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

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)

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.

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.

Bank Holiday Monday

Mrs EB and I went to TRB after Sunday Evenings service, we had a nice evening of just relaxing. Monday morning we had a nice planned trip, Cathy, Gaye, Andy and Zach arrived and off we set.

Mrs EB and I planned a short day trip heading north to Sandon Lock it's about a 3 hour trip with 3 locks and some beautiful countryside.


Entering Sandon Lock
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Andy trying to do the splits via a Lock wall and The Robber Button

The Day Crew minus the Galley Slave

The trip had a short break at Weston where Andy and I went for a swifty at the Woolpack (Mmmm sweet sweet beer). Then Mrs EB had the brightest idea ever, she decided to light the disposable BBQ in the galley, this was quickly put on the roof of the boat, and even quicker some logs were put under it until I could find a mooring!!!! To make it worse, Mrs EB left the cardboard wrapper on. (a quite scary few minutes)

I have to say we had an amazing day and Mrs EB cooked us a wonderful lunch and of course we had a small glass of wine or a little bottle of beer



This was a fantastic day out with some great 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.

Days 5 & 6

Day 5 we started to head back to Great Haywood, though did do a U Turn up the Leek Branch of Caldon Canal. That was so beautiful and so pretty.
After that little trip we just kept going..... It was very interesting to notice once 6 pm came most boats were moored up for the night. It is mid summer and the nights are very long, we got to Hanley Park at about 7 pm and watched a few drug deals!! and something else...not very nice but I am guessing that is life there. I really think that the Police should be there.
Anyhoo we went through Stoke and out the other side and by 10 we were both shattered and moored up in a park.

Day 6 we awoke about 8:30 and about 10 am we set off again and just took it nice and steady at about 1200 rpm and by 7 pmish we were at Great Haywood, coming down the Trent & Mersey at about 6pm the sun was amazing it was Golden Hour and the countryside was ablaze with gold’s and other rich colours, both Mrs EB and I were just so enthralled by the light and colours.

Highs of the trip.

Spending some great us time with Mrs EB
Seeing all the wildlife and countryside
Going to The Railway at Froghall
Meeting all the nice Narrowboaters

Lows

The Black Sheep Pub
The ignorant Narrowboaters (only met 2)
The Rain