baking bread from one of the kits we have in store, but then that is why we keep them.
By the end of the week we will need to do something about fresh bread, fruit and veg, but for the moment we are just going to sit tight.
Using the two 8 litre water carriers to top up the tank every day means that we are almost keeping pace with our usage, so apart from the fresh food problem we can last out for several weeks like this; it looks as if we may have to.
I gather this is now being described as the coldest winter for thirty years, but I haven’t seen that on any official website yet.
The weather has continued over the last couple of days as it seems to be intent to go on for the foreseeable future. We had heavy snow the night before last and there’s about six inches now lying where it’s undisturbed. I nipped out immediately after breakfast and took some pictures:
In the middle of the morning we walked over to the yard to see if we could beg a shower apiece, but Peter Mason hadn’t made it in and the bungalow was all closed up. A handful of the men had arrived so some work was going on.
During the morning I had an email from Austin Siviter with a scan of the manual for his Webasto timer attached. This was very helpful, and I forwarded it on to Susan Mason. To my surprise the email bounced with an error message, as did a copy sent to Peter.
I gave Peter a ring on his mobile to let him know that this was happening, and he called back just after lunch to say that they had been having the problem which I described in my last post here. He had made it in to the yard, and was happy for us to come and use the ablutions.
When we got there he was investigating the problem with their web host and I was able to give him some advice and support as he did so. In the event, he’s been able to get everything back up and running today and emails are once more getting through.
The moral is to use large and well found operations for web hosting if your business depends on it. Third party resellers may appear to offer simple and attractive deals but you are always vulnerable to them just disappearing overnight and leaving your customers wondering why you are not replying to their emails.
We had planned to go shopping today, but it is still very treacherous underfoot, so we have spent the day in and around the moorings instead. It has meant baking bread from one of the kits we have in store, but then that is why we keep them.
By the end of the week we will need to do something about fresh bread, fruit and veg, but for the moment we are just going to sit tight.
Using the two 8 litre water carriers to top up the tank every day means that we are almost keeping pace with our usage, so apart from the fresh food problem we can last out for several weeks like this; it looks as if we may have to.
I gather this is now being described as the coldest winter for thirty years, but I haven’t seen that on any official website yet.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Braidbar email problem
Braidbar's web host was the subject of an attack before Christmas which added a load of malware code to the sites hosted there. In addition, the SMTP server was compromised, such that email since 17 December hasn't been getting through.
The web host has been promising that it was all sorted, but they are no longer answering the phone or replying to email, and it looks as if they've gone the way of all flesh.
Fortunately, when Peter Mason took over the company, he transferred the domain name registration from the web host to Braidbar. It now turns out that the web host was reselling space on 123.com servers, and that 123 is the Registrar for the domain.
This means that Peter is able to buy a new hosting package direct from 123 and transfer the domain there fairly easily. However, it'll take 48 hours or so to get it all sorted, and in the meantime no email is getting through. Peter will email his contacts book when he's back on line. In the meantime, any urgent emails can be sent to me at bruce(at)nbsanity.me.uk, and I'll forward them to his personal email address.
The web host has been promising that it was all sorted, but they are no longer answering the phone or replying to email, and it looks as if they've gone the way of all flesh.
Fortunately, when Peter Mason took over the company, he transferred the domain name registration from the web host to Braidbar. It now turns out that the web host was reselling space on 123.com servers, and that 123 is the Registrar for the domain.
This means that Peter is able to buy a new hosting package direct from 123 and transfer the domain there fairly easily. However, it'll take 48 hours or so to get it all sorted, and in the meantime no email is getting through. Peter will email his contacts book when he's back on line. In the meantime, any urgent emails can be sent to me at bruce(at)nbsanity.me.uk, and I'll forward them to his personal email address.
Labels:
Special
Monday, 4 January 2010
Baby, it's even colder outside
3rd & 4th January
It looks as if the next few days are going to be much of a muchness, so these posts may be quite short for a while.
Yesterday we woke to a bright morning after a cold night and pottered about for a bit after breakfast. Then we summoned our reserves of energy and used the self pump out machine to empty most of the toilet tank into the septic tank. Luisa had told us that it was due to be emptied later this month, which is just as well as it is now quite full.
After lunch, we serviced the engine, doing a routine oil and filter change and I topped up the batteries as usual.
In view of the wintery conditions, I made a particularly substantial stew for dinner, which we had with creamed potato and lightly steamed Savoy cabbage; comfort food just when it’s needed.
It was seriously cold last night, and we were told that the temperature this morning was -8 or -9ºC. We’ve now boated through many winters, including some very cold ones, but this was the first time for us that the ice was gripping the boat so hard that it did not move when we walked round inside. Normally, you know you are frozen in when you get out of bed first thing in the morning and there’s a crunching noise as the boat rocks and the edge of the ice scrapes against the hull. This morning it was eerily silent.
This was the morning when we were supposed to be undertaking the delayed tow of the next Braidbar shell, but there was no remote possibility of that happening. We gathered together some stuff for recycling, including the used oil from yesterday, and cautiously walked down to the Braidbar yard.
The going is as tricky underfoot as it has been all winter, with hard packed snow turning to ice in many places. We called in at the yard to say Happy New Year to folk and to ask for some advice about the Webasto timer/programmer on Just Siviting. I wanted to check that its settings were correct, since we are keeping an eye on it at the moment.
They did not have a manual to hand, but I got enough information from Peter Mason to let me work out what was going on.
Having disposed of our recycling we tried a different route back to the canal side so as to avoid the worst of the slippy stuff, but everywhere is much the same. You really need crampons on your boots to walk on it safely.
After lunch, we moved a couple of bags of coal from their stack to the bow as the coal box was getting low. Sheila had the bright idea of using our wood carrying bag as a cradle for carrying the coal and this worked very well; it let us stand up straight with the bag between us and walk on a much firmer and more balanced base.
We then ambled down to the water point to refill one of our small containers, and found a gang of the other moorers there filling big drums in the back of a 4x4. Some of these moorers get all their water this way; they don’t seem to take their boat off the mooring even when they could do so.
The rest of the afternoon has been spent quietly on the boat. I’m planning more comfort food tonight in the shape of a haggis with mashed potato and a mixture of carrots and parsnips.
The weather forecasts are giving the first hints of a possible thaw starting this time next week, but it’s far too soon to get excited about that.
It looks as if the next few days are going to be much of a muchness, so these posts may be quite short for a while.
Yesterday we woke to a bright morning after a cold night and pottered about for a bit after breakfast. Then we summoned our reserves of energy and used the self pump out machine to empty most of the toilet tank into the septic tank. Luisa had told us that it was due to be emptied later this month, which is just as well as it is now quite full.
After lunch, we serviced the engine, doing a routine oil and filter change and I topped up the batteries as usual.
In view of the wintery conditions, I made a particularly substantial stew for dinner, which we had with creamed potato and lightly steamed Savoy cabbage; comfort food just when it’s needed.
It was seriously cold last night, and we were told that the temperature this morning was -8 or -9ºC. We’ve now boated through many winters, including some very cold ones, but this was the first time for us that the ice was gripping the boat so hard that it did not move when we walked round inside. Normally, you know you are frozen in when you get out of bed first thing in the morning and there’s a crunching noise as the boat rocks and the edge of the ice scrapes against the hull. This morning it was eerily silent.
This was the morning when we were supposed to be undertaking the delayed tow of the next Braidbar shell, but there was no remote possibility of that happening. We gathered together some stuff for recycling, including the used oil from yesterday, and cautiously walked down to the Braidbar yard.
The going is as tricky underfoot as it has been all winter, with hard packed snow turning to ice in many places. We called in at the yard to say Happy New Year to folk and to ask for some advice about the Webasto timer/programmer on Just Siviting. I wanted to check that its settings were correct, since we are keeping an eye on it at the moment.
They did not have a manual to hand, but I got enough information from Peter Mason to let me work out what was going on.
Having disposed of our recycling we tried a different route back to the canal side so as to avoid the worst of the slippy stuff, but everywhere is much the same. You really need crampons on your boots to walk on it safely.
After lunch, we moved a couple of bags of coal from their stack to the bow as the coal box was getting low. Sheila had the bright idea of using our wood carrying bag as a cradle for carrying the coal and this worked very well; it let us stand up straight with the bag between us and walk on a much firmer and more balanced base.
We then ambled down to the water point to refill one of our small containers, and found a gang of the other moorers there filling big drums in the back of a 4x4. Some of these moorers get all their water this way; they don’t seem to take their boat off the mooring even when they could do so.
The rest of the afternoon has been spent quietly on the boat. I’m planning more comfort food tonight in the shape of a haggis with mashed potato and a mixture of carrots and parsnips.
The weather forecasts are giving the first hints of a possible thaw starting this time next week, but it’s far too soon to get excited about that.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Cold start to 2010
Christmas and New Year
As so often happens, the New Year has continued the themes of the pre-Christmas period; for us boaters the main one has been surviving the cold weather. The canal continued frozen until just before New Year’s Eve, and, having had a quiet but very enjoyable Christmas Day, on Boxing Day we were getting seriously worried about the level in the water tank.
Fortunately, Will from Badger leant us some 25 litre drums and the key to the dumper which Elanor volunteered to drive (Elanor drives dumpers and mini diggers for wrg). Three of the drums already contained water and as we were decanting these into the tank Mick from Jacktar arrived in his four wheel drive Transit.
He insisted on taking the drums for us, and he and I filled them at the water point. As we were emptying these into the tank, David from Thea came along, Sheila having let him know what we were doing. He promptly gave a hand and then went off with Mick to get some water for his own boat. Meantime, Elanor started the dumper anyway and drove it up and down the track to try and break up the hard packed snow and ice.
The whole thing was an excellent example of boaters working together to deal with a difficult situation.
We also pumped out half the toilet tank, so that we were a lot more comfortable with the state of affairs.
On Sunday, three boats made it through the softening ice to the water point, Katalina taking the lead in reverse. Paul’s technique was to back up to the edge of the pack ice and then put the engine in forward gear, so that the disturbance of the prop wash broke up the pack and the boat could nudge its way into it.
On Monday we worked down to the water point ourselves, Sheila standing on the bow podging with the short shaft. We filled the tank, reversed onto the shop mooring (the shop being closed), had showers and ran two wash loads, and then went back onto the water point to refill. It being a flat calm, it wasn’t too difficult to reverse back to our mooring; the winding hole opposite the water point was still solid.
On Tuesday, we walked down into Poynton for supplies and whilst waiting at the bus stop were spotted by Peter Mason, who was on his way up to the yard to check that things were OK. Whilst he was giving us a lift, we told him we were a bit concerned about Just Siviting.
Austin and Liz are unable to get to their boat during the winter and we knew that they had left the heating set to run for a couple of hours every night. Austin believed that his solar panel would replace the electricity used by the Webasto, but we were not at all sure of this, especially as it had not occurred to us to sweep the snow off it for him until it had been covered for several days.
Peter had a set of keys for Just Siviting and gave them to us so that we could check it out. The batteries were indeed well run down, but not to the point where the Webasto had stopped working, and all looked well inside the boat. We left the engine running and gave the Webasto an extra hour just for luck.
Since then, we’ve been keeping an eye on the boat; I gave the engine another run just yesterday.
I think the only notable thing to report from Wednesday was a brief failure of my logic function. To save water, we’ve been flushing the loo with canal water dipped up in a bucket from a hole broken in the ice. Before we went down to the water point, Sanity had been sitting a little distance off the bank and we’d kept the ice broken between boat and bank to facilitate bucket dipping.
After our run down the canal, Sanity came in much more neatly, giving me cause to complain that it was now a long stretch forward to get the bucket in the (now ice free) water. Sheila looked at me blankly for a moment and said “But you can dip it off the other side now.”
She finally persuaded me to stop banging my head on the wall, as we are trying to sell the boat.
On New Year’s Eve there was very little ice to be seen, but the forecast was not encouraging. Accordingly, after we had been shopping (and got a lift back with Iain and Luisa this time) we took the boat out down to the Trading Post and filled her diesel tank. Then we reversed back onto the empty hire boat mooring to eat lunch, have showers and run wash loads, and then went onto the water point to refill.
Whilst this was going on, Stewart Hooper came past and we were able to order another ten bags of coal. He had delivered these by the time we got back to our mooring. Thus we now have coal, water and diesel to last for quite some time. We need to pump out again, but this can be done tomorrow.
New Year’s Day saw the forecasters vindicated as the cut was frozen solid once more. Whilst out for a short walk with Elanor we were surprised to see Dapper Dan force his way off his towpath mooring on the Deeps; later we saw him crunching past the moorings apparently heading for High Lane.
Today’s weather has brought snow in rather larger quantities than forecast. Elanor took us shopping to Handforth Dean, but had to leave her car at the bottom of the hill on the bridge over the Middlewood Way when we got back. Nonetheless it meant only a short carry to the boat with three of us to do the job. We are now well stocked with the heavy stuff like milk, fruit juice and red wine, so we can face the next week or so with some equanimity.
We have a couple of 8 litre water containers which we are using in the galley so that the only demand for water from the bow tank is for washing and washing up. The yard will reopen next week, so we will be able to beg showers and the use of a washing machine from them.
As so often happens, the New Year has continued the themes of the pre-Christmas period; for us boaters the main one has been surviving the cold weather. The canal continued frozen until just before New Year’s Eve, and, having had a quiet but very enjoyable Christmas Day, on Boxing Day we were getting seriously worried about the level in the water tank.
Fortunately, Will from Badger leant us some 25 litre drums and the key to the dumper which Elanor volunteered to drive (Elanor drives dumpers and mini diggers for wrg). Three of the drums already contained water and as we were decanting these into the tank Mick from Jacktar arrived in his four wheel drive Transit.
He insisted on taking the drums for us, and he and I filled them at the water point. As we were emptying these into the tank, David from Thea came along, Sheila having let him know what we were doing. He promptly gave a hand and then went off with Mick to get some water for his own boat. Meantime, Elanor started the dumper anyway and drove it up and down the track to try and break up the hard packed snow and ice.
The whole thing was an excellent example of boaters working together to deal with a difficult situation.
We also pumped out half the toilet tank, so that we were a lot more comfortable with the state of affairs.
On Sunday, three boats made it through the softening ice to the water point, Katalina taking the lead in reverse. Paul’s technique was to back up to the edge of the pack ice and then put the engine in forward gear, so that the disturbance of the prop wash broke up the pack and the boat could nudge its way into it.
On Monday we worked down to the water point ourselves, Sheila standing on the bow podging with the short shaft. We filled the tank, reversed onto the shop mooring (the shop being closed), had showers and ran two wash loads, and then went back onto the water point to refill. It being a flat calm, it wasn’t too difficult to reverse back to our mooring; the winding hole opposite the water point was still solid.
On Tuesday, we walked down into Poynton for supplies and whilst waiting at the bus stop were spotted by Peter Mason, who was on his way up to the yard to check that things were OK. Whilst he was giving us a lift, we told him we were a bit concerned about Just Siviting.
Austin and Liz are unable to get to their boat during the winter and we knew that they had left the heating set to run for a couple of hours every night. Austin believed that his solar panel would replace the electricity used by the Webasto, but we were not at all sure of this, especially as it had not occurred to us to sweep the snow off it for him until it had been covered for several days.
Peter had a set of keys for Just Siviting and gave them to us so that we could check it out. The batteries were indeed well run down, but not to the point where the Webasto had stopped working, and all looked well inside the boat. We left the engine running and gave the Webasto an extra hour just for luck.
Since then, we’ve been keeping an eye on the boat; I gave the engine another run just yesterday.
I think the only notable thing to report from Wednesday was a brief failure of my logic function. To save water, we’ve been flushing the loo with canal water dipped up in a bucket from a hole broken in the ice. Before we went down to the water point, Sanity had been sitting a little distance off the bank and we’d kept the ice broken between boat and bank to facilitate bucket dipping.
After our run down the canal, Sanity came in much more neatly, giving me cause to complain that it was now a long stretch forward to get the bucket in the (now ice free) water. Sheila looked at me blankly for a moment and said “But you can dip it off the other side now.”
She finally persuaded me to stop banging my head on the wall, as we are trying to sell the boat.
On New Year’s Eve there was very little ice to be seen, but the forecast was not encouraging. Accordingly, after we had been shopping (and got a lift back with Iain and Luisa this time) we took the boat out down to the Trading Post and filled her diesel tank. Then we reversed back onto the empty hire boat mooring to eat lunch, have showers and run wash loads, and then went onto the water point to refill.
Whilst this was going on, Stewart Hooper came past and we were able to order another ten bags of coal. He had delivered these by the time we got back to our mooring. Thus we now have coal, water and diesel to last for quite some time. We need to pump out again, but this can be done tomorrow.
New Year’s Day saw the forecasters vindicated as the cut was frozen solid once more. Whilst out for a short walk with Elanor we were surprised to see Dapper Dan force his way off his towpath mooring on the Deeps; later we saw him crunching past the moorings apparently heading for High Lane.
Today’s weather has brought snow in rather larger quantities than forecast. Elanor took us shopping to Handforth Dean, but had to leave her car at the bottom of the hill on the bridge over the Middlewood Way when we got back. Nonetheless it meant only a short carry to the boat with three of us to do the job. We are now well stocked with the heavy stuff like milk, fruit juice and red wine, so we can face the next week or so with some equanimity.
We have a couple of 8 litre water containers which we are using in the galley so that the only demand for water from the bow tank is for washing and washing up. The yard will reopen next week, so we will be able to beg showers and the use of a washing machine from them.
Labels:
Higher Poynton
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