Monday 21st May 2018



This was the day we had decided on for us officially moving on board Bridge Street for good. We duly woke at 8am, had breakfast, walked Harvey, put on the dishwasher and washing machine and left the house.

On arrival at the boat we unloaded the boxes and I went off on my errands leaving Brenda again to unpack and start homebuilding.

I first went to Winsford to pick up the cratch boards then B&Qs in Northwich before heading to Wigan to drop off the stained glass porthole again.

On the way back I called into the house to pick up yet more gear. It is incredible how much can be stored on the boat, you wonder where it all goes.

Brenda had Graeme Cunliffe’s mother and sister visit to drop off the boat’s documentation. So now she can be licensed. While they were here Brenda told of some of our troubles with the boat and the lack of any visit from Graeme.

Arriving back at 2pm, Brenda had done a lovely job of decorating the boat ready for our first guests to be entertained, Peter and Barbara for an afternoon tea and Prosecco.

After they had left Brenda tidied up and we tinkered about. We walked the dog and met with Dorian and a couple more people in the marina. A friendly lot.      

We managed to get the toilet working after reading the manual, it was just a case of operating a lever to open the flap valve to drop the contents into the waste tank. Also took the opportunity to add treatment to the tank.

Managed to get hot water by running the Webasto with the thermostat turned up but all except the wet locker and bathroom radiators turned off. It maybe won’t do the heater much good but without shore power or running the engine there was not a lot of option.

We had meant to go food shopping but the day just passed. Brenda managed to turn out a respectable meal of pasta, chicken, cauliflower and a Thai curry sauce.

After dinner I managed to connect the tunnel light and started fitting hooks for various keys.

With the batteries running low the engine will have to be run tomorrow, roll on when Graeme visits and we get the shore power connected. But we have run for 4 days in glorious weather just on the solar panels.    






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Thursday 6 th September 2018 We started off just before 10am in not too bad weather. The whole of the surface of the canal was covered in a kind of white dust. It turned out it was some kind of seed probably from trees, but it was a weird sight. We quickly came across the first lock of the day beside the Gallows Inn pub. We were going to stop here last night but we were both glad we hadn’t. The pub didn’t look very welcoming and the area didn’t seem the best. We had been warned that the locks on the Erewash Canal were heavy. And they are. Brenda was really struggling with many of them which is very unusual. Not just the weight of the gates but also the difficulty in operating the paddle gear. It is not a good idea to leave the boat unattended in a double lock when it is the only boat in there, but there were a few locks were we had to do just that and even I struggled mightily with the locks. Yesterday we saw just four boats on the move all day, and they were all go...
Read more
Image
Thursday 8 th August 2019 We had spoken with our neighbours yesterday, Ken and Mary, both in their mid-70’s who have lived on their boat, continuously cruising for 11 years. We had agreed to move up the river, doing the locks, together. After a couple of trips to Tesco’s, again taking the trolley right to the boat and buying a new cordless vacuum cleaner, we set off. It felt fantastic to be out on the Thames. At Caversham Lock, there seemed to be plenty of colour and lots of people watching the boats. We were held for a while at the lock with a queue of cabin cruisers ahead of us. It is necessary to hold an Environmental Agency licence for navigating on the Thames. We had been told at Blake’s Lock that we would be able to obtain one at Caversham, but the lock was being manned by a volunteer who did not have authority to issue licences. Beyond the lock was no doubt Reading’s better face and it looked lovely from the river. Reading Bridge was a particularly attractive brid...
Read more
Image
Friday 22 nd February 2019 The fog first thing this morning was so thick you could see no more than 50 yards. A harbinger of a nice day it turned out. We were on the move by 8am for the mile run-in to Atherstone and we moored just before the top lock near a road bridge that is very convenient for the town. We are opposite the derelict factory of Wilson and Stafford. This was a felt hat making enterprise that made hats that were exported all over the world until closure about 35 years ago. Apparently, slaves on the West Indies sugar plantations all wore hats made in Atherstone. The factory is a blight on the town. It has been sold several times for housing development and would make desirable apartments. The frontage of the building is listed but the problem lies inside. There are many chemicals absorbed into the fabric of the building including mercury, a heavy metal used in the making of hats and asbestos. It would cost a fortune to demolish or develop, including clos...
Read more