SOGGY DUGGIE

SUNDAY 23RD MARCH 2010

Although this blog is not strictly about our boating experiences and apologises if recent blogs have been more dog than boat orientated, the blogging world needs to know that Duggie can swim, a relief to both him and ourselves.

After a miserable wet Saturday, Sunday was lovely and mid morning we set off for a walk. From the marina up the hill to the straggly but picturesque Napton village and down the other to the first of the Napton locks where we stopped for the first ice cream of the year and a long chat with the friendly owner of the shop. We asked him how the Folly Inn was doing under the new management and he said that it was much improved, however we felt that it was still too early to pop into the pub for a cider and decided that by the time we had walked onto The Bridge pub, we would be able to justify calling in. Not to be!

Duggie has chased lot of ducks from around the marina and sensible has not followed them into the water, but the two, sitting quietly on the towpath gently glided into the cut as Duggie approached and this time he obviously felt that whatever they can do, so can he. His entrance to the water was not as serene as the ducks had been, but fortunately he immediately turned to the bank, doggie paddled back and pulled himself out and stood looking confused and forlorn, whilst we just laughed and took photos of him, how cruel. There was no way we could now take him into the pub and the wind was a bit sharp to have sat outside, so we continued walking home, by which time he had pretty much died off. Not for long though, this was the perfect opportunity for Jacquie to get him into the shower, where he stood meekly whilst Jacquie shampooed away the smell of the cut. It’s good to know that he can swim and hopefully he won’t be making a habit of it.

It’s always good to receive comments to the blog and on the 21st a comment was left on a recent posting from Touch, but as a few others recently received, the message is in oriental characters, which not surprisingly I don’t understand, but thank you to Touch and others who do leave understandable comments.

FEELING WINDY

SUNDAY 14TH MARCH 2010

The day was bright and breezy and friends Zena and Clive, who spend most of their life in France, arrived with their little dog, Renee and as expected Duggie and Renee hit it off immediately.


Despite the windy conditions we decided to head off towards the Folly Inn. Easier said than done, SKYY had a mind of her own, so I decided to go with her and instead of trying to make directly to the narrow exit to the canal, we headed down towards the wide open area in front of the marina office and did a 360 deg. turn before heading back to the exit. Again I nearly decided to go with the wind and head towards Braunston, but persistence and plenty of engine revs and I managed to get SKYY heading into wind, towards the Folly. We lunched opposite the gentle slope, near the winding hole and watched the sun warm the assorted Shetland ponies, deer and sheep.
I had hoped that by late afternoon the wind may have dropped, but no, the moment we left the shelter of the cut and entered the marina it was blowing as hard as ever and it took several goes and a bit of persuading, reluctantly using my freshly painted poles to get us lined up with our pontoon and pass, without touching the two boats moored either side. Clive had earlier refused my offer to take the helm and after my faffing about and getting us safely tied up, he was glad he hadn’t been tempted. Shortly afterwards we said farewell and look forward to visiting them in France next year.


Talking about my poles, my old boat hook had a rubber bumper at the non hook end, but the new one didn’t, I had vaguely considered sticking on an old tennis ball, this would have been a bit crude, when I spied one of Duggie’s toys, a blue knobbly, thick rubber, hollow ball, with a bell inside. Duggie said I could borrow it. I don’t think he realised that I was going to open up the end with a scalpel, remove the bell and with a bit of washing up liquid, as lubricant, stick it on the end of the new pole. It works a treat, non slip and leaves no scratches or marks on other boats paintwork and so far Duggie hasn’t missed it. I had also bought at great expense a pair of chrome brackets (twice the price of brass ones) to support the pole as the old one had rotted as it mostly laid directly on the roof, hopefully this pole should, as they say, ‘See me out’.

BREAKING THE ICE

SUNDAY 21ST TO MONDAY 22ND FEBRUARY 2010

Chums, Kim & John arrived to an empty SKKY about ten o’clock on Saturday night. We had gone to an amazing charity concert in Bedford and arrived back at midnight to find Kim, John and Duggie all looking very cosy despite the freezing temperature outside. Little Duggie had been left with our Neighbour Simon and his lovely Lurcher Tess on board his boat and K & J collected him before settling on board.

Sunday morning and sleety snow was filtering down, as the ground was slippery we took the decision to avoid locks and headed off towards Rugby, intending to stop for the night just before the three locks at Hillmorton. The sky gradually cleared and the sun shone warmly, the girls got off with Duggie, who looked very smart in his new coat and they must have walked about four miles before we stopped for lunch just before the Braunston turn. The air was still cold and a warm saloon and a filling lunch would have had me falling asleep, but as the sun still shone we carried on, again with the girls and Duggie walking until we reached the Hungry Horse Pub (Home of The Big Platter), well that about sums it up, They wouldn’t let Duggie in so immediately it lost my vote. We had a drink or two but were definitely not tempted by the menu, returning to SKYY, where Jacquie’s spaghetti carbonara went down a treat.

The snow was again gently falling when we woke up on Monday morning, but today the sun hardly managed to break through the cloud. I walked Duggie up to the road by the pub and suddenly I was in suburbia, with grass verges and front gardens to a mix of houses and bungalows and cars parked in front of garages. It was strange, as most of the time that we are cruising, we are in our own little world so far removed from the hustle and bustle of life beyond the cut, but here it was just a few steps away.

We reversed SKYY back to the entrance to the nearby covered dock and just managed to turn her 57 ft by hauling on the ropes from each end. As we headed back home the scene had changed, the snow had again given a thin white coat to the landscape and to our surprise much of the cut was completely frozen over and we were breaking ice until we met a boat coming the other way and then we both were able to take advantage of the clear channel cut by each other. We continued non stop to our home marina at Wigrams Turn, but the girls decided that they had had enough exercise yesterday and anyway it was a bit too cold, so your truly had to walk the towpath with Duggie, the compensation was that as soon as we tied up at our pontoon a late lunch was served, a piping hot Cottage Pie soon warmed our insides. Kim & John left us for the joys of the M40 saying that they wished that could cancel work and spend the next six months with us on our forthcoming trip North, How much would it cost to have the boat stretched by 10 ft.?

On a technical matter, having replaced the domestic batteries last year, I have been considering how to keep them charged up when we are not cruising for a few days. I have considered fitting a battery management system that duals up the starter and domestic alternators and guarantees charging batteries to 90% of capacity, cost approx £350. A 110 -130 ah alternator to replace my 70ah one, cost approx £190. Replacing all the lights with LED’s, unfortunately Jacquie considers the colour output unacceptable and finally a generator. When I had the opportunity to buy from Simon, our neighbour, a EX7 Honda suitcase generator, it seemed like an answer to a maidens prayer. Sadly when plugged into the shoreline socket I got a reverse polarity warning light and a few buzzes and clicks from the inverter but nothing else.

To my surprise my email to Tony Brooks of Canal Boat Q & A fame, brought a response by the next morning. Although not an expert on 240v Tony was able to outline the problem, too technical for me to properly understand, but apparently some generators send out +120v and -120v to provide 240V. A phone call to a local marine electrician confirmed the problem and it could be fixed, but basically the generator was not man enough. The inverter could be tweaked to recognise the low input from the generator, but would have to be reset when we went back on to mains shoreline. The minimum generator size to properly power up the inverter’s charger would have to be 1.5 KW not the meagre 600w from the EX7. I decided not to go any further down this road and fortunately Simon took back the generator. I am now back to square one, so it would be interesting to know what route other boaters have taken to manage this problem, other than cutting down electricity usage, which off course we will be doing, both the microwave and the toaster have gone, but the hair dryer and the vacuum have to stay.

Not long now to bottom blacking and then off we go, with hopefully plenty to blog about on a daily basis.

LITTLE DOG TO BRAUNSTON

FRIDAY 5TH TO SUNDAY 7TH JANUARY 2010

At last the temperature was nudging ten degrees as I and many others busied themselves upon their boats in the Marina. I was being ably assisted by our new recruit, Duggie who was now confidently jumping on and off SKYY and was completely at home in his watery surroundings. I thought that the cute antics of the Andrex dogs was pure marketing, but running through the salon followed by a trail of loo paper has become one of Duggie’s favourite tricks. He has now made many friends in the Marina both human and canine and when Jacquie returned from the gym we thought it would be a good idea to go for a cruise and introduce him to the wider world of narrow boat life.

I felt the warmth of the sun on my back as we headed out of the Marina and turned towards Braunston. We originally decided to go in the direction of the Folly Pub to see if the New Management had made any significant improvements, but the blue sky encouraged us to travel further and although we have been thgis this way so often the journey was delightful. Duggie, on his harness and lead, happily surveyed the changing scenery from the rear deck and at bridge 105 Jacquie and Duggie jumped ship, rejoining at bridge 103, Duggie having performed his land based duties.

I hadn’t realised, but this weekend was the OwnerShips show in Braunston Marina and as the sun set I remarked how crowded the moorings seemed as we approached the marina and amazingly found a SKYY sized mooring immediately before the entrance.

On Saturday morning we strolled into the Marina to see what was on offer. It was stuffed full of OwnerShip boats and friendly souls inviting the many visitors aboard, but Duggie was the main attraction with so many people stopping us say hullo to the little fella. We bought a smart red bandana from the President Steam Boat stand before strolling up to Wharf House chandlery to buy a new boat hook as the old one had rotted. I also ordered a pair of single chrome supports as the old pole just lay on the roof and I reckon that’s why it rotted.

As we returned we popped into the marquee and enjoyed a jumbo sausage hot dog and a burger whilst making new friends with a couple who had a black Miniature Schnauzer. We also spotted Brian and Diana on N.B. Harnser as they cruised passed, Brian commented that I was brave in leaving my broadband dongle on its little mast, Jacquie agreed, not wise to leave such a tempting little object so close to hand, I think I may have become to trusting.

Sunday morning had us strolling up into Braunston Village to buy a Sunday paper, accompanied by the lovely sounds of the Church bells. We met another local couple with a six year Schnauzer bitch and at, nearly, four months, Duggie was considerably bigger than her so maybe there is a bit of Giant Irish Wolf Hound in him as has been suggested, ohh I hope not. The return cruise in the afternoon was much colder than the outward bound but I wrapped up in lots of layers, safe in the knowledge that our stove was keeping the inside of SKYY toasty warm and I enjoyed the journey, passing several boats on the way. The engine was sounding sweet and all systems seem to be working well.

After tying up at our pontoon I immediately filled up with water as the word was, that the supply to all pontoons would be turned off on Monday as the weather was set to continue getting colder. I have now, two 25lt water containers on the rear deck, these I refilled with fresh water. When I ordered the containers from an EBay supplier, they showed a capped off bleed hole on the top, the ones delivered didn’t have this facility. I considered sending them back, but I drilled a small hole into the handle and this allows sufficient air into the carriers for a smooth transfer of water through the tap and down the short length of hose, as I tip the carrier over, my thumb covers the hole until the suction of water leaving the container starts to draw the air in.

I had two comments left on my previous blog, from Gary and 8542, both the comments were in Chinese characters, thanks for the comments, but regretfully I have no idea what is being said.

Less than a couple of months now before we set off for our planned, six months cruise up North, can’t wait, getting itchy feet now, but need some warmer weather to finish the repainting of the port gunnel to rubbing strake. The bottom blacking is booked so we should look quite smart when we set off. Yep I know it won’t last long.

ABLE DOGGIE DUGGIE

WEDNESDAY 7TH JANUARY 2010

Happy New Year to everyone on this ohh so cold day, but and for all concerned friends and relatives, we are not actually on board SKYY at the moment, but tucked up in a very warm house in Bedfordshire with Jacquie’s brother and sister-in-law. So why am I blogging as I only usually blog about our SKYY adventures?

As I alluded to in my last blog in November, we were awaiting an arrival and I can now proudly say that we have signed up a new crew member in the shape of Duggie a, nearly, three month old Miniature Schnauzer. He hasn’t been on board yet, but he is a good car traveller, so I expect him to take to life afloat with aplomb. He has charm and character aplenty is now almost house trained. I am not sure what his onboard duties will be, but I think he will be a roving ambassador of friendship.

We will soon back on board and it would seem that the temperatures will still be around zero. I expect SKYY to be firmly stuck in the ice and going nowhere, hopefully we will have enough fresh water on board and spare capacity in the loo tank to see out the freeze up, but in the meantime as well as our trusty stove to keep us comfortable we will have warm laps, as fortunately Duggie is very cuddly.

NIGHT-TIME MANOUVERS

SATURDAY 24TH TO SUNDAY 25TH OCTOBER 2009

It was lovely, on a sunny Saturday morning, to welcome onboard, my unofficial Step Daughter Tor, who is expecting a baby early next year and her husband Nick. We headed off directly towards Braunston and stopped for lunch between bridges 103 and 104, mooring for the night just passed the main entrance to the Braunston boatyard and marina. I noted the very smart new wooden footbridge that BW had constructed to replace the creeky old one over the other entrance to the marina as we walked up three of the locks to the Admiral Nelson Pub. The offer of a free bottle of wine with a couple of steaks convinced us to stay and eat and it must be said that the steaks were excellent.

Sunday morning also dawned bright and beautiful and an hour earlier than the day before, as this was the weekend that the clocks went back. We cruised on towards Hillmorton giving Nick more time to prove that he was a natural at the tiller. We turned before the locks and headed back towards our home marina at Wigrams Turn, wondering if we would get there before dark. We were right to wonder as during the last thirty minutes it got progressively darker until it was only our bright little tunnel lamp that lit the way. To our surprise there were still several other boats on the move, but by the time I was lining up to approach our pontoon it was seriously dark, however we came alongside very accurately, this has now added a new, but not too scary dimension to our boating experiences. Tor and Nick bade us farewell having rung out of us a promise to do some baby-sitting next year, in return for bed and bath, a deal.

Again apologises for the belated posting of this blog, but apart from obviously getting lazier, a lot has been going on in our lives. Between the stag weekend and Tor and Nick visiting us there has been not one, but two weddings, plus some time in France riding my trusty old MotoGuzzi motorbike with chums Phil & Lynne and subsequently loads more stuff, but for interested followers we are both fit and well and planning for a new arrival in the New Year, exciting, but no more details yet.

In case there is no more SKYY related stuff to blog about until after Christmas I wish everyone a jolly good Christmas and we look forward to plenty of cruising and blogging in 2010 as we head North.

A STAGGERING WEEKEND

SATURDAY 26TH TO 27TH SEPTEMBER 2009

Our Boating Buddies and Chocolate Chums, Kim & John are getting married in October and naturally there has to be Hen and Stag do’s. The Hen affair was a ‘Bad Taste’ (dress wise not food) weekend in a country house in deepest Hampshire, well away from prying male eyes.

For the boys, well we were much more original!!! A Pirate weekend on board SKYY. Gradually the numbers grew to twelve and Jacquie persuaded me that SKYY would be a bit overloaded so we hired another boat and we had us a convoy. By eleven o’clock on Saturday morning ten of the twelve scurvy knaves had assembled on the quay side of the marina. John the groom had been done up as an unlikely Kiera Knightly, whilst I assumed command as Cap’n Hook. We showed no mercy to Don the Harbour Master despite his desperate pleading, but we went no further than a bit of pillaging, saving the raping for later.

With the Jolly Roger flying from the stern of both boats and Kiera at the helm of the good ship ‘Francesca’ we headed up the Grand Union Canal, through the three locks at Calcut and stopped for ships biscuits and weevils at the Boat Inn, actually for most of us it was a very substantial Boat Burger and chips. We continued down the Stockton Locks with much ‘Arrrrrghing’ and ‘Shivering of Timbers’ until the Blue Lias Inn hove into view where we moored up to refill the barrels and recover one of the Jolly Rogers that had got dislodged by the roof of the bridge just before the pub.

Refreshed and ready for more pirating we moved on through the last couple of locks and moored up at the bottom of The Cuttle Inn garden, where we were joined by the eleventh member of the crew. The Cuttle provided some excellent victuals, beautifully presented and reasonable priced and didn’t seem to mind the good humoured, but noisy pirate drinking games.

One or two of the younger friskier pirates headed to the Two Boat Inn, for what they thought was a karaoke session, whilst Kiera was put to bed to sleep it off.

On Sunday morning dishevelled crew members gradually surfaced, having abandoned their Pirate costumes and amazingly Kiera, now restored to John the Groom set about cooking a full English breakfast for everyone. The last one of our party joined us in time for breakfast, having just arrived home at 3.30 am from a family holiday, that’s true friendship.

We tried in vain to turn the 68 ft hire boat outside The Cuttle, so instead headed onto the Bascote staircase lock where we turned both boats in the pound, came back up the lock and started the return journey up the remaining thirteen locks. By now the crew had some idea of what they needed to do and the locks swiftly disappeared behind us.

A brief stop at lunch time at the Blue Lias for beer, as we were still full of breakfast, sausage, egg and bacon. We arrived back at Wigrams Turn Marina with the flags still fluttering as I am sure must have been the hearts of many a young lady that we had ‘Arrrrrghed at over the last couple of days. Maybe not!!!, but what a great time we all had. Now the wedding to look forward to where there will be time to collectively remember our days before the mast.