Better Late than never... Paddies Road Trip Part Deux

Fradley Junction, nice but middle of nowhere... for those of you who haven’t been there it consists of (as it says on the tin) the canal junction of Trent and Mersey with the Coventry canal, a water / elsan point, a workshop / painting facility, 4 locks, a cafe and a pub (The Swan / Mucky Duck)... there are a few houses and a canal-side shop but anyhoo a good place to visit especially when the pub gets taken over by an Irish folk gang (not really a band) and the little space left is rammed too.

We had a wander in the surrounding area but there’s not much to see... it all revolves around the 100m area centering on the junction... we had a good time and headed back on Monday - I enjoyed the time on the tiller but a pretty uneventful trip except for the random Hari Krishna sign someone had painted on the exposed trunk of a fallen tree facing onto the canal... turns out it was our new neighbour at Little Haywood... chances of that??!

One Month out in the real World and counting

It’s been a whole month since we escaped the Marina for the outside world... OK so we haven’t been far but that’s because we are waiting for Julie to finish her contract and retire from gainful employment (as I did last month)... Plan A is to then meet up with friends and do the Birmingham and Stratford areas over the Summer (better 2 boats than one on a City canal). We spent a couple of weeks at Tixall (including the trip to Fradley), did a water replen then moved down to Little Haywood... Next day I noticed the CRT bloke-on-a-bike taking notes - typical!!

The logistics of being ‘out-and-about’ are interesting - we are still juggling with how long batteries last (considering the lack of sunshine... how often and long running of the engine is needed) and what we can use on 12V or on the inverter, then there’s water - we are on day 8 tomorrow and that’s with normal use / showers / hand-washing... A Life on the Ocean Wave... About the worst thing is the state of the towpath the weather and the combination of the two; but if thats the worst thing then Yippee!!!

Dog Patrol - Pack on the move

OK, the humans keep changing the garden scenery... its good but you mark your patrol area and whoops, gone elsewhere, new markings to do... Went to the Chase on a long walk again today. They led us up and down lots of hills but the woods were cool until it rained severely and we all nearly drowned!! Oi owner, Dog, not Dogfish!!

St Paddies Road-trip Part 1

The outward trip:

So, think you have a plan? We did (short-term anyway) but, someone mentioned the ‘Mucky Duck’ having music and a good night out over the coming weekend sooo.... Julie wangled Monday off (swapped for Tuesday actually), went to GH and moored (after the obligatory logistical prep), to the pub last night to find out where is best to moor and dragged our butts up and under way by 8am! It was seriously misty so, headlight ON and full ahead (if slightly slower than intended) to Fradley Junction. It was so cold that the dogs were shivering on the roof (even with their hoodies on) so they were scooted indoors to help Julie make sausage / cheese butties and loadsa coffee...

The sun broke through by late morning and we had made it to Rugeley town centre by then - quick pit-stop at Tesco while the dogs stretched their legs on grass and I did running checks on the engine... figured out the trick of getting the washing machine running on the inverter with minimum fuss - add a kettle of boiling water to the first fill (reduces the work the heating element has to do to get the temp up to 30 deg C) to help raise the temperature of the water out of the tank... it works!!

Next stop was the Ash Tree water point on the edge of Rugely - all went well until Mozzer the Jack Russell (who is the most ‘at home’ on the roof and has tippy-toed deftly up there for the past 18 months) slipped, fell off as we were pulling in to tie up, hit the concrete toepath / bank and sploshed in between the bank and hull... we scooped him out almost before he had a chance to get wet and, although shaken, he seemed fine - muppet !!

Stopped for lunch on the far side of Handsacre then pushed on through the afternoon sunshine and Kings Bromley to the 3 locks at the top of Fradley Junction. The plan was to check out the mooring availability above the locks but preferably to reverse down the Coventry arm (just past the swing bridge and water points... Julie had walked on to check for a slot, came back to say OK and asked something while I was in mid-manoevre. I mistook what she said and ended up doing a 270 deg pirouette (well, 6 point turn) in the middle of the junction in-front of 20+ surprised and baffled locals and gongoozlers - the only saving grace being that I didn’t hit anything... we got to the mooring, got changed and hit the pub by 3pm... A successful, if not uneventful trip!!??

Dog Section News:

The humans dragged us out to the pub again last night then, while it was still sleeping time, fed us (good), stuck us on the roof (cold) where we couldn’t see ducks or squirrels for the mist (no point), put us inside where we couldn’t see jack-shit, then back on the roof when the sun eventually decided to get-up... 

Major Mozz mis-judged a reverse back summersault exit from the boat roof and went for a swim at one point but the humans put paid to that tout-suite. Still a good afternoon; 2 squirrels, 12 ducks, 2 swans and 1 rabbit spotted. Got dizzy from the last bit of the trip and then they dragged us into a different pub! Chief Ferry Officer Flo was so shattered she didn’t have the energy to yap at the last 2 passing dogs (got the even-cuterer-8-week-old-puppy in the pub though)- seems to be a contagious condition; all sleeping... over-and-out...

Out and About - But Not Far...

Day 10 in the No-Fixed-Abode Floating Gonzalez House-hold...

“The best laid plans of mice and men” could never take into account the CRT maintenance regime - we left Great Haywood Marina after giving our 90 day notice and took the risk that the weather would be mild enough for us to leave at the end of Feb (at the beginning of December it was a real gamble but the Marina said they would be happy to be ‘flexible’ on our leave date) but, because of work on the lock at Colwich, they closed down the section from GH to Colwich... I went for a wander to the lock with the dogs and the contractors re-lining the by-wash said it would be finished that day (2 weeks ago).... hey-hum!!

Sunset at Tixall Broadening

It’s been nice to sit at Tixall in this bright sunshine / cloudy stuff and watch the world go by (and do Amp-watch on my new solar controller (toy))... It seems that there’s enough of an input (even at this time of year) from the two 100W panels to cope with all our 12V equipment. Just have to run the engine and the inverter for the 240V equipment - chargers for laptop, phones, hoover and the washing machine....

We did a stack of washing before leaving civilization (?) and travelled all of 500m to the lock in GH hoping that it would be opened earlier than scheduled; we soon got fed up with that location and Julie was feeling a bit ‘hemmed-in’ so we had a change of plan, I deftly (slowly) performed a reverse double S and we popped down the Staffs & Worcs to Tixall where we have been doing the obligatory logistical experiments to see how long we can make a tank of water, WC cassette and battery charge last... all-in-all quite successful - just gotta ration the beer to align with required shopping trips!

As I’m retired now (HA!!!), all the jobs that need to be done (along with the ones I’ve been putting off), are being thrown my way... for example, today I cleaned out the P traps to the sinks, hoovered, scrubbed the kitchen floor and hall carpet, drove the boat back to the junction, filled the water tank and emptied the cassettes, and ran the washing machine for 2 loads (which worked spiffingly), as well as other smaller jobs and walking the dogs.... 

All Julie did was a days’ work, shopping, sort the washing and dry it, cook a marvelous tea and make me smile in-between... It’s definitely a team effort this relaxing lifestyle (blue and pink jobs). I think I’ll stick at it for now.

Flo at 10 weeks

The afore-mentioned dogs were recently boosted in numbers to two and a half - we got our puppy, Flo in December (a JackTeaser) and she is settling-in well to the boating lifestyle... 

Dog Section News:

The sprog (youngest member of the pack) decided today would be ‘barking day’ and did so (all morning) whilst the human was cleaning stuff... we think he got fed up so we were all banished to the roof bit while he drove us up to the water-point - spotted 5 ducks, several noisy geese, 2 fishermen, 1 heron and 0 squirrels (at least the sun was out so we could get some rays)... went for a walk after and Diddie got the usual canal dunking after a successful mud-diving episode. Worn out, sleeping duties all evening and onward thru the night....

Painting Stuff

Catchups:

Since our last input on the technical front, I’ve been busy over the Summer (such that it was), doing the remainder of the jobs we wanted / needed to complete before venturing out into the ‘big-bad-world’... here’s a summary - as always, I keep a lot of the detail for future reference and am willing to share info on request:

At £100 per foot (the accepted estimate from 2 boatyard sources) to have the boat painted,  we decided to DIY the task... 

After chatting to a few boaters and doing the research, I decided to cover over the upper hull section (above the rub-strip) and onto the gunwale step with blackening: The theory is that its easier to patch up if / when it gets damaged and (to quote Dave, ‘it’s a contact sport’), since we inherited some serious previous scrages, it needed to be tidied. Got a 5ltr tin of Inter 20 from Norbury Junction (it’s the next-one-up in treatment technology from basic blackening, is easy to apply, gives a semi-gloss black finish and covers directly onto just about any surface) and spent a day on each side rubbing down, rust-treating and priming the existing damaged areas. Rollering the whole lot was easy and quick, used less than half the tin and ‘cutting-in’ on the top of gunwale was the most time consuming part of the operation. Additionally, being very careful, I was able to do from above the waterline on the side of a low bank area of the cut.

Painting the remainder of DamperVan was a bit more involved:

Following lots of decisions and conversations about colour schemes (tinted by cost, covering ability, pattern and availability) and biased by the colour of the cratch and top-box covering, taking into account the fact that the few hot days we experienced over last Summer turned the inside of the boat into a virtual oven due to the dark roof and many windows (at one point we had to take 2 window panes out to create a through draft)... we went for a light colour on the roof (buttermilk) and post-box red on the sides and elsewhere. 


I considered being clever and panelling both roof and sides to break it up a bit but as I’m a steel-painting virgin, wanted to keep the cost and time down, I thought the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) theorem was probably best - had a 'play' with the roof hatch. Started with the roof... Because of the major colour change it took 2 undercoats and 2 topcoat operations... luckily I have a strong back (because of the roof curvature a 4 inch roller was the only way forward)!!

We painted the sides over 2 weekends on the cut because the Marina got a bit negative when about 4 boat owners decided to do major amounts of redec on the jetties - covering their butts (and rightly so incase of spillage), which was easier than I anticipated after the hardest bit of prep. Luckily our boat was in reasonably good condition (very good if you take into account the fact that it was part of a hire fleet for 6 years) and prep was minimal (no filling involved)... I have since been told that red is one of the hardest colours to apply... oops!

We decided to go for the easier finishing option of vinyl lines and decals - it took a few hours of searching the net to find what we wanted from a single source but ‘The Graphics Boat’ was the answer and despite a delivery booboo, the design page, variety, and service was great... a very steep learning curve was involved in application but I’m very pleased with the result....   So is Me-Julie....So much so that she bought a top to match...

All-in-all the cost was about £550 which is less than 10% of what a 'pro' job would have been for just the major areas (who knows how much they would have charged for the tiller arm - it took me an hour just to tape-up).... 

We have since had a matching dodger made and last week had 2 x 100W solar panels and an MPPT controller installed (now at last, I know what power is available and not a guesstimate - anyone wanna join my Amp-Watch Facebook group??!!! )

"Back on the Road Again"

Not only has it been a while since the last blog, but things have gone on a-pace over the Summer... we haven’t managed to do much boating but, and this is the reason why, we have been working hard and (in Julie’s case) changing jobs and (the means to the end), getting DamperVan finished and ready for the last big step, so......

OFF THE MARINA AND INTO THE BIG WET WORLD!!!

As I’m sure that anyone who has been, or is in mid-manoevre, of opting-out / getting afloat permanently can tell you: it takes time both physically and psychologically... in our case, about 18 months:

Step 1 - sell just about everything, move back from Germany, sell everything else (including 5 sessions at Cannock car boot where we sold everything that we certainly didn’t need, that was in reasonable to good nick, and that someone else wanted especially after I had talked them into wanting it). Try not to sell the wife...

Step 2 - actually buy the boat you put a deposit on a year earlier (yip!) and spend 2 months doing the major re-fit (see earlier blogs) whilst working / saving and selling everything else so that the boat doesn’t sink under the weight of what you think ‘will definitely come in handy later’....

Step 3 - move onto the water (kinda scary but the blow can be softened by having a mooring in a Marina); in our case, move the boat from Chirk to Stone (with no prior experience, 80 miles, 80 locks and in the first week of December 12 (luckily for them, very little other canal traffic was about - or maybe they had been warned off).

Step 4 - get used to it... iron out any of the creases in the boat / what you have done to it so far and figure out / save / pay for what you will realise is missing / what you haven’t done / what, after talking to fellow boaters and in heinsight, is still required to be done (keeping in mind what the acronym BOAT stands for - Break Out Another Thousand!)!

Step 5 - Having gained experience and feeling confident in the boat and your ability to handle it, get to the point where you are either making up excuses not to do it, or you are (like us) feeling hemmed-in and itching to get out there... either way, make the decision, do the prep, give notice to the Marina (in our case 3 months) and ‘potter off into the sunrise’....

SO, here we are at last... we can not only say, ‘we are live-aboards’ but also, ‘we are proper live-aboards on the cut’... HeeHee!!

In reality, as with any plan you have on the cut, ours hasn’t gone completely to plan... we can’t start our journey in the direction we wanted to because of maintenance works en-route so we are loitering not too far from the start-point (this is also an expectation you have to accept as a distinct possibility), ‘gotta be flexible’ ... More to follow...

its been a while.......

Not had a chance really to blog lately loads has been happening, so a quick update in this blog and then ill post another.

We ventured up to the Caldon Canal over the Easter break and although it was very beautiful, Tony & I  decided we are not cruising anywhere in the snow or ice anymore if we don't have to, cold just didn't come close! Then the water pump broke, so all in all a bit of a stressful week, not the enjoyable cruise we wanted it to be.

In other news the inspiration for our boat "Vera the VW " passed hands to her new owner, a very sad day, but the realisation that a new journey is about to begin. Plans are now being put in place for notices to be handed in and which canals we are going to discover first! So exciting times!

We have a new hall carpet at last, after the "loo" incident! and we finally got round to stripping the wallpaper off and repainting the saloon.

Men at work... Allegedly

As i type Tony is being assisted by a Kev a fellow professional engineer in putting back together our unit! I just had to write this as they do it. You see there is a reason for them both rushing do finish it..... The pub.
So far they have lost screws, and managed to put one of the doors on the wrong way! Just now a collective shout of "Knobs" was heard i can only imagine they are fitting them to the doors? or could be insulting each other??? who knows?
Jon took our unit last week, shaved 2 inches off the depth and sanded it down and polished it..... OH MY its fantastic we cannot thank him enough, i really mean that. The boat after 4 months of living aboard is now finished on the inside at least! Although Tony is threatening to cut down the ikea sofa bed to make it more comfy! (Over my cold and lifeless body, if he does any type of cutting in the boat again!)

Men at work!

In Place