Peruvian Skies

Update

2009-03-24T00:59:00.000-07:00

Once again I will start this blog with an apology for not updating the blog.
Narrowboat Oakfield has asked for an update of whether we are cruising yet...well we have now done our first proper cruise to the River Nene from the Middle Levels to give our boat a true test run.

Our first 2 months, what has seemed to be a constant wait for some problems, snagging and wet commisioning issues to be sorted, as well as battling with some very inclement weather, and with me spending countless hours with my head down in the engine bay doing gearbox oil changes. We now hope with fingers crossed & baited breath we are almost there.

One of our major problems has been coolant getting into the gearbox, and oil into the coolant from the gearbox oil cooler, we hope this is now sorted with a modified part from Beta. We would also like to thank Sam and Paul from Foxton Boat Services for their excellent service to get to the bottom of this problem over their several vists to our boat.

We have also been waiting for our hatch to be fitted.We requested one in our spec that would be easy to open and could be locked from the outside and this got overlooked during the build, We had a couple of weeks using a temporary wooden board substitute, whilst the hatch was taken away to be modified. This made the boat unsecure so we was limited to where we could go to, along with the gearbox spraying oil from the dipstick breather holes and oil resembling copydex glue.

The hatch now works brilliantly, and can be operated with one hand which was our original brief. I would strongly recommend anyone to consider a hatch that runs on bearings, as we had a larger hatch fitted to the shell they are quite a lump to move.

We now think we have calibrated all the gauges so hopefully can now monitor our levels, although the water gauge seems to be unaccurate by quite a margin, so we will have to look into that.

We have also had the boat lifted to get the gas locker vents welded at Foxes Boatyard, as we are an all electric boat these vents were not required, and we wanted this area as extra dry storage.

All credit to Foxes, boat was lifted at 8.00am and blanking plates welded and blacked and we were back in the water by 9.30am.

We are still awaiting the fitment of our auto start system for the generator, which was unavalable at launch.

We have a few vists from Fernwood as well as Procast to sort general snags and resealing of the portholes etc.

So Thanks to all concerned in getting to the bottom of these problems.

We have now received our BW Gold Licence and so we are now legal on the rivers and canals.

We will be returning to the Middle Level until all the closures on the Nene are completed and we can make our way up to the Grand Union.

All said and done we are loving our new life, and feel we can now start it....watch this space.

Top Up Time

2009-02-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Today we managed to go and get water and pumpout, so we can now shower without too much worry.

Had a visit today from a a guy from the middle level commision, he wanted to have a look at the inlet stream to the rear of the old pump house that is on the site at our mooring. He said that they had "lost a pump" the other night which was the reason for our severe rise of water level on Tuesday night. I think even he was surprised when I showed him how much the water had come up. It was good to know that this was a rarity rather than the norm which put our minds at rest.

Anyway getting set for a chillout weekend watching the 6 Nations Rugby but I am sure we will find plenty of chores to do as well. Just been having a look at the forecast and they reckon that it may get up to 7 degrees, so reckon I best dig out my shorts and get some BBQ Charcoal.

Neighbours become good friends!

2009-02-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

Its started snowing, AGAIN! At least we have had some visitors to keep us happy. Hopefully, should get pictures of the rest of the abundant wildlife around here, if its like this now, what will it be like come spring!

This Kingfisher has been by a couple of times today, & seems to like swinging on the middle rope,he wont sit still for long enough for us to catch a photo though, but we will keep trying!

Dick's dad bought him a new axe today (thanks dad!) & he has been contentedly chopping away this afternoon. I think he has found his new place in life (Images pass through of my head of "Monty Python" & the "Lumberjack" song), but that's a story for another day.

Weather for Monday says it will be in double figures! That would be nice, think I have forgotten what that feels like, bet i'm not the only one! Bye for now.

Sleepless Night

2009-02-11T09:06:00.000-08:00

Well I suppose it had to happen..after all the snow and the rain, along comes the thaw and some more rain. The result of this was we spent most of last night checking our mooring every 2 hours as the water rose very quickly. We were just a little worried that the levels may rise so much that the boat may go over our mooring poles and we may end up in the field.
We awoke this morning to find the level must have risen 3' to 3' 6" and our stern mooring was covered in about 3" of water.
This would not have bothered us that much, but we were expecting a vist from Paul of Foxton Boat Services to make a warranty repair to our engine, Paul needed to get on at the stern but luckily by the time he arrived the water had subsided enough so he could get aboard with dry feet.
Hopefully the replacement gearbox oil cooler will now solve our problems, but we will need to keep a check on the levels to see if it has cured the problem.
Our plan once this repair was made was to go to the waterpoint tomorrow and replenish water supplies and pumpout, but the high water has scuppered this as there is not enough headroom under the bridges so we will have to wait till the level drops.
Once again sorry no pictures but still having problems logging on to the blog, so just doing quick updates while we can get on.
Anyway levels seem to have dropped about 6" - 8" so hopefully we can have a restful night, and just listen to our resident owl, now that is what I call acceptable noise pollution!!!!!

Been A While

2009-02-10T06:26:00.000-08:00

Well we did launch...sorry for not updating blog but having a real nightmare logging on to the blog.
Well the boat arrived and the launch went well if you want a few more pics of the launch follow the link on the previous comment's blog (thanks Dan & Kelly)

We didn't get to many pictures ourselves as yours truly had packed the memory card for the camera...Well there was a lot going on that day!

As you can see by the time the boat was on the water light was fading fast, so only time for basic checks and tie up for the night. We decided to give Fernwood a bit of space to do the commissioning and not move our stuff on till the weekend.

We moved the boat up on to our mooring on Saturday.

Ken came with us on our trip up to our mooring on our maiden cruise (which takes about an hour) and the boat handled and performed well.

We then spent the Sunday moving our stuff onto the boat. Well we thought we had paired our belongings down to a minimum but its not till you move onto a boat you realise how much stuff you have, but we got there in the end and now we are just through the learning phase of remembering where we put everything (and keeping up where Netty has since moved things to from the last time I looked).

Well what a baptism of fire our first few weeks has been..Snow, Ice, Torrential Rain but do you know what, we are loving it. If anyone says we have gone for the relaxing easy option I am not sure we would agree, but the lifestyle is great, it is so quiet on our mooring, this is where we will stay till end of March (not that we have much choice but stay at the moment).

Obviously, we have been having a few snagging problems which we are working through with the builder at the moment. Hopefully, they will all get resolved before our off.

We are working a little blind at the moment as we have no diesel or water gauges, and not being used to the boat are a little unsure of how we are doing in these areas. The main problem is that we cannot calibrate the fuel tanks till they are full. We can dip the main tank but the water and heating tanks have flexible fillers so this isn't possible.

The stove "The Hotpod" is performing well and keeping us well toasty, in fact we have just reached 23 degrees (but we are starting to learn how to control it). The stove is a welcome feature when you have been outside chopping logs etc. and the ever warm kettle soons boils when we put it on the top of the stove.

Wildlife is abundant here, we have seen partridges, a marsh harrier, kingfishers, wrens, robins, swans, coots and moorhens and have been told that last year they had a flock of ring necked parakeets here, as well as our resident barn owl being quite vocal on some nights.

We have slept really well on the boat (tip to anyone get a memory foam mattress) but last night was a little disturbed due to the high winds, we awoke this morning to find the river had risen approx 2' so we are now stepping down to the mooring rather than up.

Hoping to go and replenish water and pumpout on Friday.

Anyway hoping not to leave it so long till the next blog.

Launch Day

2009-01-22T00:25:00.000-08:00

Very quick blog before we shoot over to Fernwood, Well it has finally arrived, today is the day that we launch. We are a bit worried about the weather, especially the wind but hopefully all will go well.
Pictures to follow.....

WE HAVE A DATE

2009-01-16T04:46:00.000-08:00

First off apologies no pictures, but when we went over to the builders we couldn't get onboard as they were varnishing the floors, so we could only peek through portholes and the side hatch on tip toes. The plus side of our visit was that we now have a launch date of the 22nd January. This is hard to believe, as they still have a lot to do, but Fernwood reckon they will get there.

The boat is looking fantastic, even in her very dusty state. The main flurry of activity being in the engine room, with the fitment of engine and the generator, and what seems like a lot of electrics, but I am sure we will soon learn what all the switches etc do. This area is going to be pretty cramped with all the items contained in there, but to be honest, has worked out better than we imagined.

We have:-
Engine
Generator
Batteries (x8) 6 domestic 1 engine start and 1 generator start
Hydraulic Tank for the Bow Thruster
Seperate Diesel tank for the heating/generator
invertor
Calorifier
Eiberspacher boiler
Several switch panels and tank gauges.
All in about 7' of space! which is pretty impresive. I think it shouldn't be too bad for access for servicing, but ask me in a few months I may have changed my mind.

Today has been about sorting out van hire and insurance etc.
We still can't believe that D day is approaching, and are going through pretty much the whole range of emotions, but just cant wait to get afloat. It has been a long process, but to be honest, we don't think we would have changed that, as it has given us time to think long and hard about fixtures, fittings, layout etc.

Fingers crossed for the weather now!! and we will let you know how it goes.

Bathroom and Houdinis etc.

2008-11-29T03:15:00.000-08:00

All at Fernwood are working hard as Derwent6 is due to got this Wednesday which will make us next to launch......
Chromed Houdini's were being fitted during our vist, they look good and really fit in with the feel we are trying to achieve..

The shower control had been fitted.

Shower cubicle with laminate backing installed

Chrome towel rail at doorway to bedroom, we are just waiting for the sink, then the unit can be built which will fill the gap between the radiator and the washer drier cupboard.

and we love our curved laminate cupboard, this has been designed to fit a cassette loo in the base of the cupboard.This is in case of emergencys if we can't pump out, also should give us plenty of storage in this area.

All credit to Simon as it took him a while to get the door fitment just right...

This will be the cupboard for the washer drier

Still awaiting the back cushions for the sofa, gap at the end of the sofa is for the surround sound bass speaker, should mean an interesting feel to the sofa when in the middle of nowhere and listen to a bit of Rammstein or the like :)

Above and below is the TV unit in the saloon which incorporates a lift up table with storage for 2 fold up chairs behind.

Below is the media cupboard for surround sound, freesat box and media centre computer.

Some external views....

and our tap is now here and ready to be fitted

Our chopping board/sink infill

Long way to go in the engine room but most of the heating system is now in and hopefully will be tested soon.

Above you can see the additional diesel tank we have had built in, this will feed the generator and the heating, and the hydraulic hoses for the bow thruster.

Really pleased with the progress, we have talked launch dates through with the builder and we have come to the assumption that it will have to be January...but what a way to start the new year!

We Name This Boat

2008-11-24T06:32:00.001-08:00

Today the boat was really brought to life when the livery was put on . We love the font and the style was just as we had imagined it.

The base cushions for the sofa have been done and a quick test proved them to be very comfy and plenty deep enough, we can't wait for the back cushions so we can really test it out for comfort. When we drew up our wish list, which seems like years ago (infact it was !!!) high up on our list of requirements was a comfy sofa, we have both been on boats where we could not imagine living fulltime with the sofa arrangements either due to them being too upright or too hard. I must Apologise for the poor photo but I snapped this one on my phone and I know its hard to believe but the covers are actually grey in colour.

Anyway we hope to go over for a vist to see the livery for ourselves later this week, I must remember to take the camera this time. The lads are now on with the bathroom as the laminate has finally arrived from Italy.

Been looking for a chimney for the stove, at the moment havn't find an off the shelf solution as we don't really want the traditional look and would prefer a stainless one, we think that "shiny" would go with the style of the boat better. My main doubts on this is that from reading quite a few forums, these often seem to be knocked overboard off and being stainless may not be retrievable with the sea searcher magnet. Looks like I might be designing our own and be calling in a few favours to get one made, or perhaps I should get two !!!!

As with all these things when reading up on them on the forums there is always choice, as opinions on design differ...

single skinned

double skinned

external fitment to collar

internal fitment to collar

So any comments on design to help prevent tar spots on the paintwork would be greatly appreciated.

Progress & Diesel

2008-11-19T02:55:00.000-08:00

Fernwood are making good progress here are a couple of photo's of the office area which is situated between the galley and the saloon. Had a call from Julia that are washer/drier has now come in, which is good news, the unit for to house this can now be made. The builder is still making noises of a December launch but seeing that Derwent 6 (which is to be launched before us) dosn't look as though it is going out within the next 2 weeks makes us very doubtful of a pre christmas launch.... they still have loads to do
engine room.
bathroom.
cratch area
sofa
livery
etc. etc.

On our last vist we met with Merrick the upholsterer and went through our requirements regarding the sofa cushions. Our goal from the start is to create a really comfy sofa, the sacrifice of this decision is that the sofa cannot be converted into a double bed but could be used as a single.

Reading on the blogs and forums about how the new diesel split system is working (or not). I decided in my idle moments to knock up a quick spreadsheet and put in on my phone so that we can work out our diesel costs, I did read of one yard making a £15.00 charge for calculating non 60/40 splits.....what!!!!!!

Just had a call from a customer up North and they need me to go up tomorrow to do some work, this means I have to basically go past the builders workshop so no doubt will not be able to resist the temptation to nip in and see how the build is progressing on the way back.

Pictures

2008-11-07T22:57:00.000-08:00

Whilst I was busy with the lads didn't realise that Mum had grabbed some pictures, above is view from bathroom door towards the stern and you can see the start of the sofa base.

Yet another picture of the "pod" now with polished surround just needs some final trim on it and the flue and this area will be complete.

and view from the stern, portholes to be fitted next week.

Progress

2008-11-07T06:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my new 3g Router arrived from nucleus networks so spent a little while setting this up and tested it from home. It is a Billion 7300GX which has a PCMCIA slot at the rear to accept my sim free Option card data card. The router is supposed to use the 3g connection as a backup when the DSL connection fails (not that we will have one of them), but can be set to the 3g connection when out and about, which is the setting we will use, so hopefully now will be able to use our wired network via the 4 rj45 connections at the rear or work via the wireless connection (although not sure how well this will work in the boat) . The option card has an external aerial connection that will connect to the aerial on the roof of the boat.

Went to the builders yesterday and they have made good progress, but so engrossed talking on where the build was going next that I forgot to take any pictures. So will have to wait till we go over next week.

But the bedroom is nearly finished, galley is well on, office area is now installed just requiring some trimming out.

The hearth that we had laser cut had been returned from Procast who had made a fantastic job of polishing the stainless. We have now decided to go with a black flue rather than a stainless one as we think this area has enough shiny metal already.

The base for the sofa has now been constructed and we spent a bit of time just finalising the depth and position, hopefully this will go out to the upholsterer in the next couple of weeks.

Construction of the combined television & fold up table unit has been started and the concept of this looked good but will see better when it is fitted into position.

We have now finalised the bathroom layout and the "media" corner unit for the saloon.

The plumbing for the heating system will be commisioned soon but still a long way to go in the engine room.

The delivery of the washer-drier has been delayed for the particular one we wanted but this hopefully shouldn't hold up progress too much.

Anyway thats enough waffling on for now and still can't believe I forgot to take any pictures.

Things Are Moving

2008-10-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

Grabbed some pictures whilst over at the builders, pleased with the progress. Simon is making an excellent job on the bedroom. Above is our single wardrobe and below is our bedbase and bedside cabinets. Bit of a result on the storage front normally they would fit the invertor under the bed, but because the boat is reverse layout this isn't practical due to the cable lengths that this would involve, so we will gain this area as a cupboard.

And here is the double corner wardrobe with a bi-fold door, the alcoves will be backed with mirrors to bounce a bit of light around, we are not having glazed doors upfront but they are stable doors so we will be able to keep them half open.

Couldn't resist another piccy of the "pod" on it's amazing plinth made by Stuart. On Wednesday had a call from Ken, "do you reckon you could help us draw up a pattern for the stainless base to fit under the hotpod" He said they had a quote from a laser cutters which was very high, so nipped over grabbed a pattern and we spent couple of hours transferring the shape onto graph paper, recordered loads of co-ordinates and joined the dots, couple of phone calls and emails later the shape was sent of to some mates who I work with up north ( I won't mention your names as I dont want to get you into trouble) but many thanks for all your help and the shape was laser cut. Anyway collected it on Friday and delivered it to the builders for them too mount and then send out for polishing. We cant wait to see this finished. We have also incororporated an uplighter in the base to backlight the stove, we really want a red led bulb in this for the warm glow effect but are a little worried about men in raincoats knocking on the boat in the middle of the night.

Also had a great email from Dan (the blacksmith artist who designed the stove) I had sent him some pictures of the build as they are keeping a record of where the hotpods are "homed"

He also mentioned that the pod is now to come out in a unlimited version for general sale, as the first lot was limited to 350 (ours is No.75) so if anyone is interested give him a call.

If you mention the blog I might be able to negotiate a deal with him on the companion sets that he makes for the stoves.

I did admit to him that we had been quite sad and named ours Herbie, due to the volkswagon parts used in its construction. He did put my mind to rest and reassureme that he had always named his camper-vans that the stove was originally designed to work in, so we can't be the only sad people out there.

The office is coming on aswell, shame when we arrived Stuart was just dismantling this area for laquering etc. so it is further on than the picture suggests. You can see my spaghetti junction of cables coming in here so hopefully everything will be linked. ( I know this is sposed to be a simple life style) but hey gotta have a few whistle and bells.

We Now have an oven, hob fridge. The oven is a combination job which consists of fan oven, microwave and grill combined. Only time will tell if this was a good decision but it does save a lot of space and looks great and the instruction book suggests roast chicn in 20 mins cooking on the combined method, so this is the first thing in the long list for us to start to learn how to use with our new off grid lifestyle.

This area has been done by Gary and once again the worforces workmanship shines through.

Magic corners with the swing out baskets really maximise the use of space even in the dead corner we have created by the generator location in the the engine room.

We really love the sink infill chopping board, the small chest freezer will sit under here.

and another "magic corner" and you can just see the fridge.

Still loads to do on the list:-

Bathroom

Engine Room

Sofa

Media Corner

Cooker Hood

Cratch Area

Bow Thruster

But a least it is getting shorter

Pre Xmas delivery? (always said I wouldn't say this, anyone who watches grand designs on TV will know just about everyone who builds says "we will be in by christmas" and they never are) but it would be great if we could be, as long as the oven works !!!!!!

On the internet front, just saw that "3" are doing a wireless router for their mobile broadband dongles, things are moving forward in this direction aswell.

The Mooring

2008-10-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Lesley from nb Caxton has asked about the mooring. Well tip one is when embarking on the journey of getting a narrowboat is get a mooring, all the books tell you this but we never thought it would take as long as this.
We have had our names down at a few boatyards in the Cambridgeshire area for 4 years now, us naively thinking that would be plently of time to get one, but we have not moved up the lists hardly at all in this period.
I know we have restricted ourselves by selecting this area as boatyards are few and far between but wanted a base we could use when we return to the area as family are mostly located around here plus our doctors and dentists etc.
Well as the boat has progressed we have got more and more anxious about where we was going to put our boat until we started on our journey around the system, well what an offer from some friends of my Parents, they have some land that they said we could put a mooring on (as long as we cleared and constructed it) well this semed like a great deal to us and we will be forever in their debt.
We love the location as it is pretty remote (infact very remote which suits us down to the ground) it will be a great base for us to return to when needed, we even have our own resident kingfisher as well as a nearby mobile phone mast which gives great connection speed on the 3 data card I have been experimenting with on their payg setup, I think the remoteness of the location means that their are not too many sharing the bandwidth :)
So as mentioned before we have nearly finished the mooring, so thats another big tick on our list of things to do.
We are now down to one car, hopefully soon to hand our notice in on our rented flat and hopefully will get my motorcycle on ebay in next few days :( but it has to go.
So it is very exciting/nervous times for us both.

Where Does The Time Go?

2008-10-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

Just looked and havn't posted for so long, then ran through what we had been up to. First we have been busy on constructing our mooring which has taken up quite a few weekends but one more good go should do it, flicking through some photo's reminded us of how much we have achieved, from clearing the land, to installing our two mooring towers.

As for the boat that is really starting to come on now the galley is well under way, the bedroom is also coming progressing well and the office area and the hotpod plinth are better than we can ever of imagined. We just love the polished stainless surround behind the Hotpod. We have had to revamp our plans slighty to aid the fitment and service access to the generator, this certainly is a large lump to accomodate, but are now happy with the decisions we have jointly made with our builder.

The roof and sides now have colour which we love. Fridge, freezers hob & washer dryer have all been chosen so hopefully will be fitted this week. The laminates for the bathroom have now been finalised so hopefully we will see some progress in this area soon. The sofa base is the next main construction/design item on our list.

Just writing this makes us realise how far we have come in the last couple of months.

As for launch date we reckon we could just make pre- xmas which would be brilliant, the downside of this is that we won't be able to launch at Debdale as planned, this is due to stoppages on the Grand Union and the River Nene so we will launch at March on the middle levels. This is a real shame as we was quite looking forward to this being our maiden cruise, but hey!!! plently of time for that. Hopefully back to builders this week so may have some updated photo's to upload and so will try not to leave it too long next time.

Build Update

2008-08-17T03:12:00.002-07:00

Firstly apologies for not updating the blog for a while but we have been waiting to get over to the builders for a while and work has just been manic lately. Fernwood have been waiting for the flooring to come in and for Jonathon Wilson to come over and fit some additional saddle fuel tanks (but thats a whole new blog). Stuart (Fernwoods design guru) has done an excellent job of routing all the HDMI, CAT5, Satellitte and data/phone aerial cables, so the boat is looking like spaghetti junction at the moment. We are due to go over this week as our vist was put off due to Fernwood launching another boat last week......so only Derwent6 to go then ours !!!!! Our guess on completion is December/January time, so hope the stove works as good as it looks. Hopefully we will get some photos this week and be able to post some on the blog. Just been reading this months Canal Boat mag and reading the test report on "Whitefield", the reviewer seemed very impressed with the build quality. Anyway cant wait to go and have a look how the build is progressing so watch this space.

The Hotpod Lands

2008-05-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

We nipped over to Fernwood as Julia wanted to check the size of our stove and the position of the flue as she hadn't seen it in the flesh yet. I have managed to source a couple of Aerials for the connection of my data card and my mobile phone to improve the signal inside the boat. Many thanks for all the suggestions about hanging my dongle out the window...but feel this must be against the law :) and I feel that the aerial might be better option than having the porthole open in the depths of winter and freezing my dongle.

Internet Update

2008-05-13T04:28:00.000-07:00

Well the bad news is that the 1 way satelitte connection I was planning to use for download is not going to be available after November 2008, so my internet connection will have to now be through a USB dongle, to be honest I was so close to going this way as the mobile internet has moved on a fair bit since I was first looking into a broadband speed connection on a boat over the last 3 years.
So now I am looking for advice regarding the best 3G/HSDPA coverage over the canal system. I think it will come down between Vodafone and T Mobile so any comments on any of the providers would be greatly appreciated. I will probally pick one of these and may have a backup of a PAYG 3 dongle. The next thing is to try and source some decent external aerials that I can use with these dongles, so will probally have a chat with Boatersphone at Crick in a couple of weeks.
Onto the boat, The hull was spray foamed on Monday and the engine is due in soon, so things are moving on at the builders, We have picked all the finishes and materials etc.and most of the wood and laminates etc. have been ordered.
The weather we are having at the moment is not making the wait any easier and it is now looking that we will probally take delivery in the depths of winter, although our builder is trying to push on the 4 boats in the workshop as fast as they can. We are due for a vist to the workshop next week and hopefully be able to take some snaps of how the build is progressing.

The Hull Arrives

2008-03-21T03:14:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a great day! The hull came in and Whitefield was sent for launching, it was great to see the boat safely positioned into the workshop.

We Have A Date

2008-03-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

At long last we have have a date for our hull delivery, Julia rang to confirm that on March 19th our hull is due to arrive from Jonathan Wilson's and go into the slot that Whitefield will vacate at Fernwood. We just can't wait to get started, we have been over to Fernwood quite a few times over the last few weeks and have now picked all our finishes of wood (light oak) and laminates for walls and flooring for the bathroom. We have also picked the hull colours of a dark blue with silver pinstriping We also nipped to the Newark Boat Jumble and got some good deals on some mooring ropes, our spare bedroom has become a bit of a stockroom for all of purchaces and is starting to resemble a chandlery. Our Beta engine is ready to come in so things are starting to move in the right direction, it will be great to soon be able to post some photos of the build once it gets underway.

New Year New Boat

2008-01-03T00:37:00.000-08:00

Well our New Year's toast to each other at midnight was "This is the year we get our boat" we know this is a life changing year for us, I had a long chat with Julia about when our build will start, she has promised to get back to us by next Monday. We can't pretend we are not very envious of Derwent 6 being safely tucked up in the yard at Fernwood and waiting for their build to begin in earnest, we just cannot wait for our hull to arrive there and be alongside theirs. The film crew from Carlton have been over to film for the new series of Waterworld, they have been covering the build of "The Whitefield" boat, this is like no other narrowboat and does really say how Fernwood have gained their reputation of a builder who pushes the boundaries. We can't honestly say we love this boat as for our tastes it is completely "OTT" but the quality as always is something else and shows how Julia and Ken and their staff put heart and soul in every boat they build, it is this quality that they apply along with other outsourcing problems that they have had that has caused the delay in our build slot, but this commitment is what makes us want them to build our new home for us.

Another Couple Of Weeks

2007-12-11T03:51:00.000-08:00

Well the weeks slip past, Christmas gets closer, nothing extra to report apart from extreme frustration. We just want to get started on the build. Been gathering up some bits on ebay and got a good bargain on a fold up anchor (£6.95) can't be bad, only downside is the just £7.95 postage, but still cheap I reckon, and will be useful for the rivers. Think we will wait for a boat jumble to get a mud weight as I don't fancy paying the postage on that. Derwent 6 reckon their boat may be going into the builders tomorrow which must mean things are moving on in the right direction (they are using the same builders as us) but to be honest I believe that when I see it.
cmooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon Fernwood !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waiting Waiting Waiting

2007-11-23T02:57:00.000-08:00

Well last friday we took the Parents to our builder to see some of the on-going builds. We think the quality and attention to detail really blew them away. We met the couple (apologies can't remember their names) who are having a boat built which is occupying the build space in the workshop that our boat will go into, they are hoping for completion at the end of the month, but to be honest we can't see that coming off. We are desperate for our build to start but a realistic view might be early January, I don't mean to be Pessimistic but as they say a pessimist is an optomist with experience. We are now regulary practising the Del & Al's http://derwent6.blogspot.com/ mantra chant of "c'mon Fernwood" who are as desperate as us to get going.

Been a while

2007-09-29T02:18:00.000-07:00

Well, been a while since we have added some to the blog. Been working "Up North" for a quite a few months now and commuting, so we just hav'nt had time to add to the blog. Well, the hull is coming in either end of October or early November, our builders have been delayed mainly due to a very special, high-tech, narrowboat they are building at the moment. Our hull is a 60' Trad from Jonathan Wilson, with 10 15" portholes, 2 houdini hatches and a longer rear hatch.

The Stove Arrives

2007-06-27T04:19:00.000-07:00

Well its been a long wait but today our stove arrived, we think it is beautiful and now cannot wait to see it installed into our boat. The Hotpod is N0.75 and even comes complete with a poker a pair of gloves and a bagful of logs.

Build Update

2007-06-14T23:28:00.000-07:00

Well we decided to book a pitch for our tent and rough it for the Crick Show, we should have known it was too good when we got sunburnt faces on the Saturday, only to get very wet on the Sunday. We didn't even bother going back on the Monday as we had seen everything that we needed to see. We have to confess to packing up on the Saturday evening going home and travelling back for the Sunday (A comfy dry bed an hours drive away was to much of a temptation).
It was great to finally meet Mark & Lorain http://lorimar-thebuilding.blogspot.com/ showing their new boat Lorimar on the Heartwood Stand. We weren't sure but Netty was pretty sure she knew Mark from years back through some mutual "biker" friends of ours, so it was good to meet up and confirm this. This was a pretty spooky thing to stumble across their blog by accident and to find them embarking on the same "Lifestyle Journey" as ourselves. We wish them many happy hours cruising with Deefer and Daisy along the cut.

Up early this morning. Wasn't sleeeping to well as yesterday (14/06/07) we had our first "proper build meeting" with our builder. We have been over numerous times whilst waiting for our build slot but this was the real start of the process to design and layout our boat. Well my head is still buzzing we covered a lot of ground about the layout and equipment that we want on the boat. As always with these things a decent win on the lottery would not make us have to make some of these decisions but that's life I 'spose we all have to have a budget.

Our builder is now going to come back with the broken down quotation hopefully in a couple of weeks so we can finalise, sign the contract and start our build. We are running about 3 months behind our original dates but to be honest this has suited us better, as we are now looking at a March/April delivery which has got to be better than the December/January that we had before.

They seem to love the wood burning stove we have ordered and are keen to make this a main feature of the boat.

I think I have mentioned in previous blogs we have been so glad of this waiting time as we have had time to research and think about layout etc. We have been told by experienced boaters we still won't get it perfect, but we are happy with the solutions and answers we have come up with.

One of the main things we cannot make our mind up on is a bow thruster, that is if are they worth the money or not. Still lets see what price the builder comes back with. I must admit reading nb. balhama's blog http://www.blog.co.uk/index.php/balmaha and finding out that some kids who have been raised on narrowboats shouted out "He's got a girlie button" when he used his close to their boats might have something to do with the decision, there is nothing better than male pride when it comes to making decisions. As always any comments would be welcome on this subject just let us know.

The layout has changed slightly from our orignal that I posted way back, but working from the bow the layout is now :-
Bow 9'
Bedroom 9'6" (2 Portholes)
Bathroom 7' Full Width (2 Portholes)
Saloon 12' (4 Portholes 1, Houdini Hatch)
Office 5' (1 Side Hatch)
Galley 8' (2 Portholes 1, Houdini Hatch)
Engine Room 6'
Stern 3'6"

more news on the connection

2007-04-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

Well the Saturday demo went well, Guy Stanbury from Nymrod Associates came over and did a demo from the back of his truck we were well impressed as it didnt take him long to set the demo up and soon had us surfing the net from the back of his truck, Download speed was good downloading at 1 meg so that is well usable, he was using Orange gprs upload (no 3G here in the depths of Lincolnshire) but even on gprs the system worked well. We did have a problem hitting the sky satellite from the demo area outside but wasnt surprised as the sky installation man had trouble finding a good location for our own dish. The dish soon locked on to the internet satellite though which was the part of the demo that we needed to really see. I did also have an Email come through via the blogg recommending Guy as the "man" to talk to and fully agree that he has been reliable prompt and informative on all issues of this type of connection. see Email below:-

"Hi all, hope the following is of interest.We've been using one-way satellite at home for some time (we live in the depths of West Sussex).After the satellite owners pulled the plug on AVC's existing one-way satellite broadband service (and promptly gave it to Sky), AVC advised us to change over to a company called Mediasat in Ireland. Although they don't have an offical sales outlet here in the UK, they refer non-Ireland enquiries to independent installers over here. We were put in touch with a company called Nymrod Associates who do Mediasat's referrals in England & Wales, including the mobile leisure market. Their direct line is 0208 133 1610 - ask for Guy Stanbury as he deals with all enquiries and is red-hot on the technical stuff. Hope this helps."

I know Del & Al (see comments) are anxious to know how he demo went so hopfully these comments will help them aswell.

By the way if anyone who reads this fancies having a go a the liveaboard life Sue and Vics boat N0 Problem 1 is up for sale on ebay

When we first started looking into being liveaboards they were so helpful in taking time to answer all of our questions. You can find a link to their informative blog from the No Problem link on this site.

Internet Update

2007-04-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

Well so far been very impressed with the service I have been given by Julian, he has taken time with the many questions that I have raised to obtain my broadband connection on the cut. He has put me in touch with the chap who deals with the one way connection who is coming to demo the system on the 21st at our home, we are anxious to see how it performs, also Julian has spec'd out all the equipment that we will need so that we can also obtain our TV through the dish both in the saloon and the bedroom. We have deceided that one digibox will suffice, this will mean that we cannot have different channels on each set at the same time but we dont see that as a problem as we we watch very little TV and what we do watch we both love the same things, so as long as we get to see the Moto GP's, Superbikes, F1 and the Rugby we will be well happy. Julian did suggest that we have a "magic eye in the bedroom though, this will allow us to change channel without us getting up" and me being a true gent would never expect "the skipper" to do that :). Intially we will just go for the freeview card which I believe will cost a one off of £20. We have yet to deceide who to use for the data uplink although I have heard that vodafone data is probally the most stable not sure about their coverage on the cut though (so any comments welcome). This is not a cheap option for a connection but the price has come down quite a bit since we started shopping around 2 years ago, I have just done my end of year accounts and by the time we factor in my BT Line, broadband, mobile bills etc. reckon we can do it for about the same cost if I can get the right deal with the mobile company when the time comes. We now can't wait for the Crick show and are anxious to have a look around on Lorimar and lots of other liveaboards and pinch a few ideas, We have been keeping up with the build progress of Lorimar via the Heartwood site, although design wise I think we are just about there and cant wait for our shell to arrive at the builders hopefully this should still be in June. Anyway for those who may be interested we will let you know how the demo goes.

Internet Connection

2007-02-27T00:21:00.000-08:00

Last Week we decided to have a look round the boat show at the NEC we now realise that the only show really worth visting for anything canal related is Crick, still at the show did have one major result which was a guy called Julian. For ages since we decided to make our life changing decision to be liveaboards we have been looking into the best way to receive a reliable internet connection. So far we have explored using mobile phones, data cards and satellite (1 way), so that I can continue to run our CAD/CAM business whilst constantly cruising the system. I have found there is not a cheap way around this problem but think I may have to go the 1 way satellite route using a data card for the upload. I had for sometime going to use a company called AVC to provide this service but a couple of months ago they had to stop offering their one way satellite service, this service seemed so good as you could also receive satellite TV through the same dish. Well spoke to loads of people about getting a connection on a boat and to be honest most of them are only workable if you are a multi-millionaire with a very posh gin palace or an oil tanker fleet owner and sorry to say neither of these describes us. Then we arrived at Julians stand and to be honest didn't hold much hope as he wasn't advertising this type of service but thought we'd ask anyway, well how refreshing is it when you find someone who fully understands their business, apparently he has recently swapped a couple of people from their existing AVC accounts. We have since spoke to him and he gave us time, quality information and benefit of his experience and is putting forward a detailed quote to supply us with a system. Its a shame really as I think in a couple of years this will all be so easy with the advent of HSDPA (3.5G) but as our boat should be completed towards the end this year/early next year we don't think the networks will have spread wide enough with this type of coverage by then. One thing I did read the other day was that Vodafone/Orange are going to start sharing masts to improve coverage for both networks which could be good news, we will have to wait and see. We intend to use a self aligning dish with two LNB's so that we can also get TV through the dish although not at the same time but there is always has to be compromise whilst living on a boat (reckon this could be the liveaboards mantra). If anyone has any other solutions to this problem drop us a comment it would be great to hear from people who have experience of a good "on the cut connection"

Wood Burning Stove

2007-01-26T00:36:00.000-08:00

Well there we were just chillaxing with a glass of wine in front of the telly chatting about our main subject which is of course the planning and building of our narrowboat as usual. I dont know why really when I said I wouldnt mind watching that "pay off your mortgage in two years" strange really as the whole point of our lifestyle change is to free ourselves of this kind of commitment, well turns out that this guy Dan and his family wanted to give paying off their mortgage a go to free up time to go surfing etc. Dan is a blacksmith artist who lives in St ives in Cornwall and had built several multifuel stoves out of recycled parts mainly an old gas cylinder and bits from old VW engines. He has started a business to produce a limited number of 350 of these stoves called Hotpods. Well we fell in love with them tried the website while the program was being transmitted and his website was grinding to a halt (apparently when I spoke to him the following day they had 25,000 hits). So last weekend we shot up to a showroom in Stockton upon Tees which was the closest place to us where we could see one in the flesh "we loved it" so bit the bullet and ordered one, we just cant wait to sit there in front of our stove toasting crumpets on a chilly evening.

Composting Toilets

2006-11-02T04:02:00.000-08:00

Well that's decided then, since we read the reviews in Waterways World about these units and weighed up the pros and cons we are definitely going for the pumpout toilet on our boat with the backup of a cassette unit. We thought that they answered all a boaters needs to keep things simple but they seem far from that, yes Mark I know you will be glad and we agree that they are bloody ugly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so thats sorted then.

Monmouth & Brecon

2006-11-02T02:53:00.000-08:00

We decided that we needed to practice our boat handling skills on a longer narrowboat, our main experience is on our parents 33' narrowboat so we booked a 54' hire boat from the red line hire company at Goytre Wharf on the Mon & Brec canal. I believe this is the largest boat that can navigate this system so we thought it would be a good challenge. We decided to take this break on this canal as is it isolated from the network so we wont be able to get on it once we start our new lives as liveaboards.

By the time we got there, received the handing over brief then nipped off to get some supplies from the local Tescos time was getting on and the light starting to fade so we decided to stay overnight on the boat at the boatyard and get an early start the next day. Well morning came and moment of truth was upon us, we warmed up the engine and looked at what seemed to be a very tight turn onto the canal from the wharf. It wasn't as bad as it looked and we set off what was to be a fantastic journey along this beautiful if not shallow canal.

We soon settled into narrowboat time and chilled out taking in the stunning views and was pleased in how much easier it was to handle a boat of this length than we thought it might be. What surprised us is that the canal is built half way up the hillside for a fair part of its length, but this does offer the spectacular views that we had been promised from the guides we had read. We had been warned about the Tunnel from the boatyard and although this was not as bad as they made out they were definitly correct about the gauge boards being wrong at either end, as the tunnel was far lower than these in the middle. What made us a little more concerned was the boat we were on apparantly got wedged in the tunnel on its first outing by the hand rails, we were told that the yard had to go and cut the the rails off to free the boat (they have now fitted lower profile handrails but they still are close in the middle section). All in all we would recommend this trip to anyone as this must be one of the most picturesque canals in Britain but we can't wait until our boat is done and we find out for ourselves.

Diesel Descisions

2006-09-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

Reading this months Canalboat Magazine about the future of the use of red diesel on boats got me to thinking about what we should do regarding fuel tank layouts in our hull. Bearing in mind we are having a seperate generator fitted should we have this on a seperate tank? surely that would still be okay to run this on red as it is our power supply but you could argue this case for the engine (and I wonder if it does change will boatyards keep stocking it?) Or should we risk the one tank. I reckon the EU will win this one...............Dont they always. So if we go the 2 tank route then we have got to deceide how to split the tank 75/25 or what. Really not sure which way to jump perhaps I'll just contact The Iranians and go for a Nuclear fuel cell bet they won't tax that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The glow would be pretty handy in tunnels though.

Short Cruise

2006-09-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

On Friday we took my Mum & Dads narrowboat for a short cruise to the boatyard where he has booked it in to be lifted and repainted. It was so good to be on the river as we havn't done any boating in a while. It was a pleasent cruise down and we did manage to catch a glimpse of a mink and a few herons. The only problem with this is we just get more impatient for our build slot to start. What made our short cruise really easy was that Dad drove round to the one and only lock we had to go through while we cruised down river and locked us through along with another nb and a small tupperware box. I thought I'd be kind to him so as we left the lock I threw him a quid, just thought it would help top up his pension (Sorry dad).
Anyway arriving at the boatyard they had left a gap for us to get in which was at least 6" more than the length of the boat, with a jet ski at one end and a wooden cruiser at the other and a strong crosswind it was a tense few minutes while we manouvered in to this tight spot, think we all had visions of sinking the cruiser or turning the jet ski into a pile of fibreglass splinters.
Anyway Dad you will notice how we have conviently left the bit out where we went downstream of the boatyard and turned round and was blown into the reeds and got stuck for a little while till we managed to push ourselves free of the reed bank....................... but we don't have to mention this bit do we? I am sure we will have lot of this to come on our boat but as they say you live and learn and all that, think it just convinced us that a bow thruster may be a good idea, I can hear the shouts now at the boat club "can't be a real boater if they need one of them" well I reckon we can live with that.

Fitting Out

2006-09-13T04:36:00.000-07:00

General Style/Fitout (Please post any comments on any of the items listed if you have any experience of them)

Our goal is to have a light airy and modern looking narrowboat.

Main Colour Dark Blue
Interior Light Ash
Chrome/Stainless No Brass
15" Portholes (10 Off)
2 Roof Lights
1 Escape Hatch
Beta 43 Engine
Bow Thruster (Hydraulic if budget allows, we are not sure whether to go the whole way and power prop in this way aswell any comments welcome)
Onan 7Kw Generator
Heating Eberspacher
Washer/Drier
Fridge
Small Freezer
Toilet Pumpout with macerator (although we do intend to carry a cassette aswell, we have looked at composting toilets but they are so big but could be convinced if anybody can give us positive feedback)
Solid Fuel Stove (Anyone know of a chrome one)
Belfast Sink
Batteries 1 Start & 6 Domestic + invertor (leaving this all to our builder)

Boat will be layed out as follows:
Bow 9'
Bedroom 10'
Bathroom 7'
Saloon 12'
Office 5'
Galley 7'6"
Engine Room 6'
Stern 3'6"

Hopefully this will all add up to 60' as the Hull is ordered.

Starting Out

2006-09-11T06:18:00.000-07:00

Well us being quite new to this blogging thing difficult to know where to start. We have decided to start this blogg earlier than we anticipated as we are calling on the help of all bloggers to help us through the build process of our liveaboard narrowboat "Peruvian Skies". We have been following many "liveaboard" bloggs over the last year to try and learn as much as possible to avoid the pitfalls of getting it wrong.
We have followed many liveaboard bloggs with envy whilst we await our build slot.
We have chosen our builder and have a slot booked for June 2007 for the start date of our build.
What we have decided on so far is that we are going to have a 60' Traditional style narrowboat (Hull to be built by Jonathon Wilson)
The layout will be (working from the bow) access into the Bedroom via metal shuttered doors, in this we intend to have an across the boat double bed. Working towards the stern we then go into the full width bathroom which leads to the saloon, then to an office area (as we will be working from the boat as we constantly cruise the network) then onto the Galley area then the Engine Room which will lead onto the traditional stern.