A brief respite

Well not quite.  We've been home for a week and go back to Amelie May in ten days.  I spent a weekend in London talking about Transatlantic sailing and Caribbean cruising -  a bit of a contrast to life 'on the cut'.  Still the sailing rally is gaining momentum and my cunning plan to get back to Antigua for  Christmas is still viable.  I put one photo on Facebook the other day when we renamed the boat but there are a few more below.  It was a great day - we did a whole mile or so up the canal so we could moor on the bank where the new name was photographable as in the marina the stern was well out from the finger jetty.  Trying to get everyone on the stern would almost certainly ended up with someone swimming!  The rear end of a traditional narrow boat is crowded with two people.

OK so breaking a champagne bottle over her didn't work but one Amelie May watching a glass of bubbly being thrown over the other one wasn't a bad compromise.

 

 

Another shot of the participants - the new addition to the family is hiding on mum's chest.

Work, work, work.

At last my hands are free of paint, having spent the last ten days slapping it all over the boat.  Now it will be oil as I have to service the engine and generator and then it will polish, as all the remaining paintwork needs to be cut back and polished.  The list has shrunk as most of the big jobs have been done although if we ever actually get to the end I will be very surprised.  In amongst all this my daughter-in-law has produced a lovely little baby girl – Maisie June.   I don’t envy my son with three females in the house.  Mid next week we will be leaving the boat as I have to go to London to help with a preparation weekend for the Christmas Caribbean Rally which I am helping to organise.   More details are available at: http://www.sailingrallies.com/.   Then my nephew is getting married then there is a party to go to.  We should be back on the boat, hungover at the end of May.

The newly painted bow where it used to say 'Blue Moon'

But doesn't now because she has a new name. (took me ages to paint it on - er put the stickers in place!)

 

The automatic central heating system

45 locks in 40 miles

So we collected the boat having had all the remedial work done and headed off to get as near to Manchester as we could.  We’re now snug in a marina only fifteen minutes away from the growing family, number two granddaughter being expected on Monday.  The trip here was fairly cold and wet and took three and a half days.  The trees were bare and the locks numerous, including  ‘Heart Break Hill’ or the Cheshire flight of the Trent and Mersey canal.  Fi and I loved every minute.  She is now ‘qualified’ to drive into locks and I am ‘qualified’ to grind the paddles and push the gates open  and shut.  The learning curve was fairly steep and there was the odd bump – one managed to shift our wood burning stove a good few inches.  But no harm done and we made really good time to get here.  These narrow boats are just a tad different from a Jeanneau 42.  There’s no autopilot for a start and you have to steer the whole time and I mean the whole time.  Take a slight glance away from where you’re going and the damn thing heads straight for the bank/another boat/a bridge.  And turning to get round sharp bends or into marinas is an adventure in its own right.  Thank god the previous owner had a bow thruster fitted.

So the ‘List’ has’ been made and we are working our way through it, cross off one job and add two more, followed by a visit to the Chandler or B&Q.  Actually we are making good progress and the boat should be really spick and span for when we set off again in May.  That’ll be when the trees are out, the air is warm and the sun always shines…………

 

 

One out of the forty five

 

A new adventure and an epic voyage

So on Saturday we literally braved blizzards to drive up to Nantwich to take possession of our new pride and joy. -  the good narrow boat 'Blue Moon' soon to be renamed 'Amelie May' - (when the bloody weather allows me to paint out the old name).  And that was the problem - the weather.  We spent most of our time sorting out the insides and exploring the amazing amount of stuff left over by the previous owners.  We got the central heating working and the wood burning stove but neither were working first thing in the morning and boy was it cold. Yesterday we set off for a major trip down the canal - all of an hour and one lock to get to the marina that is going to sort out some remedial work and paint the hull.  So there I am trying to extricate this sixty foor lump of steel out of a narrow and crowded marina and just as I put her in gear to enter the canal, the only other boat on the whole section drives past and makes me slam into reverse to miss her - I'm not paranoid they are out to get me! I won't talk about the new marina and the vicious crosswind except to say that I take it all back, bow thrusters are now my favorite bit of kit.  Fi and I realised that we weren't really going to be able to work on her much, so bravely decided to run away home to central heating and a bath.  Mind you the list we now have to buy things is faily long so we should be kept busy.  When we woke up all snug under our very thick duvet this morning we were not that surprised to see the weather .  So, about two weeks before we go back and I am still telling myself how wonderful it will all be when the sun comes out, the trees go green and it stops bloody snowing.

Snowy morning in Aqueduct marina.  Hopefully our rather unique patio doors will be of more use in a few months time!

 

 

The sattelite dish works really well - not sure about the anchor

No we definitely are not there yet

So, another year of writing, playing golf very badly and watching the rain has been put on hold.  Last week we bought a sixty footer - narrow boat called Blue Moon.  We've had this idea in the back of our mind ever since we got back from the Caribbean.  Just think - little risk of moorings pulling out, no rough offshore passages etc etc.  Ok it may not be quite as sunny and we definitley won't be catching any large fish but there will always be the next corner to look around and new people to meet which is what its all about.
We spent a weekend looking at boats and most were rubbish.  People seem to think its a good idea to post four year old photos of a boat and then wonder why we're not interested when the boat turns out to a complete mess.  However, we got on board Blue Moon and Fi and I immediately realised she was perfect - except for the price which was way over the top.  However, to our surprise they accepted our offer and suddenly we were in the same position as when we bought the yacht - we coulnd't afford not to buy it.  She is perfectly equipped for long term cruising and the previous owner spent a fortune on her 6 years ago, so all key things like engines etc are not old even thought the hull is from 1992.  On Saturday we go up to spend a week on board before leavng her in a yard for painting and some minor remedial work.  The only blight on the horizon is that its forecast to snow on Saturday.............  
Once shes back in the water we are going to move up to Manchester to be near the family as grandaughter number 2 is imminent.  Oh and we are going to change the name of the boat to 'Amelie May' as that is also the name of grandaughter number1 who can come and break a beaker of milk over the bow.

 Photos to follow when I've had a chance to take some.

On a different subject - I am still getting an enormous amount of hits on my Falklands posts and many from Argentina.  It staggers me how much bollocks is talked about the events of 30 May and how conspiracy theorists refuse to either give up their views or enter into any dialogue.  Maybe I should approach the BBC to do a documentary about it but even that wouldn't convince some of these guys.

Snowin'

So a thank you to my sister and husband for putting Fi and I up at their place in Austria for the last fortnight.  Some holiday snaps:

The Schronbrun palace or the Hapsburg's weekend pad - just outside Vienna

Just a small reception room

You know its snowed when you're bike is white - Salzburg



Even the horses were wearing winter gear - St Stephens in Vienna

For some reason the Austrians are paranoid about clearing snow even when its snowing!  So we had to muck in.

A wild boar - actually, more like a 'mildly annoyed boar' as we didn't keep any of the leftover food from lunch for him

Even the river was turning white

Actually taken by my sister but the slopes at the resort of Obertauern - where the Beatles filmed part of 'Help'

 

And actually there

One of the best moments when writing a book is when you type the last word.  It may actually be the start of a process that involves endless revisions and the hunt for typos and bad grammar but it is the end of the creative bit.  This morning I typed the word 'past', immediately realised I meant 'passed', corrected it and then hit the full stop.  Six months of joining up where I wanted to start from, to where I wanted to finish and finding the journey changed the finish in the process. All those hours lying in the bath or walking the dog, thinking around plot dead ends that I had written myself in to.  All those brilliant ideas or clever dialogue that I thought of just before going to sleep and then not being able to recall in the morning.  All done.
As I said in my previous post, the book is very different from any of my previous ones to the extent that I may do what some authors do and publish under a different name.  I will ponder all this during the 'typo hunt' phase.
Another teaser photograph:

 

Ganymede, the water/ice moon of Jupiter