Winter Base

0808/1010/2011201120112011 by admin.

 

Gues who!

Well we have arrived at our Winter   Mooring at Yacht haven Dukra in Zaandam North Holland. WE are right in the centre of town here within a few minutes of all the shops and cafés. WE will be here for the next six months and now have a wifi connection to the web so I will be able to update the blog on a more regular basis. We have had a wonderful time since leaving the UK and have travelled through Northern France, briefly through Belgium, following the Meuse which turns into the Mass river and then into the Netherlands. The weather has been at times a little mixed but on the whole has been reasonable. Everyone we have met on our travels have been friendly and keen to help, this has made the journey fly by.We ended having covered 1359 kilometers

typical French Lock

Quick lunch

Chilled Out Ships Dog

Along the Meuse

boats at Dinnant from the Citidal

Namur

Pont-a-Bar the start of 24 locks

Mars Gate Reims

Reims cathederal

typical town moorings

Tunnel

Masstreicht

Moored in Woodrichem

Now we know we are in the Netherlands

Den Bosch Cathederal

 

One for John

Traffic on the Waal

img_3463.JPG

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London Boat Show and other things

2727/0101/2011201120112011 by admin.

Hi all

A short note to let everyone now we are still around.

We went to the boat show by trainin January with two friends Dave and Keith and of course I managed to spend some money on a few more essential boys toys. (Honestly we did need them!) for navigation ergo: a Heading sensor which will make the Radar fully functional, a second VHF radio with hailer function and ATIS, needed abroad, a Navtex gives updated navigational information and Weather shipping forecast, NMEA 2000 network loom, a rescue strop essential if your unconscious and some Pilot almanacs.I have fitted all the gear but I am going to have a marine electrition wire in the critical stuff. I have also done more work on the boat as we discovered that the Nav lights fitted by the builder were rated for vessels up to 20 meters and we are over 20! although we would get away with it in UK waters they would not do for the continent. So having bought the new legal lights I found I would have to have light shades to be able to fit them. More cost! I had some fabricated in Stainless Steel  by a company in Marlow and they are now fitted and wired up. I removed the old lights and replaced them with waterproof deck plugs for connection saving drilling more holes in the steel structure. Everything worked first time. I must admit they are much better than the old lights and will increase the range that we will be visible. We also had a problem when traveling with the mast down with the masthead light, on the Rivers that is all the time. So I used the old masthead light made a bracket and fixed it to the flag staff I use on the mast when it is lowered so we now have a functioning masthead light at night when the mast is down.

WE shall be visiting the Midlands in February so will time our visit so we can go to the Birmingham Boat show. Happy Cruising.

The  Boat Marina at the Show

How about a Runabout?

With its own Garage

A Branson Barge ?

New Legal! Nav Light and Shade

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The Interuption of Filming Take That.

0202/0101/2011201120112011 by admin.

Our Claim to Faim 

Whilst we were cruising this summer we went through the filming of the take that video at Stains so I have put the link below, They stopped for us to pass and we had all five members of  Takethat blowing kisses at Carol.

The bit we interrupted was as they passed under Stains bridge with the chequered flag. http://www.takethat.com/news/2010/10/the-flood-full-video

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November 29th 10-30am

2929/1111/2010201020102010 by admin.

Looking out of the wheelhouse window when he turned up!

Caught a fish

turn it round

Going

Going

Gone

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Aproaching Christmas

2727/1111/2010201020102010 by admin.

Wow what a year we have had! We have traveled 732 nautical miles that’s 843 statute miles up and down the river between Oxford and Central London ( Lymhouse) have attended  the Thames boat show the Thames Traditional Boat-show and the IWA National at Beale Park. Both of us have managed to fit in a Training course/Assessment  at Bisham Abby Sailing School, where we attained our Inland Waterways Helmsman qualification, Carol gained the International Certificate of Competence Inland and I Inland and Coastal. Both of us also passed the CEVNI test for knowledge of the  ( European Inland Waterways Navigation Rules) so we are now set for the Continent except for France that is, as you have to pass the test in french there if your vessel is over 20 meters. The weather  throughout has been exceptional with very little rain and we have been rewarded with beautiful scenery, the river has been relatively quiet so mooring has been with the odd exception easy. We have met with loads of old friends and made many more during the year and this has led us to change our plans for next year postponing our planned trip to Europe to join Doz and Dave who we met on our travels in a trip down the Kennet and Avon Canal to Bristol out of the Bristol Channel and up the Severn  to Sharpness where we will travel to Gloucester and on up the river to Stourport. After which who can tell. Next week end we will weather / snow permitting travel up the Midlands to have Christmas with our Family ( we pack this in to three hectic days ) before returning to plan for Christmas on the boat with friends Gerald and Ann.   We are hoping to get out of the Marina and out onto  the river hopefully to Pangbourne for the holiday period. In the meantime I am catching up on loads of maintainace jobs that tend to get ignoored whilst cruising and fabricating some extra bits such as an anchor bracket for the secondary anchor, steps etc. Shortly I will have to fit some new navigation lights as the ones fitted by the builder are not big enough for cruising at sea or in France. It all serves to keep me busy.

Some pictures you have not yet seen.

The Bodleian

Head of the river pub the traditional finish line of inter Collage boat races

Inevitable at Oxford

A Retired old Collage Barge

There’s no Place like Gnome ??

Flying the Flag for Scouting

Lost The Plot the last Christmas before we sold her

At Fradley Junction

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Another Job done

1212/0202/2010201020102010 by admin.

After the big freeze we decided it would be a good idea to try and insulate the Lazionet both to stop the cold seeping in to the back cabin and also to cut down on condensation. I have just finished doing this and it was quite a job with many intricate shapes needing to be cut. We found that the best materiel for the job was self adhesive sound insulation foam as this would be more resilient and though expensive would last much better and is resistant to oil and water ingress and is fire retardant. Anyway the pictures show the result and we are much warmer now. As you can see the entire surface including the deckhead has been covered which also makes it a lot lighter in there.

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Another Bad day

3131/0101/2010201020102010 by admin.

Just a quickly

I happened to mention to Carol that I needed a hair cut ( what a mist-aka to maka ) she whipped out the scissors and this is the result. I think I will do it myself next time.

Before

After  Where is my hair

Cover Up

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Heavy Snow in Caversham

0606/0101/2010201020102010 by admin.

Hi all Well here we are again snowed in for a second time this year as you can see we have had about 10 inches of snow since last night 5th and it is still snowing hard.

We spent the morning clearing the pontoons of snow using anything we could lay our hands on but it looks as if by tomorow we will have to do it all over again. The Marina have closed the shop the water is still turned off and thyey have run out of electric cards. The ice is at least an inch thick and covered with 10 inches of snow so it will be some time before we are able to move.

See you all soon

Carol peeping out of the wheelhouse 10-30pm

view of deck 10 35pm

jetty at 10-36pm

January 6th 15.00 hrs

Ditto

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Friends Update

1717/1111/2009200920092009 by admin.

Hi all

Not a lot happening at the moment as we are restricted to the Marina because of the seasonal works on the river, the locks below us are closed and we can only go two locks upriver before hitting a stoppage. Last week my computer suffered a failure due to corrupted files in Windows and would not start freezing during the start-up procedure. We took a taxi to PC World (£30) ouch! where I bought a copy of Windows 7 and a new I terabyte hard-drive so I could retrieve the data off my old one. I must say the installation went like a dream and I am really impressed with the new operating system. It installed with no issues at all and is much faster and more stable than Vista.

We will be coming up to Staffordshire to visit the family for a few days at the begining of December and will try to catch up with as many old friends as possible while we are there.

Inevitable outside Tesco’s

Ta Ta for now

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Steve Emma and the Grandchildren

3030/1010/2009200920092009 by admin.

Hi everyone it has been a while since I posted the article about the coal boxes. We have since survived a visit from our Eldest Daughter and Son in law together three of our grandchildren. and I have put a selection of photos below for you all. They arrived last Friday and we left to travel up river Saturday morning. Passing first through Caversham lock in rain we went on to Maple Durham Lock which was manned and on to Whitchurch to find the self service sign out. Now this is one of the two locks on the Thames not to have public power so it meant operating the lock by hand. This would not have been too bad except for the fact that the Hotel barge African Queen was just entering and there was a boat above with a crew that did not know how to work the locks. Steve and myself took turns winding the lock gear first to open and close gates and then to lift the paddles for all three craft. After about half an hour we emerged above the lock. On Then to Beale Park where we moored outside the Reserve. After Lunch we went into the park with the family and we can fully recommend the experience. We had a great afternoon and all thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The following Morning we moved to Wallingford where we spent Sunday evening. Monday saw us turn around to head downriver to Pangbourne again we experienced a hold up at Whitchurch lock for as we arrived we saw a work-boat moored in the entrance and a Diver down working in the lock mouth. It turned out they were uncovering a ducting pipe so that a new cable could be threaded through it for the later works to install public power. Eventually we were waved through a gap just big enough and into the lock finally mooring at Pangbourne meadow just after lunchtime. A shopping excursion found the butcher and Delicatessen  closed so after discussion it was decided tea would be a visit to the Indian Restaurant for a meal. Tuesday saw the two girls off to the shops while Myself Steve and the grandchildren spent the morning playing with the Ships tender . Finaly we returned to the Marina Tuesday evening. The next two days were spent cleaning and preparing the boat for our next visiters arriving tonight Friday.

Steve at the helm

Emma, Woried about the nails!

Louis next to the Train at Beal Park

Simple’s

Beky and Georgia on the swings

Early morning at Wallingford

I used to have a Parrot

Steady on Dad

Ohh Sh!!

Three monkey’s

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