Nice weekends and crappy boat handling

My friend Ed thinking

I arrived at Great Haywood Friday afternoon to do a few jobs on TRB, there are always a few jobs to do, I don't know why, but there are. So I set about fiddling and fixing, Mrs EB arrived at around 6pm and I made coffee, we listened to The Now Show an excellent half an hour, then we tootled off to Stone by car for a curry. Castle Balti I think it is called does a fine curry and has large portions. On our way there I received a TXT from a friend to ask if his family could visit TRB the next day, I check with Mrs EB and I called him back.

The Day crew working the lock

Saturday was a little over cast and quite windy to start off with but that burned off, our friends arrived and off we set, well if only it was simple. I was having one of those days, I tried to help J&J move a boat, but for the life of me I couldn't turn it in the wind, setting off with TRB I had problems getting out of the marina. Later that afternoon, turning at the winding hole above Sandon Lock a BW Boat was moored on the winding!!!! so that proved a nightmare, then getting back into Great Haywood I missjudged the turning and that was as messy as it could get...with someone asking if we needed help. I don't think I could have been more embarrassed if I tried.....

Some of the day crew resting after a little liquid lunch

Well apart from all of that we had a wonderful day, some great company and some good unwinding time with a family I think are wonderful. It gave us time to talk time to laugh and time to just be with friends.... excellent. We went to Western first for a pint and then up to Sandon for the winding, its a nice few hours 3 locks and wonderful countryside and lots of peace and quiet.

More days like these please without the crappy me bits.

Easter

Easter weekend was taken with commitments to our Church and on Bank Holiday Monday with a wedding... We did manage an over night stay on Good Friday evening which was just wonderful. When we woke on Saturday morning the weather couldn't have been any better but we didn't really have the time to go out, we did pop out in the car for an hour.
I am so looking forward to an extended stay on board but time and other commitments seem to be against us that moment, so I am living vicariously via everyone's blog's keep them up with your travels!!!

Boat Handling and Dr Who

Easter is up on us, and I guess its the first big break when boaters will brave the canals of England, the schools are on holiday and the hire boats are all polished ready to go. We wont be going out as we have commitments else where at Church. Though a night on board will be had on Friday and maybe a lazy day Saturday. The problem with not having a TV on board is I am a massive Dr Who fan and Saturday evening is a one of the 4 Dr Who's of this year, I will record it, but I know all too well come Sunday morning at Church everyone will be talking about it and all will be told from how handsome David Tennant looked to the SFX and even the plot will be discussed (we do go to a lively and full Church of about 400 people...) So if I don't watch it Saturday there will be no point. Sorry about that waffle, back to the blog about boat handling...

When we bought TRB in September 2007 we had a one day boat handling course (our only real handling upto that point) and then we were left to it. I do find it kind of strange, if you have any other motor propelled vehicle you have to have a test, you don't have to have lessons, but you must pass a test, but not for the inland waterways? Anyhoo we had the one day boat handling and off we set. Mrs EB had to go back to work on day 3 so I was on my own and was not happy when I ended up bouncing TRB around a lock. For a time after that first trip I didn't enjoy steering TRB but I pushed through it and now I love taking her out and seeing the beautiful English countryside.

I have taken TRB out a few times over the winter and this has proved to be invaluable in the learning curve on boat handling, it has been a slow process learning how to manoeuvre a 57 foot boat backwards whilst steering and using the wind to get her into her mooring. But over the winter that is what I have done and I am proud to say I can now do it and in the strong wind coming from either direction, using under steer or over steer. It isn't always the prettiest sight to watch, but I do it without damage to either the Jetty, my neighbouring boat or TRB.

The day TRB was put back in after the blacking was windy and no one was around so I spent half an hour just playing, using the wind to blow me whilst I tried to manoeuvre around and into mooring letting it blow me sideways and back and forth, at one point a couple of asked if I needed help, I just said no thanks I am playing with wind, and they just said oh OK and looked at me as if I was simple and had been let out for a day to play on a boat.... then one of the Jon's of Jon & John the marine engineers asked if I wanted help, when I explained I was playing using the wind, he said bloody good idea, no one is around, get the experience!! You can't really practice at our marina as it is a busy and lively place most times and where we are moored we are on the path to the diesel and pump out and we are next to the marine engineers (a fortuitous spot) so boats are usually going past all day from morning till dusk. So I took the opportunity when I had it and played for a good half an hour and well worth it I think.

Well as the Hull is now blacked and the inside is ship shape I need to go up and really give TRB a jolly good wash and wax and get the winter grime off, I did give her jolly good wash and double wax with a friend before winter set in, but she is looking a little jaded now and needs a loving wash and she will be ready for an enjoyable year tootling around.

Boat Licences and non payers

When I am out and about on TRB (something we don't do enough) it really cheeses me off to see boats with an out of date licence or no licence being displayed. Why should they not pay to use the waterways when most others do? I know having 2000 miles of canals is hard to police, but our Marina is inspected regularly (I remember it being done twice in as many weeks around October 2008, we have strict rules at Great Haywood Marina about having insurance, Boat Safety and water licence). It seems to me the canals just outside are not inspected at all? I have seen long term moorer's at various points on the Staffs & Worsc and on the Trent & Mersey without a current licence being displayed.

Now reading an article on Granny Buttons about the Oxford it seems just maybe BW are actually doing something about it. It would be a good thing for BW to get something done about it, it would actually make finacial sense to have all of the revenue come in wouldn't it? So wouldn't it actually pay them to hire a few more staff to walk the tow paths of our wonderful heritage and actually find the licence dodgers and either get them to pay up or take their boats and and sell or crush them? If these people actually thought they might just be caught they would do something about it, but as the chances of being caught is about the same as winning the lottery they take the chance.

Sorry rant over

The Wet Black Bottom is now in the water.

So today after 3 days of jet-washing, and painting The Robber Button was trailered back into the water, a slightly nerve racking experience. Jon Sharpe an expert with the tractor and trailer reversed the huge lifting trailer upto TRB

This is when an amazing piece of driving is needed, one slight misjudgement and our wonderful boat could be damaged beyond repair, John made it look very easy.

After a short time I climbed aboard the trailer and onto the stern of TRB whilst John drove up to the rear gates and then revered down the slipway, I put the tiller arm on and made her ready to reverse off the trailer. I have to say I was slightly nervous, the wind had got up and there were waves on the marina. It went very smoothly and I was soon reversing off the trailer and up to our mooring. I was just reversing onto our jetty when the wind took the bow.... and I had to start all over again, I have never done this on my own, Mrs EB usually grabs one of the guide ropes and pulls TRB in whilst I am guiding the boat in with the engine and tiller. It was interesting and fun, I was offered help by a couple of very helpful people, but I declined as I really wanted to achieve this on my own, and I did it!!!! yay

A Very Wet Black Bottom (day 3 of Blacking)

I drove to the Marina with a scowl on my face it was raining and boy was it raining. It was also very cold, but at least it wasn't freezing. There are rules to painting blacking on a boat, rule 1 You can't do it with the risk of freezing or at a temperature below zero and rule 2 you can't do it in the rain.

The port side of the boat was in the lee side of the wind and rain, so I managed to get that done pretty quickly, unfortunately the starboard side was in the wind and was really getting a battering. I couldn't do anything at all for about an hour and half as the rain was relentless. After that it did ease slightly, so armed with a drying cloth and my roller I started again only to be rained on again after about 15 minutes. That was how it was until the starboard was done about an hour or so later.

Now The Robber Button has a nice Blacked Bottom and is ready to be put back in to the water tomorrow afternoon.

To have the backing done by someone would have costed £7 per foot plus the lift out of £150. which is a whopping £549.00 I am guessing plus V.A.T. I do have to pay for the paint I have used, about 1/3 of a large tin which I am getting at trade from the wonderful Jon & John as I have been helping them out, so I have saved a heck of a lot of money which is just wonderful, as being out of work means no money, but I do have to say I am well tired and in need of a large curry and cold beer.

This is my first real D.I.Y job on TRB, I am not in the class of Mortimer Bones or Captain Ahab, but I do feel very proud of myself for having done some major D.I.Y work on The Robber Button.

Knowing that TRB will be back in the water tomorrow we have a weekend trip planned Mrs EB's sister is joining us and we will be popping out to find a pub on the cut for a meal and few glasses of something of the vine or from the Hop.

We have a Shiny Black Bottom!!!! (Blacking day 2)

So I arrived at Great Haywood in glorious sunshine. I was given an old paint brush and an old roller and a paint tray and off I went. Painting first with the brush the water line, I painted a good thick layer of bitumen paint 57 feet one side and 57 feet the other. Then I started on the roller and about 4 hours later she had a covering of blacking all over the hull and the swim.

I took a break at about 1pm and popped into Great Haywood and bought a lot of bacon for sandwiches and made us all bacon sarnies...Mmmmmm I love bacon sarnies. Then after lunch I used the roller again and painted the water line once again. That was that for the day, nature will take it's course and the paint will dry and tomorrow I can give TRB her final coat of Blacking.

TRB looks great with her Shiny Black Bottom.

Day 1 of Blacking (prep) (or cleaning a big dirty bottom)

I arrived at a rainy Great Haywood Marina, to be greeted by John and Jon I was to be the first boat pulled out. I helped John, for insurance reasons, John would sail the boat onto the trailer, basically if the boat was damaged or fell off the trailer I wouldn't be covered.

So by about 10:30 TRB was on the trailer being hauled out of the water. This is amazing to watch and is not an easy job, well I know I wouldn't want to reverse someone pride and joy and place it on blocks...... Anyhooo 8 large wooden blocks were placed under TRB and she was lowered onto them.





Once on them I made us all a cuppa and then I was shown the huge jet-washer, diesel powered and so strong that it is a fight to keep it spraying onto the hull of the boat. So for the next hour and half or so I was spraying the bottom of my boat, two and half years of grime and weed was just flying off, along with old paint and rust. With the help of very heavy rain, it was a very wet and messy business but highly enjoyable. The jet-washing job was done but it was raining and Jon and John had to go to do something away from the marina so I locked up a boat on stilts and headed home.

Tomorrow as long as it isn't raining too much the first coat of blacking will be going on.

To be honest her bottom wasn't too dirty and it would have lasted another year, but I am going on what I was told and that was 2 years should be the Maximum time between blacking's, she has never been blacked and I was really surprised that she wasn't as bad as I expected. One side had a heck of a lot of weed growing on it and some big rust pockets. It was also good to see first hand the propeller (read this link)

The Hammock

I thought I would add a couple of photo's from inside TRB below is the Galley and the Saloon, on the work top is the bulkhead hide from the bathroom where the leak has soaked it...well it is drying out nicely and I will be putting it back this weekend. Over the Kitchen hatch is the new fly screen which is a very welcome addition. The most comfortable bed in the world "The Hammock" it is just wonderful and is even better when it is a very windy night.....

Nice relaxing Saturdays

We arrived back from a cold Barcelona yesterday evening after eating and drinking far, far too much. Though Barcelona was cold it wasn't too cold to explore the labyrinth that is the Gothic Area, a wonderful place of tiny back streets crammed with tiny shops and Tapas bars or tapes bar as one said...hehehe

OK a heating update:- The central heating still has a slight weap on the feed to the bathroom radiator but I can live with that.... So after waking this morning we thought it was a fartoo nice a day not to go to The Robber Button. Arriving at Great Haywood Marina the sun was out and there was a definite feeling of spring in the air. It was decided to take TRB out and have bacon sandwiches and big mugs of tea moored up somewhere. So here was are moored at Tixall Wide, a coal fire burning away, Mrs EB sat in front of it reading her Dean Koontz book, I am listening to Miss Marple on BBC7, there is a large flock of black headed gulls flying around calling and a flock of sheep bleating away. There is quite a strong breeze staring up and to be honest all is wonderful with the world.

I believe that either next week or the week after TRB will be pulled out of the water for that blacking job that is looming...

Mini Update

Well I went to see if I still had a leak on the central heating and guess what? YES but it was only a small one. I have tightened up the nut a little more and also put some sealant around the joint... Lets wait and see...

It really gets my goat that I can't seem to fix the leak, but everything else seems to be OK, the boat is drying out but the bathroom & wardrobe doors still wont close...so I am guessing a good long stay on the boat will soon dry that out and they will fit again. It is getting a little closer to when TRB is taken out of the water for her blacking, I am also going to see about a little electrical job with the bilge pump. and brushing the flue, a full service and we should be all ship-shape for a good season of cruising.

No trip or visit last weekend as it's Mrs EB's 40th Birthday and we were out with friends having indian food and lots and lots of wine.

Weekly Update and Yay we went to Tixall Wide

We arrived at TRB just after 10:30pm on Friday evening, in fact just in time to open a bottle of red... though it was quite a cold bottle so it wasn't as good as could be, but it was OK.

We got up Saturday morning, the wind was mild, the marina wasn't frozen solid...so YAY!!! After breakfast I made TRB ready and off we went to Tixall Wide for a few hours, there wasn't a great deal of traffic and when we arrived there were plenty of moorings. I lit a coal fire and then went for a little walk and I found a nice log just the right size for the burner. It was so wonderful to be back out of the marina. I cooked us some bacon sandwiches for lunch then I went for a little walk with my scope and tripod, I saw 3 kestrels fighting!!!! what a wonderful thing.

About 3pm I popped outside again, Mrs EB was having a snooze. It was turning bitter cold so I made TRB ready to set off back....turning the engine over stirred Mrs EB, we set off and had a nice trip back. Back at the marina I filled her up and moored up.

I stopped off at my Dad and Mum's on the way back, my Dad before retirement was a plumber and we needed to fix the Central heating properly on TRB and also we needed to have a bit of carpentry done, so I asked if he would come and help me. I am such a klutz with D.I.Y !!! I am no Mortimer Bones, that is for sure. You want a a Sound Engineer or Hi-Fi sorting, a TV setting up, a Concert recorded and Mixed a PC sorted...no problem. You want D.I.Y ask my dad, so I did.

So today I went to my dads and off we set to do some D.I.Y on TRB, the first job was to fit a fly screen on the hatch... so my dad got out his electric wood plain and 10 tonnes of sawdust later I was sanding down what was a plinth and was now all even wood. Whilst I then varnished the frame, my dad was sorting out my central heating and "the dodgy T junction." This did mean me running around like an idiot turning off the radiators and refilling the header tank more than once...hehehe.

The varnish had dried on the hatch frame and we put up the fly screen, I then made us a bacon sandwiches and big mugs of tea, tidied up and then back home.

I will put some photo's of the inside of the boat soon, the hammock, the fly screen and the wood/coal burner.

Weekly TRB Update

I am a worrier and really wanted to pop over to TRB.... Both of us felt a little rough again this morning, but my migraine had lifted enough to drive over to Great Haywood. So about 10:30 we headed off to the marina, once there I was relieved to get on-board and see that all was well. Not even damp...Woop woop woop as the kids would say. But she was cold, I fired up the heating and the kettle and Mrs EB joined me on-board...she had poped off to post some letters.

With a mug of coffee in hand we went for a walk around the marina, it is so pretty with all the boats in and the water frozen solid... I had hoped to take her out to Tixel Wide but that wasn't going to happen.. the basin is in about 2inches of thick ice. A couple of boats moved about later in the afternoon and the noise of the ice breaking and the scraping of the ice taking the backing off the bottom of his boat and all the boats the ice was scraping against was painful.

Well once back on-board I made us some bacon sandwiches... these always taste much better on a boat, I don't know, why but they do. After lunch I went about checking oil, anti-freeze/coolant bleeding the radiators and making sure the engine bay was tidy, it does need a wet vac, I will do that on my visit. I then set the central heating to come on a 2nd time at night for an hour...at 3am, the weather forecaster said that it will mega cold tonight and may even get to minus 17!!!! We really don't want anything freezing and damaging TRB. So all is well and that is good.

Fiddle sticks

I am really unsure as to whether to try and get to "TRB". Staffs is under quite thick snow and the marina is round the back of a farm and I am guessing that hasn't been gritted nor the Village of Great Haywood. I really want to pop along and make sure that all is OK with her. I also feel quite bad today I seem to have a migraine that is just lurking in the back ground that has made it's presence felt after eating some cereal...nice. I know that I can call Jon and John the marine engineers there and they would pop onboard and give her the once over. Mmmmm I just feel restless... I would love to turn the engine over and get it nice and warm, turn the heating on and dry her out... But I also don't want to get stuck in the snow and ice in the car.... Maybe we can pop over in the morning?

Weekend Update

Last week was an interesting week, I was asked to do a little producing which is always good, and the team at Cube are always wonderful to do stuff for. I also got to work with great voice overs again.

On Friday I went over to our boat "The Robber Button" I got there about 3pm and turned on the heating and lit the fire, she does get very cold, I guess its having a portion of her in very cold water that does that.... She is also a little damp, it isn't bad and she soon dries out, but some of the internal doors are a little swollen. I don't really know a way of stopping this unless we leave the heating on about 50% of the time? I do have it come on for an hour a day...

I was hoping to take her out yesterday for a short trip, but the wind was quite strong and a 57 foot 20 tonne boat tends to act like a huge and very heavy sail when the wind hits her...not a good thing I can tell you. So we just stayed put in the marina. I cooked us a nice bacon sandwich for lunch and Mrs EB did some paper work on her laptop.

Oh well there is always next weekend

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.

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.

a little update

A little update:-

Sorry I haven't blogged, there is no excuse really.

So after our little week trip up the Caldon, we returned home for a few days then we did an overnight trip up to Handsacher as Mrs EB hadn't been along that part of the Trent Mersey as I had done that part with a friend Martin when I brought TRB to Great Haywood.

This was a really nice little trip that we both enjoyed. We have been up to the boat a few times and had a little trip out with Amy. Mrs EB also popped over on her own one evening and had a wonderful peaceful evening on her own.

I have popped up a couple of times to just check that all is ship shape and Bristol Fashion and it is, I have also taken my Hammock that Mrs bought for me from Brazil. I have asked John and Jon to put the fixing hooks up for me. I have also spent some time doing their website and putting them and the Marina on to Google maps.

An Update

Very sorry we havn't blogged lately. Here is a little bit of what we have been upto on The Robber Buuton.

We took Stephen and Vivian out for a trip up tp Weston, and passed Granny Buttons!!! though Andrew wasn't in..he had left the power on and had flat battery's for his return. The trip wasn't without a problem...our inverter went into safe mode? it also blew the main 30 amp fuse!!!! meaning no microwave or radio.....John and John at Great Haywood Marine services soon fixed this problem in the wek for us.

John and John at Great Haywood Marine services are the nicest and most friendly of guys and always do a top job if you are reading this and need some work doing.

Anyhoo last weekend we couldn't go out as I ripped a muscle in my chest, we did manage to get back up to Weston on Monday with Martin, Georgie and Adam and we had an excellent day, even if it was a tad wet to start off with.

We are off to Froghall in a few weeks.....we are both really looking forward to this trip.

Firemen

We spent Friday evening on the boat, Mrs EB had been in London since Wednesday and it was a nice place to meet. I cooked us Venison Steak and chips for tea Mmmmmmm scrummy.

In the morning after breakfast we had a visit from two really nice firemen who were at Great Haywood Marina to do fire safety inspections if you wanted one, they also fitted a new sort of smoke alarm. They are optical and are not set off by the usual cooking or burning of toast. I have also booked TRB in for a service before we start our outings for the year.

We are hoping for some nice weather and a few long weekends and then we are off on a few trips.