Sunday 27 December 2009

povies

For Christmas it has been good to get away from the boat into nice bright warm parents home. I've had a bath every day, as we've only got a shower on the boat and although I no longer miss a bath, I find it great for relaxing. At the house I had one everyday. It was great for unwinding.
And with an out of sorts sister also visiting it's good to relax in one again.
She broke up with her fella of 13 years after meeting a married bloke ... in New Zeland. They met online and she went to visit him and got on well! (This I know thanks to the post coital photos on face book... yuck!) He is now getting a divorce and she is emigrating. Although now, a year on, they seem less into each other. And she is going to move to a different city.
I thought this would be the last Christmas with here before she went, but it may not be owing to the long emigration process.
In the past, I've been the one left out with everyone having loved ones around, but since I got married at the ripe age of 42 for the first time, (it's our 5th anniversay in January) she's been really pissed off in general.
This Christmas she seems to have plunged more depths. In a recent discussion, she described imigrants as 'povies' (poverties!!). She seems overly concerned with putting on a hard monied bitch front. Flash car, lost weight, and going for what she wants in a big way with no consideration for others at all.
In addition, her whole physical image has changed from someone who dresses nicely to someone who shows her tits at every possibility, and then also posts those photos on face book.
She is not capable of being generally friendly to every one in her vicinity. Even since a little girl (I'm 12 years older) she would have one friend and purposely exclude others by cutting them out. So at the moment she's very lonely and seems intent on being brittle and passing comments trying to get a rise whenever possible.
I am responding by the following tack:
1. Be as nice as possible
2. Be light and happy
3. Loving my husband.
4. Only responding to her when she is being pleasant and ignoring her attempts at put downs.
This seems to really get on her goat. And she is clinging to mum and wispering in corners.
I think the bottom of the issue is that she is jealous of my happy and settled relationship.

Thursday 24 December 2009

canal to river


Having spent two weeks driving from our house to the boat at weekends waiting to get the engine fixed we encountered some interesting people.
The first was when we were moored near by to Princess Diana's old house.
Along the tow path came a set of neatly tailored confused looking toffs. The were really disorientated with a giant poodle in tow.
They took one look at my dog (handsome Brin) and said
'Oh look Fifi, isn't he flirty!' ....
The canal was situated next to an A road. And the toffs then asked me
'Are we near a road? Can we let the dog off the lead?'
You could hear the traffic roaring next to us. And I kindly pointed out the road next to us.
They look some interest in the boat and were amazed to see the washing machine near the open back door.

I couldn't face the journey down the flight of seventeen locks again. I really couldn't. And thankfully we got two shifts of friends and relatives to help us. In addition, I was away on a business trip that weekend. Great timing.

At the end of the locks were were off the canal system and onto the river. This was also unknown territory to me. It was wider, scarier and had huge locks with intimidating sliding metal guillotine structures that held back the frequently strong flow.

I joined the party at Northampton. Alex had done an exhausting twelve hours sailing without a break and was going full pelt in the old girl. I waited for them to arrive then saw a yellow streak of boat going faster than it ever had before using the current to make up time. I thought they would never stop.

The next part of the journey was the most fascinating for me. We sailed into the night shining our torches onto the large fish in the river. The river smelled like perfume for the entire length. Which I later found out was probably because of the beer/larger making factory that put the treated hops water into the river.

We saw for the first time, feral looking people living in communities or singly along the river. It seemed like the wild west . One lady was on the back deck with her ironing board doing her Sunday afternoon task of ironing.... with her electric generator on at an ear splitting rate, ironing her husbands 'PC World' work shirts. Some people had put up hammocks in the trees next to their boats, or kennels for their dogs.

Which reminds me of the day we first tried sailing our boat. Out of the marina, then onto the canal net work. There was a lady pushing a wheel barrow of wood along the tow path a mile or so to her boat. She was going faster than we were as Alex was afraid of hitting the bridges. So much has changed now.

Our engine had trouble us the entire way. It bilged out smoke and was unbearable to me for longer than half an hour. So he built a chimney to funnel it away from us. This was destroyed when we forgot about it when we went under the first bridge. Without any effort it was ripped away and we didn't bother making another. Instead I would go to the front of the boat, where I would also not hear the dreadful din of the old engine.

One evening, I woke for no good reason with a start. A boat was sailing by with lights off, and went through the guillotine lock near by. This spooked me out at the time. But more was to come. I looked up at our newly installed carbon monoxide detector. It was showing that we had a problem. I opened the window and down the indicator went. Closed it and up it went again. Our heating system was trying to kill us! I opened the windows and stayed awake until morning. The boat yard was supposed to have done a safety check on all this. We had the certificate to say so. But without the alarm we could have died that night. The boat yard sent some one to fix it without as much as an apology.

We were heading for Peterborough. The plan was for Alex to be able to live on the boat a few days a week and me to stay in the house and get together a few days a weeks. But as we headed towards Fotheringhay then engine failed and we cruised to a stop near the bridge. And stayed there for the next two years and more.

Wednesday 23 December 2009

An Angel arrives

It came as a shock when we first bought the boat (having never been on a trip in one) we sailed down the river Nene from the boat yard .
On our first mile we encountered a flight of 17 locks. I had never even done one before and after our first four we got a bit tired and stopped for a cup of tea. It seemed strange that people were going up and scowling at us. OK our boat is old and dingy, but that didn't seem the reason. We were shortly to find out what the problem was: I heard the kettle whistling on the stove and went inside to find the boat at a 30 degree angle. 'Alex what are you doing!' I yelled. 'Why?' he replied. At that point the boat lurched even more at an angle. Then we realised that the water had drained from the area just by the lock where we were moored. We were grounded at a peculiar angle. The reason why people were giving us the evil eye was because it is against the waterway regulations to stop on a flight of locks. They must be hardy people these boaters! So we waited until the lock let more water down and continued.
Three locks later, I went into the boat to finish making the tea. There was a strange buzzing sound vibrating through the boat. Alex diagnosed the problem. The water had jammed on when I used the loo and had filled up the toilet tank to capacity. Now we had a problem. It was miles to the next sewerage pump out facility , perhaps a week away. We had only just past one at the top of the locks. So with exhausted groans we decided we had to go back up the lock. Only there was no where to turn around. Our only choice was to reverse back up the locks. This is something that no one ever does as narrow boats are not good at reversing, they don't have a keel, so are hard to maneuver. But Alex did an admirable job. I was exhausted already. Two locks back up the flight I hid behind a wall and sat on a rock and cried! It was all too much. Thankfully an angel arrived in the form of an old lady, a seasoned boater, who had been in difficult situations herself. She saw the look on my face and asked me if I was OK. Kindly, she joined with us and guided us up the locks. She went out of her way to stay with us, guiding our boat with a rope, opening locks and closing them again, pushing the gates open. It was all I could do to walk up the path I had become so exhausted. What an angel.
Once back up the top again we got a pump out and resumed our journey. Then the engine failed at the top of the set of locks and we were stranded for the next 2 weeks until the boat yard could come out and fix the engine.
Had we bought a crock of shit?
The boat yard must have seen us coming. But that aside we fell in love with the old girl. She was large enough to live aboard and had potential.
For those who like such things, (I don't) here are the boat specs.
Boat Specification:
plating spec 10/6/4mm ( though the boat yard now deny this was ever the case)
Fitted out by Clubline in about 1985 - so very dated interior.
Berths: A double and two singles
One bathroom with toilet and mini bath with shower over the top and hand basin. Excellent shower.
An extra toilet and hand basin.
Pump out toilets.

Engine Spec
Lister 3 cylinders (bilges smoke all the time)
PRM delta gear box
40 gallon diesel tank (with no dip stick so you don't know when you are running low)

Hot Water and Heating
Ellis boiler - serviced 2 years ago and works great. That was after it was serviced.
Radiator heating... totally excellent! Kept really snug in the coldest winter in 20 years.

Electrical System
12 volt lighting ie very dull
240 volt landline
Inverter - the boat yard included this in their specs then didn't include it... til we pointed it out.
2 domestic and 1 starter battery. See above comments.


Kitchen
2 year old washer... works great
microwave
zanussi fridge freezer
gas cooker - totally illegal in it's style for the boat. No safety mechinism on the taps.

Fit out materials
insulation used polystyrene
Wood used: ply
window types: louvre - fantastic draughts!
materials used stainless steel
side hatches - no
front and back covers - no, we have put up some structure for them to be fitted on.

Boat cert - July 2007
Last Hull blacking July 2007
Anodes - checked july 2007
Recent survey - hull surveyed June 2007

Monday 21 December 2009

shortest day

There was a chance we would run out of water today. We've been a bit lapse at checking it and forgot that the freezing weather would possibly freeze the stand pipe and that would mean we would be unable to fill up. The stand pipe was frozen and also the hose leading to the stand pipe was frozen, so it was simple washes and no showers today.

We are luckier this year. Last year we were moored up further down the river no where near the stand pipe. At my request. It was a beautiful spot we named 'Digley Dell'. It was a gently curved slope down to the water surrounded by oak trees. We had frequent visitor of swans and their cygnets, green wood pecker and red kit. We had it all to ourselves... then as the water rose, so that we could no longer get our 56ft narrow boat under the low lying bridge, we reaslised we were stranded the wrong side for months. So every night Alex had to fill up barells of water and bring them to the boat. It was very hard for him after a long day at work and consequently each evening I hardly saw him as he also had the usual tasks to do such as filling the petrol generator and other mainenance.
Infact, I rarely saw anyone!!! I got ill in January and only saw the cygnets we'd fed all year. No people! Just swans and sheep.

So this year I insisted on moving at our earliest opportunity and now at least I can see cars and people too.

So today, I was pretty pleased that the sun thawed out the pipe that I stretched out on the banking and the stand pipe that I'd covered in a black plastic bag to absorb the sunlight. And we have water!

We may need it as the snow is now coming down again and we may not get another chance to fill up until the weather changes.

Today is the shortest day.
I always really suffer from about mid October until early January with the lack of sunlight. And today I got out the Darbukka and drummed away the shortest day.