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Sounds like you found the vertical learning curve Jacqui, stick it out hun, the first 2-3 months are tough as all hell and worse still in the winter - but it's the best time because once you've hacked your first winter, you'll be sorted. Have you set it on fire yet? Emma and I set the boat we rented smoking twice in the first month lol (since no one was hurt.)
PM me (I've not got them due to newbieness) and I'll shoot you my number if things get dire. I would recommend a small chainsaw (not from Lidl/B&Q and preferably Stihl or Huskquervana but Makita will suffice) protective stuff and lessons as a christmas present. NEVER pay for wood! Coal however, is a GOOD thing) I'm just waiting for a Tom on Archemedes to deliver. Dominque on Baron comes your way - I'll shoot you his number too, he's heading toward Little Venice at the moment though I think.
I would suggest getting that rock wool out asap (but not before spring unless you have a friends to decamp to) and fitting space flex or if that's too spendy, Kingspan. Check your mushroom vents are open re the condensation and when you think about re-upholstering, there is black fabric that is anti-mildew/condensation you can get for the bottom of the cushions. Don't buy it in a chandler though - way over-priced!
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^^ That's some proper experience there.
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thanks purple mist!
Despite everyone saying not to, I am buying some wood - only because a) I know the tree surgeon in question
b) at least for x-mas I don't want the stress
c) my sucess with coal is minimal really - my burner wasn't really made for it
d) don't fancy relying on my norweigen angel's supply (which isn't fair to him!) -
Dec 17
My wrists are burning. Long jagged bleeding scratches are running half way up my forearm. I don’t know what type of tree is growing beside the tow path where Miracle is moored but its definitely got good defences.Duckie went out at 7am this morning and seeing the ice on the windows and frost on the ground I went back to bed. At 10am after 3 hours curled under my duvet and waiting for the* "let me back in"* meow I got up to see where Duckie had gone.
It didn’t take more than a few calls to hear his reply. Duckie and I have always had a call and response system when we are out, we use it to locate each other on our walks and I use it to find him when he’s not returned home when i think he should have. It’s great. It surprises people to hear us and see him chasing down the tow path meowing as he does. When i was little my father trained me the same way with “our whistle” it allowed us both the freedom to wander about unaccompanied with the security of understanding that we could find each other at any time.
This morning the meow was coming from quite close but I saw no rustling of the under growth to signal his return. Then I looked up, about 20 feet up. Perched in the crux of a very thin branch and staring down at me was Duckie. I didn’t hear whatever had caused him to climb up, but there he was. I tried to reach the tree but the brush is thick and tangled and after getting two feet closer I saw the centimetre long thorns that were against me. Upon seeing me Duckie climbed down to where I was but with no clearing in the dense tangle, I could not grab him.
*You’ll have to make it down yourself Duck. *
I retreat to the boat, calling him still.
For extra encouragement I grab the kitteh crack and give it a shake. He’s sliding head first now down a branch that’s maybe an inch thick. I can see the panic but he recovers. The whole thing takes maybe five minutes longer and soon he’s on the boat happily purring and crunching away on his food.I’m relieved.
Last week a kitten named Sprocket was taken by some teens and fed to two pitbulls further down the path. Sprocket, only 3 months old lived with dogs and had not run when the pitbulls were presented. She had no fear, to her dogs were family. We met Sprocket and her companion dog Cosmo in Enfield. They were both lovely animals.
The whole thing was caught on CC’TV and another boater got a picture of one of the boys face. The police suspect the teens are training fighting dogs. Sprockets family is understandably distraught. I saw them earlier in the week and they pleaded with me to be careful with Duckie who although slightly older might be as trusting. It worried me. Was Duckie too trusting? He is very friendly. I wondered what he would do, would he run, climb a tree or would he fight and end up like Sprocket?
Answer: Duckie would limb, and climb high.
Good Duck.
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If your gearbox is a prm/hydraulic type,a low oil level can cause this.We have a small leak on ours,and generally reverse is the first one to go!There is what looks like a nut on top of the gearbox casing.If you take it out,it may or not have a short dipstick on it.You can fill it here.Most can be topped up with ordinary engine oil,but its worth checking first.
Your cat up a tree got me thinking back to when we first moved onto the canal.We took 3 cats and a dog with us,and the first time we turned the boat around,mooring up the other way round,our dog having just got used to jumping out of the left side of the boat,ran out and did the same again.She gracefully flew through the air,landing squarely in the middle of the cut!On another occasion one of the cats decided that it would be far easier to go for a dump in the kitchen,than to venture into the great outdoors.My wife then hurled the cat out of the side hatch into the garden,saying do it out there....we had turned around the night before...wet cat.
Sorry to hear about the kitten,i hope they find them. -
Midnight Fishing Expeditions
**Dec 15. **
That looks like a quality lock.
The Norwegian is eyeing up the Kryptonite lock in my hand. I think he's impressed that I would own such a practicality.Yea it should be I smile, they're the best - about 100 quid, but worth it.
Dec. 17.
I've borrowed a Kryptonite from the cafe to determine if the longer or shorter one is what I need to buy, tonight I have the shorter one and I think that its the one that works best. I've owned two Kryptonites in eight years. The first was in a bag that was stolen and the second, after six years finally seized and I had to have the fire brigade cut it off; it took 15 mins once I'd convinced them it was my bike.They are my lock of choice.
The boat is rocking as I step on, bike over shoulder. I lift it over the back rail and rest it on the cage that protects my outboard. I loop the cheap cable lock through the wheel and frame and spin the combination. *It's not an anti theft device, a pair of hedge clippers would snip it in seconds; its an anti jacqui device to stop me from losing my Jackson to the river. *
I hold the kryptonite and insert the key, the horeshoe side comes free easily and I'm about to put it through the rear triangle. The conversation with the Norwegien flickers in my memory.
*Well, at least I haven't dropped it in. *
In that moment, as if to spite me, I watch as the horeshoe slips from my glove and falls in slow motion into the blackness.
Splash.
*Fuck. *I've just lost 100 quid of lock.
What's worse is it'll cost me twice that as I'm going to have to replace it and buy my own. I can't leave my bike outside without the Kryptonite.
Fuck.
I pull the cable lock and open it. I haul my bike onto the deck. I'll have to bring it in, this means taking of the wheel and makes entering Miracle a bit like a game of Twister. DAMNIT.
With the bike in, I grab food from the cupboards and make my way to the Norwegian's boat. I'm disappointed with myself.I want a beer.
I've dropped my lock in the Lee, I tell him.* I'm gonna have to buy another one.*
He nods acknowledgement and purses his lips. No.
I look at him.
In that case we'll go fishing. You don't give up on 100 quid of lock like that. You gotta try.
I don't really know what he means but I nod. Ok, we'll go fishing.
I stop taking off my coat.**He doesn't move. **
Not now, we gotta do it at night.
The rain continues until 10pm and when it stops the Norwegien goes to the back of his boat to his tool room. He comes back with a long bar, duct tape and a peice of metal wire. I wonder why he has these things.. but I am grateful he's got a tool room to "magic" these things out of.
This, he holds up the metal bar, is the magnet.
You've got a hook, yea? We're gonna duct tape my torch to the end and see if we can see your lock. Then we're gonna put the magnet on it and bring it up.
I'm conguring the duck pond game from the town fair in my head.
I don't think it's going to work, but I don't want to say that and appear ungrateful.We go to my boat and I start my fire before we begin.
He tapes the torch to my hook. He looks like he's going spear fishing. I giggle. He smiles and checks the tape.
Then he shows me that at night with a torch you can see the river bed.After about 10 mins, he informs me he doesn't see it.
He's already told me he's tired and he's been yawning all night. I feel guilty. He calls me out from making my fire and suggests I do the searching.* Only now, I realise he's been looking for something that he's only seen once. He doesn't really know what it looks like.*
It's about 30 seconds before I spot the silver catch of the lock glinting in the submurged torch light. It's exactly where I'd have expected.
Ok now you gotta lower the magnet onto it. I'll hold the light.
He's on the shore holding the light spear, while I, leanning my lower thighs on the back rail and hanging most of my body over the water try to lower the magnet onto the horsehoe of the lock.
I'm excited. It may just work.
Dipping and laying the magnet on the lock is harder than it looks.
The water here is much deeper than I'd imagined.
The first successful contact brings the lock up right, then it falls off and a cloud of silt blinds us for a few minutes.The Norwegian sighs, declares that the magnet isn't strong enough and walks back to his boat.
He's got to be up at 6am. I feel terrible to keep him up and when he returns i say this.
He looks me square in the eye, tomorrow they're may be too much silt on it for the magnet to find it again. I got a stronger magnet.
Second contact is a solid one and I nervously begin to pull the magnet and my catch up.
*You're gonna have to get wet now. *
When you get it close enough you need to reach in and get it, so it don't drop off. The magnet may not be stong enough out of the water.
He takes the line from me and I get on my knees and push up my sleeve.
The water is icy. I'm up to my elbow, but I have contact with the lock and grab hold tightly.I stand up with it in my hand.
That is how you go fishing, he smiles.
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Well done!
I was just wondering whether I had any air in my scuba tank ... it may have been time to get the drysuit out and come help!
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Glad you got your lock back :) Welding magnets are much cheaper than sea searchers. Mine lifts 50kg in theory (most I've had was about 10 but it's nice to know!
Pallet wood burns way quickly. What sort of burner have you got? The main thing you need is airflow under the coals - a cast grate in other words. I stuck a grate I picked up for buttons into a Jotul wood burner on my first boat which only burnt wood. Worked. I saw them on Brick Lane today - worth thinking about?
Cats: Hessian sacks off the side of the boat provide something to get claws into. Cats CAN swim - most just hate it. Most drown because they can't get back in. You have a fishing net right? If not, get one strong enough to hold a cat. Also good for fishing other boaties hopper windows out that they drop in! What happened to Sprocket made me cry. Where was that exactly? I'll know to avoid the area. :(
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[QUOTE=beardie;2580843]If your gearbox is a prm/hydraulic type,a low oil level can cause this.We have a small leak on ours,and generally reverse is the first one to go!There is what looks like a nut on top of the gearbox casing.If you take it out,it may or not have a short dipstick on it.You can fill it here.Most can be topped up with ordinary engine oil,but its worth checking first.
QUOTE]Thanks for the reply, I have no idea what most of what you said means though, FAIL. I can see the gages that indicate oil though and its fine, I think. I've called the man who fixed it twice now.
I really want to get to the filter beds before next week, but the Norwegian refuses to let me travel until reverse is working. (I do understand why)
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Dec 19:
To do list:- get frim commitment from dock yard as to when they'll sort my reverse.
- meet miss mist and get log (YIPPEEE)
-convince the Norwegian I can use his axe without losing limb - start talking to people on the river about possibly nominating self as a member of Canal and River Trust to represent continious cruisers on the river
- write my mission statement for above
- buy The Norwegian a thank you present for everything he's done to help me (he needs a new coffee mug)
- go to brick lane and get a grate
- get hesian sack from Nude coffee for Duckie ladder
- purchase 20kg fishing net
- get frim commitment from dock yard as to when they'll sort my reverse.
Purple_Mist
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Oliver Schick
Beardie
rhb
Sparky
Drewzy
LongAndWinding
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About
A float on Miracle - 20ft narrowboat
Posted by
@Jacqui
Bostonians.