Leaving Shardlow

we set off this morning about 11am to a miserable day, then it brightened up so thought it wasn't gonna be such a bad day at all, then it changed again and it was cold,when we left shardlow lock there was a hire boat already going up on its own, so when we got to aston lock we decided to let it continue on its own seeing as we were traveling with islonian, if one of us had gone in the lock with it the other would be going up alone and its so much easier if you travel together, then we came though weston lock and through the next bridge where the side is shallow and you have to keep to the right because of the shelf (it is signed both ends) only to find a fat boat stuck on the shelf, the hire boat was moored on the shelf so we thought it was staying there, so when the fat boat had moved off we passed the hire boat only for him to push off the side and hit us, apparently it had pulled in to help the fat boat get off the shelf,we didn't know this till we were passing it and were talking to them, so that left the fat boat in front, us behind that then the hire boat behind us and islonian last, seeing as we would have to let the fat boat and the hire boat go thru swarkestone lock we decided to moor up and let islonian go through the lock with the hire boat, sheila and jim have to get to stone for the traders market on friday, so we said our goodbyes and waved them off, we shall be seeing them again in about 7 weeks when we meet up at the middlewich FAB, till then keep safe xxx

Back on the Wet stuff

Today saw us up at 7am ready for steve to refill the lock, he arrived at 8.30 and all we had to do was sit and wait for it to refill, oh joy it was a great feeling when we floated again i can tell you,The trip up the trent wasn't too bad although there was a bit of fresh on it after the last couple of days rain, it took us just under 2hrs to get to shardlow where we are moored for the night, a meal and a drink or two is in order i think.

7.30am

Ropes on ready to go

steve filling the lock

Clock Warehouse

Dry Dock Day 7

Today has been pretty lousy weather wise, i took the car back this morning, settled up with steve for the dock hire and left nick to do some more welding to the back, i did intend to paint today but the weather decided i wasn't going to oh well, tomorrow we float and i can't wait, i think we are all suffering from cabin fever.

Day 6

Nothing done to the boat today as nick had to fit a handbrake cable on the car then take it for its MOT, i had  a visitor in the shape of my dad who can talk the hind legs off a donkey, anyway the car passed its mot so when nick got back me and sheila went shopping for last minute bits as i have to take the car back tomorrow, its nice having the car but its a bloody burden, anyway 2 more sleeps then we are back in the wet stuff yay!!

Dry Dock Day 5 Semi Trad Conversion

I had another busy day today away from the boat, had to visit my mum and do her hair for her as she don't trust the hairdressers, from there it was on to my daughters as it was the twins birthdays, i do love all my grand kids but boy am i glad to come home lol, i left nick to get on with the semi trad conversion and was impressed at how much he had done whilst i was away gallivanting, it is no where near complete but it's looking good already.

side view

This is how it was when i left.

looking from the back

stood on back deck

Dry Dock Day 4

Got up this morning and it was pissing it down, good job we had planned not to do anything on the boat today, in fact we spent most of the day away from the boat, i had a dentist appointment and we had shopping to do, we also had to fetch the welder and steel for tomorrows project, on the way back from shopping we decided it was too late to cook so we went to KFC for a takeout, we don't usually eat this sort of food but it smelt so good as we came out of tesco with the shopping, They say a little of what you fancy does you good so why not.

Day 3 Dry Dock

Today we got the 2nd and 3rd coat of comastic on the hull and i put the 2nd coat of the green on, chris arrived at about 12.30 with the car so i dropped sheila off at tesco while i took chris home and visited emma and the grandkids picked sheila up and off we went back to the boat, its been a lovely day today but i hate having to sit in here,

just need to do the top and its done

Dry Dock Day 2

This morning we  had a lie in till about 10am, The weather forecast predicted rain in the afternoon, nick went over the hull again with the wire brush attached to the angle grinder to get the rust off that had formed after the morning rain, then i let him get on with the blacking, after yesterdays jet washing i have ended up with a stiff neck from bending, As he got half way round the hull the heavens opened so he took a short break till it stopped, the weather changed and the sun came out so i went out to paint the sides. hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.

The boys having a cuppa

Blacking in the rain

Dry Dock Day One

Well it was an early morning for us today as we were heading into dry dock, i walked up and asked steve what time he wanted us in and he said in about 20 minutes, This was at 8.30am, 8.30am!! i don't do mornings as you all know but it had to be done, so here we are in the dock for 7 days.
first job was to karcher the growth off the side which i have to say wasn't as bad as i expected it to be seeing as it  was 3 years since it was last done, nick followed me around with the wire brush attached to a angle grinder to get the bits off that i missed.

In the dock

Space for Islonian

Steve closing the lock

Emptying the water out

Not too bad

I will update daily

Down the trent

Being a better day today than it was yesterday we decided to travel down the trent onto the erewash ready for tomorrow when we go into dry dock for the week,it was nice and warm coming down the canal, a different story on the trent tho as it was quite windy.

looking back up the trent

Islonian in front

Islonian turning into erewash

scout club ferry

Turning into the erewash

Getting a move on

So we have sat around for a couple of weeks waiting for the good ship Islonian to join us, we met up yesterday and spent the night moored just outside weston on trent, today see's us moving towards sharlow for the night, tomorrow we head down to sawley ready to be in dry dock on saturday, it's been a beautiful day today so whilst we were traveling i did some washing and hung it out after we moored, it was dry in an hour, bring on summer.

Secondary Double Glazing

We get so much condensation on the bathroom windows with it being next to the kitchen that i have decided to fit secondary double glazing, i have tried the film and tape stuff you can get from B&Q for around £5 but to use it we had to remove the hopper stays which meant we couldn't open the hopper if it was a nice day.
So to start i had to remove all the sticky tape from the window frames and replace the stays then sand the wooden frames and varnish them, i bought 30 metres of magnetic tape and some sheets of 2mm clear acrylic, we have 11 windows and a Houdini hatch to cover, first job was to cut the acrylic to size then attach the adhesive magnetic tape to the wooden frame. The tape come's in A polarity and B polarity so that they attract each other, so A polarity go's on the window frame and B polarity  go's on the acrylic, it can go either way round it don't really matter but that's how i did it, to make sure they both matched up i put B polarity on top of A polarity on the window frame then offered up the acrylic so it was a perfect match. Now i am able to remove the acrylic if it's a nice day and have the windows open, all i need to do now is find somewhere to store them when not in use but i think they could go in one of the top box's in summer out of the way.
I tried to take befoe and after pic's but they were way too dark so i left the film on so you can see.

Bathroom Window

Houdini

Washing on solar power alone

As many of you know we have a large solar array, so today being a all sunny day i decided to put the solar to the test, i know the sun is still a little low in the sky for a few more weeks yet so we have the panels tilted at 45 degree's.
For those of you who don't know what our setup is here is a rundown of what we have, 950Watt of solar comprising of 5 x 190Watt panel's split between 2 tracer controllers, 3 x 190w panels fed into a 45a tracer and 2 x 190w panels fed into a 40a tracer, both set's are wired parallel..
Victron 3000 Multiplus invertor and 6 x US 2200 12v deep cycle Batteries.
The washer is a Candy Grand O Plus 8kg load
Here are the reading before,during and after the wash.

Before washer was on.

Heating the water

Spinning

Wash Finished

1 Hour after wash completed, sun going down.

So for those that don't believe solar alone can run a washing machine here is the proof that it can.
This was a wash at 40 degree's on a 45 minute was cycle.The water temperature in the calorifier was roughly 10 degree's
my next test will be on a 60 degree wash on a 2 hour cycle, of course i shall have to wait till we have another long sunny day but i am confident it will work, and it's not even summer yet.