A float on Miracle - 20ft narrowboat

Lucy, the way you says it as if she's Shackleton lending the artic expedition on the Endurance.

An artic expedition, yesterday:

^ ubinstobart ?

Eddie Stoble

Antarctic.

Meanwhile in the artic;

Is that Jacqui on Miracle?

No, that's Jacquelton.

There's a lady who's oh so very Ernest ... Jacquelton is her name, and Miracle's her game.

11. Feb. - Boat Rules

I went for dinner at Julian the boat painters boat the other night. His partner Charlie has been on the river seven years. Myself another rookie boater seemed the star dinner guests. Over and over throughout the night one solid piece of advice kept being floated back and forth towards the newbies..

Winter is just about staying warm and surviving. That's all you need to do.

There is ice on the canal.
There is ice on my deck, on the tow path, over the cobbles, and everywhere.

I've been away for 3 days.
I guess that's cheating, but I was still on the river just stayin aboard a boat with a multifuel burner which unlike my woodburner stays warm all night. Back on board this a.m. and a bit worried.

Miracles water is frozen.

I hope it isn't as bad as it could be.
I wasn't anticipating this, I'd thought I'd prepared.
I always drain my taps before leaving the boat.

I've been in her an hour now woodburner blazing both for my sake and the pipes.

I'm a bit panniced.

Please dear God, dont let me have broken my boat.

I've just spied a drip from the tap. (huzzah!)

First Snow.

Duckie was born in winter 2011. He has never seen snow. When the first snow fell last week he'd been inside and at 10pm when there was a good amount on the ground I took him for his first snow adventure.

Ehm.
Well sort of.
The adventure only got as far as the tow path.
Once on solid ground I put Duckie down and he repeadedly paced a circle approximately 60cm in diameter and began meowing. I walked a few paces, and called him. He answered but continued in the circle. Again, I called him and he again responeded but only walked the circle, seemingly unable to follow our call and response and transfixed by the snow.

After 5 mins I went back to the boat. Surely he's manage the 4 paces back with me.
Nope.
He continued calling desperately and pacing the circle.
I had to go back out and collect him.
I couldn't stop laughing. He wasn't ammused.

Aside for the necessary Duckie stayed in for the rest of the night.

whoo hooo. I haz water again - time for coffee.

Teehee glad you're surviving the big freeze Jacqui!

I am such a fan of these updates :-)

Glad you're well and surviving.

Hi Jacqui, a friend directed me here as I have long held an interest in living a small/tiny houses and was, at one point, building a moveable one. It's been really interesting reading through your journey. Do you have any pictures of the interior of Miracle and how she's laid out?

Good call on the biggest solar panel you could fit, well worth the money in the long run.

Justin.

Hi Justin,
Thanks for getting in touch. I do have pictures of the interior of Miracle. But I am saving them just now. If you can picture it - Miracle's full length on the exterior is 20ft (just over 6m) The living space is approximately 14ft of that (4.25m) and like all narrow boats she's 6ft 10inches across. Miracle's gunnels are very wide, and account for about 9.5 inches so actual interior in above the gunnels is around 6ft with the below being fuller.

2.5m from the door is on one side my kitchen arranged (cupboards x 3, stove/gril/hob, sink and Rinnai then a full length closet, abeit only about 30cm wide. The opposite is woodburner, seating and bathroom (including shower and toilet but no sink as it would be redundant in such a small space)
The remaining space is my additional seating which converts to a double bed. The seats contain storage.

In the summer you're welcome to come see for yourself as I'll be travelling west on the london system.

Going down the Grand Union?

@velocio - coming to hang out with you of course! I'm gonna go everywhere. Next month I'll publish my schedule so when i am close you can come try your sea legs!

My dad lived on a canal boat for over a decade, I'm fine :)

We have a friend who lives on a dutch barge down at Chelsea embankment too.

I'll be sure to come by though. An afternoon spent by the canal and perhaps down a pub would be perfect.

Some of you may recall in one of my early posts telling you of my friend who works in a boat yard and has his own project boat. My friend, Seb helped me immesurably in the early stages when I was searching for Miracle. His project has taken 6 years so far and he's chronicaled it very well. If your're interested..
http://thevoyageofwendyann2.blogspot.com/

^ link's not working... nothing to see here.

Fine for me.

My dad lived on a canal boat for over a decade, I'm fine :)

Hmmmm

You'd have loved it cliveo, he had these girders welded onto the front in a V shape, so that he could get his motorbike off on either side of the boat.

^ explain? The Norwegian moves with his motorbike, bit of a hassle.

The bike lived on the boat, the boat was custom to accommodate this.

Literally an I girder laid flat, to create a grooved ramp, he had two I girders welded from the deck up to the front, and a chunk of I girder in which he'd cut through the edges such that 2 pins were on the underside... and a paid of holes in the edge of the deck.

So by placing the extra girder off the front to the side with the bank, he could push his bike up the side on the permanent girder, over onto the removable segment of girder and onto the bank.

He originally had a chopper, but this was a royal pain in the arse on the canal side, so changed to a Yamaha equiv of a Harley. He preferred the Yamaha as they started in winter.

What else... oh, yeah it was a 72ft, the V run of girders was at the front, and it used to be a cargo barge so when he built the frame on top of it, he built large doors at the front so that the bike came under the cover of the main room itself. He could work on the bike in the warmth of the main room if it was shitty outside.

This was before he sold that barge, went down to 60ft and bought an American Jeep instead and would leave that parked at the nearest pub. He also redesigned the rear at that point so that the engine of the barge was accessible and serviceable under well-ventilated cover. He'd had a bad experience with losing power in the rain... as he would always tell me afterwards; I was best not considering custom anything until you've had a few, only then would you have the experience to tell you what the hell you wanted.

Hi Justin,
Thanks for getting in touch. I do have pictures of the interior of Miracle. But I am saving them just now. If you can picture it - Miracle's full length on the exterior is 20ft (just over 6m) The living space is approximately 14ft of that (4.25m) and like all narrow boats she's 6ft 10inches across. Miracle's gunnels are very wide, and account for about 9.5 inches so actual interior in above the gunnels is around 6ft with the below being fuller.

2.5m from the door is on one side my kitchen arranged (cupboards x 3, stove/gril/hob, sink and Rinnai then a full length closet, abeit only about 30cm wide. The opposite is woodburner, seating and bathroom (including shower and toilet but no sink as it would be redundant in such a small space)
The remaining space is my additional seating which converts to a double bed. The seats contain storage.

In the summer you're welcome to come see for yourself as I'll be travelling west on the london system.

Thanks for that Jacqui, it gives a much better idea of your living space. It sounds quite similar in interior size to the tiny home I started building on a 16x8' trailer. The project stalled when I found the trailer was in need of some serious (and expensive) modifications. I blogged the project from start until it's premature end at jaystinyhouse.com (if you start here http://jaystinyhouse.com/?paged=4 it gives my initial thoughts and you can then follow through the project fi you so choose) and hope to return to it one day. You're using the stove I planned to put in it :) My dream is to buy a piece of land and build my own little cottage on it. However, the planning system being what it is in the UK, this looks ever more unlikely. I'm investigating saving to buy a little piece of woodland and putting a tiny trailer house there to spend weekends away from the city.

I'd love to take you up on the offer to visit in the summer. We're over near Pinner, so close to the canal network. We actually bought a second-hand inflatable kayak last year with the intention of exploring the canals but work stopped us having the time to do so. Perhaps this year will be different.

Hope you're managing to stay warm.

Jacqui, that link you posted, the blog written by your mate who's restoring a tug... Wow. I stayed up last night and read it from start to finish, every post. And I had to be up for work at 4.30am so I am shaaaaatttered now.

It's an amazing story, so many ups and downs. Despite all the hardship they went through, I'm very jealous. The thing looks amazing. Tell him to update the blog more!