|
30 June 2003
Hello everyone
Thanks for looking in
Firstly, sorry if the site isn't getting updated as often as you'd like.
It could be hit and miss for a while, at least until we have a bit more knowledge on the subject.
What happens at the moment is that the update is put together on our laptop on the boat, saved on CD Rom and posted to Steve Heighton, who then [hopefully] sorts it out and puts it on the site for us. Many thanks to Steve!
Anyway the story so far...
We were due to leave the house on Monday, 23rd June 2003 at about 11:00 am and as lunchtime approached a removal van turned up outside.
But as you may know, it's a matter of money changing hands and cheques clearing.
Until this happens the furniture stays firmly on the vans outside the respective houses awaiting calls from solicitors.
At 3:00 pm "the telephone call" came, solicitors clapped their hands and everyone jumped.
Fortunately for us, the house had basically become empty over the weeks and we just had one car load left to take.
Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, most of the last car load is still in the car, rendering it a two seater. But I am sure that we will get it sorted soon [fingers crossed].
Anyway a few more pictures…
A good friend, Michael Walker "Senior" offered to look after some of our more fragile items.
He called in the other day with our BACK to FRONT clock.
It might look odd to you but, when you have only had this clock to look at of an evening for a long period of time, it's the normal clocks that you have trouble with.
Michael bringing our Old Peculier Clock back at... twenty to eleven a.m. ??
As we mentioned in our last update, we had to convince the cat that living afloat was a good idea.
A week later...
As you can see any armchair will do for "Gromit" and he doesn't look at all stressed.
Gromit "working out"
On Sunday 29th June we had arranged to go over to Burnley to see Pamela's sister, Pat.
This was to be an afternoon visit, so we decided to take the boat up river for a bit of practice first.
Now it's only about a mile each way and we didn't expect any problems but we did have a few...
1. Carpet wrapped around the propeller.
2. Throttle/gear lever came away from it's base
3. Steering wheel came loose
4. Grease pipe came off the greaser tube
5. Trouble with the engine, wanting to stall.
We sorted each of these out as they happened but the last one had us mystified.
There wasn't anything significant wrapped around the propeller except for a couple of grass type weeds and the engine started to behave normally anyway.
It then rained overnight and on Monday morning we found the answer to our stalling engine.
A very large clump of weeds was floating on the other side of the river, which I'm sure we had disturbed the day before.
The clump of weeds, lighter in colour to everything around it was bigger than the bench at the side of the river (see picture)
Our propeller had probably gone through this and disturbed its root system
Clump of weed (Centre of picture)
It carried on raining on that Monday and as you can see, people even braved the weather to get a glimpse of the clump of weeds or...
was it just a nice spot to stop for a drink? (can I see cans on the bench?)
Time for a drink ?
Monday night and still raining.
Pamela and I decided to have a night in with a nice meal and maybe watch a DVD
Just as the meal was ready I heard a car horn on the landing (this never happened when we lived in a house)
I looked out and shouted at the chap "come in" as it was still raining and we were the only boat there.
Before I got my head back under cover I recognised who he was - it was someone I hadn't seen for about 30 years.
He had tracked me down through a cousin.
He has certainly done well for himself, looks very well and still has the same sense of humour.
My mum used to say that "I" would laugh even if my backside was on fire. So would this chap.
It was great to see him again and meet his wife Louise.
Guess Who...
More later.......
David and Pamela
.............................................................................................................
18 June 2003
Hello everyone
Thanks for looking in, the website only came on line on Tuesday 17th June 2003
A big thanks to Steve Heighton
It’s going to be a hectic week ....
Moving out of the house at the weekend.
Finishing touches to the boat.
Convincing the cat that this is a good idea.
Anyway just thought a few pictures would do for now .....
Site meeting in the front room
Peter Thorn climbing the ladder of success and Richard Fee winning the sweep
Richard having to reduce the roller size to get the boat out of the building ....
When Richard got the boat out , I asked him if he could look "smug" - I think he might be hard of hearing?
Preview of the kitchen, sorry "galley". Notice no clutter (yet! ) - give me time.
More later,
David and Pamela
.............................................................................................................
January 2003
Hello everyone,
Thanks for looking in, not much happening yet but it will soon be quite hectic.
Now we have Christmas and the New Year out of the way the boat will soon start taking shape.
We seem to spend a lot of time thinking about the boat’s height out of the water "Air Draught"
Eight feet high could make difficult to get through some tunnels on the Leeds, Liverpool canal.
We went to Foulridge on Saturday the 5th Jan 2003 with a large ruler.
The tunnel is almost a mile long and is between Skipton and Burnley.
Even after coming home and trying to work out measurements from my superimposed grid,
I’m still not sure whether we can visit Lancashire.
More later,
David and Pamela
|
