Wednesday 28 January 2009

Weekly Update

We didn't get to TRB last weekend...life was just to busy. We are planning to spend Friday night on-board and I am guessing if Saturday morning is nice we will take a trip out and have some lunch at Tixel Wide or somewhere pretty.

We have a 12v lighting system with little halogen spot lights dotted around the boat and they are great and give off plenty of light, all of the bulbs are 20 watt and are bright. Just over he bed we have a cupboard and this is directly over where our heads are. There are two reading lights...both 20 watt!!! that nearly burn your eyes out. I popped to Tesco yesterday and found they do these bulbs and I found some 10watt....lets hope our sight is saved ;-)

Oh yeah and they are a heck of a lot cheaper than Midland Chandlers (which isn't hard)

Friday 23 January 2009

TRB Update after the weekend

Yay!!! Mr Gasman has fixed the gas on board and it is now working. I popped to TRB this afternoon to see if Mr Gasman had been and that things were OK. So at the moment everything is shipshape and Bristol fashion....... well she does need a service and a blacking....


We are all set for a good season.... Lets us hope the Weather is with us this year, the pubs are open and the locks are working. If you see us give us a wave or even say hello we are quite friendly...most of the time.

Saturday 17 January 2009

First Night onboard this year

I arrived at the marina at around lunch time on Friday and saw a van saying C.O.R.G.I Gas Man...ohh I thought, I wouldn't mind him running an eye over my boat, I had lost a bottle gas over the Christmas period, and was slightly concerned...so I popped into the marine engineers to ask if he could pop to TRB. John said he was on board an Ownerships boat and to go and have a word. with Derek the Gas Man, So I did. Derek is an old school gas engineer. He said he would pop down in an hour, true to his word he came along and I explained about losing a bottle of gas...he tested the pipes, and he said yep there was a leak. After about 30 minutes he had found where it was from, a bulkhead fitting and it was leaking into the insulation, that couldn't be fixed there and then. He went away and did another job he had booked in, then came back, set about stripping the fittings. He then said ...I will have make up some parts for you...I'll be back Monday....MONDAY we were about to spend the night...and had no gas, that meant no cooking. We have an electric kettle, so we could have a mug or two of tea.

Yay, we had our first over night on TRB this year, and all was well, in spite of no gas. Well ,I was awoken in the night, by the wind and went to sleep on the hammock as I didn't want to disturb Mrs EB. Last night was very windy and being in a hammock in the wind is strange, I loved it at first, but after about half an hour I was feeling a little sick. I stuck my IPod on and listened to Stephen Fry's podcasts, that seemed to help, then it started to rain, and boy did it rain....it sounded like a machine gun was being fired against the boat, I think I got about 6 hours sleep.

So I woke up very late 10:30!!! after breakfast I suggested a short run up to Tixel Wide, just to give TRB a New Year wake up. So after making her ready we set off, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, there didn't seem to be any other boats about all was well with world. Then Mrs EB said the kettle wasn't working or the microwave...mmmm I thought. I explained how to reset the inverter. Still no joy, bugger I thought, Mrs EB took the tiller and I went to investigate...I got the manual (yeah I know but when all else fails) I couldn't find anything. I checked everything I could, but there was no power to the inverter. I thought oh crap, the inverter is broken. So I said to Mrs EB we had better turn around and head back. So after a few minutes we were at Tixel Wide Mrs EB turned her around and back toe the marina we headed.

We got back to the marina and I moored up at the marine engineers and went to find Jon, who was painting a boat, I said HEYLP!!!! he came and had a check, the main fuse was blown ,a 200amp fuse!!!!! He fitted a new 300amp fuse and hey presto all was working again. We moored up in our birth, had lunch and a mug of tea. Not the greatest starts to the year, but we have moved and had a run. Lets hope the rest of the year is going to be fantastic, with some great tips with friends.

Sunday 11 January 2009

New Year.

I haven't blogged in ages I am sorry, but the honest truth is, there hasn't really been much to Blog about. I did pop up to the The Robber Button last week and started to fix the central heating. It had a leak and that meant it wasn't working. It is a pressurised system so if the water level drops it will not work. So to it has been so cold we haven't been up. to the boat Well this is about to change it will be fixed this week so hopefully from next weekend we will be back onboard. Yay

So there should be something to blog about.....

The Marina has been frozen solid, and it is quite a beautiful sight but also very sad. The Marina is usually quite a busy place, boats coming and going but when it is frozen solid...nothing moves everything is still.