Happy Days

Here in the sun is my newly beautifully blacked boat. Also showing is my new, super duper TV aerial. It is a Maplins DTV1000 costing £45. It is an amplified one running off 12 or 240v and I am so, so impressed so far. Firstly it can be stored upright, just below the cratch, as opposed to my old spiky aerial that had to lie on the roof, damaging both the spikes and the roof. It is only a few inches high and yet, so far, it has given massively better reception than my old one. I moored in the woods on my way back from blacking and usually about the only channel I can get is Gay Rabbit! If I do get more channels, I usually have to watch them from the galley, as if I go any closer to the TV, the picture disappears! But with this one I got 139 channels, most crystal clear. My only problem now is to find a channel I can actually be bothered to watch.

The second reason for the title of this post is because I have handed in my notice at work. That makes my upcoming freedom to cruise feel like a reality for the first time. I was surprised by my boss. I expected her to be pretty grumpy about my decision but instead she applauded my decision to seize the day! So all I have to do now is to work till the end of March, get the boat cruising ready and stockpile as many dry goods as I have room for! Oh and try to rid myself of the fear that something is going to happen to stop me going!

Arrived safe and sound.

Well I don't know what I was worried about! I had no problem with the weather today as I cruised into the marina for a long awaited pump out and diesel. Honestly, pumping out the poo tank when it's really full is a bit like having a dump after being constipated for ages; it feels sooo good.

I then had to transform from customer to employee and go off to clean the facilities. By the time I had finished and given Bon a lunchtime walk I was ready for a sit down, but no, off to the Wharf to await our blacking. One last obstacle was the incredibly silted up mooring space that I had to reverse into, I almost had to dig a channel to get her in! But we had arrived. Better than that almost was the fact that the lovely Matt from Phoenix Marine let me hook up to shore power for the weekend. It is the first time in over 6 years that I have been on mains electricity and it is very exciting!

Here we are at the Wharf and here is Bonny settling in!

She can even find something to hunt in a car park!

What a difference a day makes

I spent a very disturbed night last night worrying about the possibility of ice or the end of the world stopping me from cruising 'Don't Panic' up to Kings Bromley for her two yearly blacking. I was due up on Sunday, ready for the dock on Monday morning but this morning there was just a film of ice on Fradley Pool and that was enough to throw me into a panic. (Now you know the reason for my boat's name!)
So after work I threw Bonny on the roof, watered up and worked the six locks between me and Kings Bromley. I tied up in the woods around 3pm and the above picture is the view from my loo. Not a breath of wind and sunny all day. Now if the ice could please hold back for just one more day... I will go into the marina for a desperately needed pump out and diesel up, work and then pop round the corner to the Wharf. Matt from Phoenix Marine has kindly let me have a berth a couple of days early. Then off to Devon for some much needed R and R!

Blacking time

I am due at Kings Bromley Wharf for blacking beginning next Monday. However the weather so far this year has been somewhat challenging to say the least. This week we have had storm Imogen and now the temperature is plummeting, with snow in the forecast! So I'm trying to decide which day will be least bad so I can do the lock flight, cruise to the marina for a desperately needed pump out and diesel filling, before taking her next door to the Wharf for the blacking of her hull.
At present I am working on doing some on Friday after work and the rest on Saturday after work.
Once she is safely tucked up at the Wharf, I will be taking Bonny off to Devon to visit friends as we aren't allowed to stay on the boat while she is in the dock. Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, my next post will be from the West Country!

A Quandary

I missed my last scheduled trip to pump out and diesel up due to ice. I then hurt my back hauling my poo across the lock, having done a manual pump out and have been nursing it since 17th ( my back, not my poo). I was intending to go this weekend but the forecast is now reporting very windy conditions in this area, up to 50mph on Monday. It is not safe to single hand my boat in those conditions.
I am due to go up to Kings Bromley Wharf for blacking on 14th February and am trying to work out whether my diesel will last that long, but its an awfully close call. I'm not sure how low you can go diesel wise before you start sucking crap through your engine.
The other solution is to collect a barrel of diesel from Bromley and empty out a barrel of poo. That would then tide me over. The only problem with that is my back. It's just starting to recover and I don't want to damage it again.
I love being a lone boater, but just occasionally I do miss having help!

Water worries

My run of bad luck continues. My water pump continues its slow decline. So, rather than risking pushing it into its grave by having a shower, I checked with the marina manager that it was OK to have a shower there after cleaning. 'No problem,' she said.
So I got my uniform on and drove to the post office to find that my new water pump had arrived (despite last night's email from Amazon saying they wouldn't be delivering it because I had entered the wrong address!)
Then, on my way to work I received a call to say that, due to a problem at the marina, the facilities block has been closed so I can't clean them, or have a shower until the problem is resolved. Back home and phoned the same people who came out last time I had a leak. Yes, they were happy to come and fit the pump, but not till Thursday afternoon.
Rather than staying smelly, I decided to try out the newly refurbished showers at Fradley Junction. They were certainly clean but that is the only good thing I can say about the CRT showers. It has been designed as a wet room, so no shower tray, just a plughole in the floor. The new flooring has been cunningly designed so that, instead of the water flowing towards the hole, it circumvents it entirely and flows first towards the toilet and then meanders towards the door. By the time I was ready to get dry, there wasn't an inch of unwatered floor to stand on. The shower itself has a tiny head and low water pressure so it is rather like being widdled on and the temperature choice seems to be scalding or freezing. I spent as long trying to mop up the water after my shower than I did actually showering!
I walked back to the boat with my wet hair begin to freeze to the back of my neck only to find that my fire had gone out and the temperature on the boat had dropped to 5 degrees.
So much for the romance of boating!

Glad I didn't go!

This is what happened overnight so I'm rather glad I didn't go off to pump out and diesel up. I wouldn't have got into the marina anyway as it is iced over. Instead I have borrowed a cunning bit of kit and will be lightening my poo load shortly! It does mean carrying the barrel over the lock and then barrowing it up to the elsen point, which is not going to be great for my back, poor and aching as it is after spending days crouched in my engine bay. But needs must as the ice devil drives!

Meanwhile Bonny and I had a glorious walk in Narnia this morning and like a numpty I didn't think to take my camera! Ah well, suffice to say we both loved it and Bonny spent so much time rolling in the snow, she looked like a snow dog and I kept having to clear her face so she could see. So funny!