Promotion

We’ve reached a bit of a plateau as far as work is concerned on Real. Incidentally we decided from day one that it should be pronounced “ray-all” as in Real Madrid, I’ve no idea why a Belgian Barge should have a Spanish name but then we know very little of her history . All we know is that she is almost definitely Belgian, she was once moored on the Thames in Plumstead and has a General Motors engine that came from an American Tank when she was converted to a self propelling barge. We got most of the information, except the Plumstead bit, from Frederic Logghe and his excellent Blog/Website.

So I decided this week, as we haven’t got much to report, that I would take this opportunity to promote some of the Blogs that we’ve been following and that have either provided inspiration, information or just plain entertainment.

And in no particular order we have:-

Tim Zim and Lady Jane.
This was one of the first blogs we found about houseboats and boat conversions. Tim has loads of information on his blog and led us to set about doing our own spray foam insulation (you might want to read about our exploits with Spray foam here). The brilliant thing about Tim’s blog is he writes regularly and about anything that’s happened with Lady Jane. I sometimes wish we could produce something like this.

Next there’s Seb and Bee and Wendy Ann 2. These two work so hard, keeping down about 8 jobs each, working 27 hours a day 12 days a week on Wendy Ann 2. But the job they are doing is amazing; they’ve welded up what seems like a million rivets and are producing a fantastic wheelhouse in Teak, and write from the heart.

Then there’s Steve and Lorna and Serenity. Occasionally when I read this I wish we’d bought a fully converted barge, but they’ve still had a lot of work to do. But the best bit is that they photograph everything, which always makes this worth reading.

Next there’s Simon and Mary and Misterton. This reminds me a lot of when we started, they're still at the clearing and planning stage. What I look forward to reading here is Mary’s View, a very funny non-technical insight into buying and converting a Barge.

There are another two Thomas H and Hendrick. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to read these two fully but basically Thomas H is in the process of conversion and Hendrick is, as far as I can tell from what I’ve read so far, more or less complete. Apologies to both if I’ve got this wrong.

And Finally… we have Frederic Logghe and MS Watergeus. This website/blog has an enormous amount of information about all types of barges and I think is a must read for anyone either thinking of starting out
with a barge or in the middle or working on one.

So, there you have it, this weeks thoughts. Maybe next week we’ll have made a bit of progress on clearing out the bedroom end, but if it’s as cold up that end as it is now, then I doubt it. Still, what’s the rush, we’re beginning to live the relaxing lifestyle we wanted.

Area XL

This weekend we decided that we should go to the London Boat Show. Although we didn’t really know why, but we thought we should as we live on a boat. The show was OK and probably very good if you have a yacht or wanted to buy a huge gin palace but we were a little surprised that more areas of boating weren’t represented such as powerboats, hovercraft, canoes/kayaks and of course houseboats (although we didn’t really expect that). We did pick up lots of catalogues and brochures from the various chandlery stands and picked up some information on paints and 12 volt supplies which will come in useful when we get going again properly with Real’s conversion. The biggest selling item at the show was… inflatable aliens from Fusion. They were everywhere and by the end of the day Excel was beginning to look like the final scene from Close Encounters. I have no idea what Fusion make or sell as their stand was only selling Aliens, but as an advertising campaign it was probably very successful, I just need to look them up on ‘tinernet to find out what we’ve brought home and why.

Two Goldfish in a tank…

…One says to the other, “have you any idea how to drive this thing?”

Sorry, a bit late for Christmas cracker jokes but it leads very nicely into the story of the Fuel Tank and the Teaspoon.

A while back, (it seems ages ago, but it’s probably only a few months) we had our lovely Somy Delta F25 boiler installed. The name makes it sound like some sort of Jet Fighter, the type you see at air shows flying vertical with afterburners scorching the grass from 30 thousand feet, actually there are times when our boiler sounds like that.

Anyway, boiler needs fuel but at the time of installation the state of our existing fuel tank, which was originally intended for the engine, was unknown and for some reason, our tame marine engineer, didn’t seem very keen on it, suggesting we buy a new plastic one and stick it on the deck. This wouldn’t have been ideal for several reasons and top of the list was cost, so in the meantime our fuel feed came from a 20-litre jerry can. This worked quite well during the late summer and autumn, I just had to nip to the local garage every few days on my way home from work and top up the jerry can, but this wasn’t going to work well in the long term. So armed with a torch I ventured into the depths of the engine room.

We’ve got two fuel tanks, each should hold about 700 litres, and should normally be joined by a balance pipe. This pipe seems to have disappeared but as there’s a stopcock on each tank we would be able to use just one. The top of the tank is about 8 feet from the floor of the engine room making it a bit awkward to get to as you need to be perched up a ladder but once up there I opened the small hatch (about 18 inches by 10 inches) and looked inside. It looked OK in there, no obvious rust, but there was about an inch of nasty looking sludge covering the bottom and after poking it with a stick I then realised that the outlet was via a cylinder (about 3inches in diameter) at the bottom. The idea of this arrangement is that any water in the fuel will end up at the bottom of the cylinder, which can then be periodically drained off, with the fuel outlet slightly higher. The problem is how to get the sludge out from the tank, including the outlet/drain cylinder, which is 6 feet deep through a small hatch 8 feet off the floor.











Enter the Teaspoon.

By screwing a teaspoon to a long length of wood, I would be able to scoop out the cylinder at the bottom of the tank into a small bucket which was lowered inside on a length of string. I could then scrape the bottom of the tank with a garden hoe, scoop the gunk into the bucket and ‘Bob’s yer Uncle’ one clean tank. Well despite sounding slightly insane it worked. With my head inside a fuel tank halfway up a ladder I scraped and scooped for about an hour, occasionally
shouting rude words when my teaspoon of scoopings fell into the cylinder again.


Once I’d taken out the bucket I then need to get rid off all the little bits, so I decided the best thing to flush a fuel tank would be fuel. So I stuck a big bucket under the tank and chucked about 10 litres into the tank, stirred it around with a stick, drained it into the bucket and repeated this about 4 times. Now the inside of the tank was as good as new. I’d already looked at the various stopcocks and filters earlier and decided they’d need replacing, and once done I put some more fuel in, checked for leaks and found all was good. Just needed to connect everything to the boiler and the job was done. We then phoned our local bunkering people, they arrived a few days later and filled her up. Hopefully 700 litres will keep us going for while.

In, Broadbanded up, and ready to blog

OK, I know it's been a long time but we've only just got our phone line and broadband sorted out, so here's a entry that's been pending for a while and with luck more will follow soon to be you up to date.

We have lived on Real for about 2 months now. Admittedly our new home now resembles a cross between Steptoe’s Yard (if you can remember that far back) and student accommodation. We have squeezed all of our belongings, the contents of a 3 bedroomed house, into the very almost completed converted half of the hull.

Surprisingly, it has worked and we do have space – so the manic culling of useless items, bric a brac, clothes and anything that had sat still for 18 months – was a success after all and comes highly recommended to reduce the amount you have to find a home for when you finally unpack.

“So, what’s it like living on a boat” many people have asked me. If you already do then you know the answer to this – it’s wonderful! The gentle, almost unfelt, rocking, the creaking of the steel as she warms up and then again when she cools down, the swans “beak tapping” for attention on the side – ahhh bliss.

As yet, we haven’t identified a down side yet, just minor annoyances – like having to fill up the water tank at inconvenient times as we haven’t linked up to the mains yet (its on the “to do” list”), and the same with the oil as the tank needs to be cleaned with a teaspoon (I will let Laurie tell you about that one) and checked for leaks. And does anyone out there, or is it just me, experience a swaying feeling when they set foot on dry land? It’s most unnerving at first as it’s not quite sea sickness just a feeling that your wobbly legs will give way at any moment and you’ll end up shuffling up the road on your knees or worse still over the side of the pontoon making mud angels.

We now have a working cooker/oven YAY! And a washing machine, YAY again! Oh the joy of simple appliances and no more microwave meals in which we learnt 50 ways to cook and serve a potato!

Our cats (Sam and Iz) have taken to life afloat like ducks to water (excuse the pun). Old man Sam is now too old to venture far, but Iz treats it like one big adventure. On his first trip outside on deck he literally bumped into another “seasoned to life on board” cat who just popped round to say “ahoy” and poop on our deck (now I know where “poop deck” comes from!). Iz, who on a good day loves visitors, howled for England and promptly saw the other cat off the premises. On his second trip outside, feeling braver and a bit cocky he decided to disappear for a while, which unbeknown to him (and does he care – I don’t think so) sent us into a blind panic where we had all sorts of visions – drowning in the strong current, pulled down into the mud like it was quick sand. Plans were made to fit him with water wings on his return, we even invented a new cat collar that set off an alarm when it touched water or an attachment that inflated into a mini dinghy that floated him back to safety. I have no idea why we worried, why we ever worry about him. He finally returned, purring his way up the deck, feeling very pleased with himself as if all he’d been doing is tackling the waves in his canoe like a scene from Deliverance. The only evidence we had of his unknown adventure was mud up his legs and muddy paw prints up the gang plank – we can only assume that he jumped in to test his ability not to sink – failed, panicked and ran for dry land!

Time and Tide should wait for us

No pictures this time, except for this one, fortunately not us.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/belfast/A1033813.shtml



Monday we were due to go into dry dock, we called the shipyard on Tuesday to check all was well only to be told Real hadn’t turned up. After several phone calls we found that the company that were to tow us hadn’t done it as it was too windy. Nice of them to tell us! Fortunately they had told the Shipyard. Anyway, after several days and loads of phone calls (Maureen has done a brilliant job of this) we’re still at the Marina and probably won’t be able to go into dry dock for several weeks. This now means that we’ll be moving in and then moving out again into some sort of temporary accommodation, as we’ve already given notice on the house we’re currently renting. Best laid plans… and all that.

This means I’ve got to put the gangplank back, not the easiest job in the world as most of the fixing takes place over the water, and then back off and on again in a few weeks. Thanks to my brother for his help with this.

Suppose I ought to find some good news.

Packing is progressing well, as is getting rid of things we don’t need.

Kitchen 90% complete, can’t really finish it completely until we have a finished floor covering down and we haven’t quite decided on that yet. Oh yeah and install the gas for the cooker.

That’s about it for now, let’s see what the weekend brings.

Captains Slog

Brief update on this weekend

We,

moved a loada stuff on to Real, completed pipe boxing on one side, fitted another socket for the cooker, painted toilet door, fitted edging strip on kitchen worktop (twice), plumbed in kitchen sink, hung pictures on the wall, had a fight with the kitchen sink waste that insisted on leaking, booked dry dock for next week to have underside cleaned, welded and painted and to have sides painted ....

Breathe...


.. packed up more boxes and crates in the house, dismantled cabinet ready to move, looked at bank account with dismay, had a cuppa, bought some tools, found an oil drum caught behind the rudder, oil drum behind rudder disappeared, fed the ducks, watched the tide...

Painting, Kitchening and OSCCD

This is my first posting on this Blog, Laurie’s got writers block or something.

So here goes…

It’s a really exciting time for us and Real. We are moving just that little bit closer to moving on board and calling her home.

We have had loads of ups and definitely some downs and I am still like a cat on a hot tin roof every time I hear Laurie shout “Help!” as visions of him falling overboard still haunt me. I have, in the last few months, contracted OSCCD (Obsessive Shackle Checking Compulsive Disorder) and each time I hear it creak we rush out with tools in hand just to make sure that the gang plank isn’t ready to toss us into the very murky depths of the Medway. My trust is improving and my confidence increasing following a visit from my Mum for the first time last month, she’s 82 and doesn’t particularly like being around water, so if she can feel brave then so can I!
I have painted, not once, but 7 times, one half of the interior hold. 7 bloody times! I now have shares in Dulux who presented me recently with the honorary Old English Sheepdog in recognition of my services to their company. As we have 2 cats I thought it best just to use him as a paint roller before returning him to them for safekeeping. 7 coats of paint – 5 white, 2 grey I ask you – are these the actions of a sane person!? I honestly went snow blind at one time. I now have an extremely good roller arm and would offer my services out if it weren’t for the fact that I now hate painting. And now when so called friends joke around with the comment “you missed a bit” I have a very good use for the fluffiest of paint rollers that would baffle even the most competent medical practitioner!




We now have an almost fully functioning kitchen, YAY! Its installation being very interesting – after all how do you level up anything that floats? We should find out how level it all is when we have moved on and can judge it based on which direction the peas roll on the worktop. Fitting the kitchen we developed a technique called “How much on the wonk”. No it’s not a new name for a game show (although that’s a thought). We started with a corner unit and measured the distance from the floor, making it even. Then we fitted all the other units to this measurement. To get the tops all level we then got out the spirit level and checked how much they were all “on the wonk” and made them all the same.

After building the kitchen we now have a big box of spare parts – screws, nails and other thing-ummies. Out of interest I looked on the suppliers website and found a piece that went something like this: “We only sell to the trade so you get a professional finish with no funny bits left over!” HA! Of course you don’t – the carpenters got a big box in his van full of screws, nails and thing-ummies he’s collected from every job! And another thing - why don’t kitchen manufacturers design kitchens that use one size screw for everything? I am sure that they’d save a fortune.

We also have a working loo – something I thought we’d never in a million years get excited about. Sitting on a proper seat rather than posed over a bucket is something I can honestly say is the best thing ever – more so than a new pair of shoes (which only a woman can understand!). And don’t even get me started on running water – hot and cold! Oh what joy!

Well, that’s all for now.
Late breaking news… we’re going back to dry-dock to have the underside and side cleaned up and painted (along with a small amount of welding),and then… we’re going to move in!!! More on all of this next time.

To be continued…