Well Met!

James and Doug from Narrowboat 'Chance' banged on the roof to introduce themselves. I was quite embarrassed to admit that I haven't seen their blog before. But, now I've rectified that, and have discovered some really nice pictures of what is currently happening upstream. Looks like they had some good weather for their trip down here. They're moored up at the Bounty tonight, and are on their way down to London. I'm going to see if I can drag them out to the pub for a drink later on. Nice to meet you, guys. Thanks for saying hello.

They enquired about our Morso saga.
This is the state of play so far...

Here we have £800 worth of new cast iron stove, and back boiler. All plumbed in nicely, with no leaks. Great, I thought. 5 minutes away from a warming fire! Unfortunately, when we tried to weld an extension onto the flue pipe, it crumbled away into nothing. All rusted away inside, and corroded through. ARRGGH! I was quite close to tears. Had hoped to have it all sorted out before Sheena returned. Now that looks unlikely. New flue pipe is not expensive. But, sadly the stove is quite useless without it.

50 days until Winter starts coming back.
More rain forecast (another "month in a day" type deluge).
Oh, what joy!

Awww....

Not normally a fan of Canada geese. As they have no natural predators in the UK, and there are huge noisy flocks of them everywhere. But these chicks hatched out this afternoon, and they were impossibly cute. Please excuse the fuzzy zoomed in picture, but I didn't want to get too close and alarm them or the parents...

We've decided to stay put for the night, because we are both enjoying the peace and quiet down here, now that everybody has steamed for home. After hustling me for a boiled egg (my lunch), Sumo's content just to sit and watch everything drift by...

Bank Holiday Monday

The fecal slick is back. Second time in as many weeks. It honked so badly, the suction truck had to be called out again..

Heaving with people at Bourne End. Screaming kids. Arggh! By 11am the steel sides of the boat were already too baking hot to touch, so a little cruise was definitely in order. Even if I couldn't find anywhere to moor up, I figured it would be nice to have a little bit of a breeze through the boat.

MV "Mayan Mist" on their big summer cruise. Quarter of a mile downstream, to the first bit of wall they could tie themselves up on. Got enough fenders there? LOL.

Got to Cookham lock, and being a big metal tube, the lock keeper waved me in first. This bloke decided he wasn't going to wait. And he made a bit of an arse of himself tieing up. Heh... "They don't like it up 'em". Saw the MV "Golden Quay" in there too. New owner. Much more pleasant than the last one, who was a right idiot.

It's been like this all weekend. Convoys of boats, all steaming as fast as they can to get to the next lock. As anticipated, the bankside down at Cliveden was completely stuffed with boats. Nowhere to pull in there. But, remarkably, "Poo Island" had nobody on it. I suspect that's something to do with the overhanging tree, which makes mooring there a (tiny bit of a) navigational challenge. Don't think I'll be staying here overnight. But the shade of the trees and a slight cooling breeze, makes me very glad I decided to venture down  here.

Feet up. Paperback book on the sundeck. Lovely.

Mister's happy too. Snoozing after lunch. zzzzzzzzz...

Stacked 5 Deep

Ah. Bank Holiday Weekend.

The river has been packed solid all day. Not a good time to be venturing out, as I doubt there's anywhere to moor a canoe, let alone a 53ft narrowboat. It's heaving with people, everywhere.

Bluebell Woods

Took the boat down to Cliveden again yesterday, to have a potter around it's Bluebell Woods. The fragrance was lovely. I didn't think that the phone camera would do them justice, but Sheena wanted me to put the pics on the blog anyway.

I'm actually quite chuffed with this one... It would make a nice wallpaper..

Sumo. On what remains of 'Blue Blanket'.

Approaching the Bourne End railway bridge. Which is currently undergoing a major refurbishment. They're not painting it, apparently. No, they're adding a "weatherproof protective coating". It must be costing somebody a fortune, because the health and safety implementation is beyond ridiculous. The days where stout geezers would dangle over the edge in bosuns chairs are long gone.  I guess they don't want even "one flake" of paint or rust falling down into the river. Which is commendable, I suppose.

Sheena says I'm "in love with the Thames". But on a day like this, who wouldn't be? Absolutely gorgeous. Distant are the memories of getting bumrushed by massive boats all racing to get in the lock first. Maybe that's just on Bank Holidays.

Cliveden's "Green Avenue".

Pear Shaped

After a bit more huffing, puffing, and skin off my fingers, I managed to undo another nut today. But the other two were definitely seized solid. Steve came and gave me a hand with his drill. But like a pair of pillocks, we didn't ratchet strap the stove tight before we popped the top off. It went "ping" and all fell apart. Gutted. Tried to ratchet it back together again, but noticed a large crack by the rear blanking plate. So that will be a new stove and backboiler then.

*waves goodbye to £1000*

A £20,000 paint job.
More money than sense, in my humble opinion. He should have spent the money on a mooring, rather than taking the pris at Spade Oak for six months of the year.

Seized Nuts

It's been a bit warmer over the last few days. Time to tackle a job I'd been putting off, until we no longer needed the fire in the evenings. Our stove top had cracked, about a month ago. Because I'd stupidly overloaded it with wood, and then left the bottom vent door open for too long. It was flaming like a furnace in there when it went "pop". Thankfully, the crack was only on the periphery, with no detectable leakage from the firebox. I sealed it up with heatproof silicone to be sure, and it would probably have been good for a while longer. But I figure we'd have got an "advisory" notice, when we next have our boat safety inspection done. Which is soon.

We got the new top from Harworth Heating, because they were about £50 cheaper than the other prices we could find online. It cost us £71. Their 100% geninune Morso(tm) bolts and stove rope were reasonably priced, too.

Getting the chimney off, went OK. It hadn't seized or rusted into place. Getting the flue out, went OK. Bit of judicious jiggling. Screwdriver to remove the old fire cement. Out it popped, with the minimum of fuss. Stove collar, we fitted recently.  We'd bedded that in with some heat resistant silicone, so it was only a MODERATE PITA to remove. But the retaining nuts underneath... a completely different story. TOTAL PITA. They're corroded, encrusted, nonvisible, and are very fiddly to get at. Because of the backboiler. And I really don't want to be messing with that.

Fortified with triple espressos, I managed to get one out, after much huffing and puffing. But, there are three more to go. Tried a ring spanner. No joy. Tried a socket spanner. No Joy. Next plan is to drill them out from above. The new top will indicate the precise position where the holes should be drilled.

While I was doing all this, Sumo just chilled out.. Sunny spot and Sheena's Pillows. He is on "short walks" at the moment, because he overdid it chasing after tennis balls. I think both of us forget he is 9. We recently switched him over to "senior" Chudley chunks. Which are fortified with sea weed (which he adores) and herbs. He seems to be fine on it. And his coat is nice and shiny too.

awww, mister.