Category Archives: Moving Aboard

Stay Frosty

Marina Life, Moving Aboard, , ,

Sunday 31 May 2020

Stay Frosty

Just a quick fridge and freezer update – they weren’t working but now they are (see Moving Aboard Silverdale). Both the fridge and freezer are Shoreline products and were kindly fitted by Whilton Marina before our arrival. They are 12 volt appliances and so run directly off the batteries efficiently (hopefully). 12 volt appliances are a lot more expensive than their 240 volt counterparts. For reference and the stats geeks out there, we have

  • Shoreline RL 102 Larder Refridgerator 12/24vdc White
  • Shoreline RU 102 Upright Freezer 12/24vdc White

Both fridge and freezer have settled in well. A little too well! The fridge is cool. Supercool! In fact, the cider cans were frosty. The back of the fridge was glistening with ice crystals like something from the ice queen’s castle. It will need defrosting every other day at this rate!

Time passes – a eureca moment dawns…

Panic over. It seems that we were turning the dial in the ‘Arctic Expedition frozen most northerly point’ direction, rather than the ‘sunny Bahamas beer fridge by the beach’ direction. It’s calmed down now. We won’t have to de-frost every other day 😉

Stay frosty!

rp – peace and narrowboats

Day 1 in the Long, Pointy Metal House

Marina Life, Moving Aboard, Nb Silverdale, , ,

Saturday 30 May 2020

murpworks - The Tales of Silverdale - Day 1 in the Long, Pointy Metal House - Marina image

Day 1 in the Long, Pointy Metal House

I heard ducks in half sleep and awoke to a vibrant day. It promised to be just as wonderful as yesterday. It was cool and pleasant, thus far. We had mugs of tea (yes, we had the wherewithall to achieve this). Mu pottered, arranging and re-arranging or I should say squirrelling stuff away. She has it down to a an art form. It wasn’t the works of art I was hoping for but useful – nevertheless.

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Time Stands Still at The Iron Hill

Cleaning was the order of the day and would be for multiple days. We were obviously adjusting to non-house living. It involves a change in mindset, from instant everything to instant nothing. It is a challenging but rewarding transition to make. Canal time is a thing. It is mooted as: an appearance of time passing slowly, slower than experienced in a town, say. Here on Nb Silverdale time stands still! The clock’s battery had run out . It’s second hand, stuck in place flicked like the clock had a nervous tick. Time is forever a quarter to twelve.

Cleaning continued briefly and then we made our way to the chandlery. Whilton Marina Chandlery is a cornucopia of narrowboating miscellany but most importantly, it sold Thatcher’s Gold! We purchased a cap for the top of the boat’s stove exit. We will eventually get a chimney (the old one died and had been resigned to the scrap heap) but the cap would stop the rain getting in and ruining the Squirrel’s beautiful newness. However, we were not expecting rain, nor lighting the stove anytime soon. We also purchased some Thatcher’s as it would have been rude not to.

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It was now sweltering. We also purchased some WMC Non-toxic Toilet Fluid. We had bought both the cap and fluid last time we were here with MIRRLESS in 2018. We had lost the cap early on in our journey as I veered into overhanging foliage. Cap number one is at the bottom of the Grand Union Canal somewhere. When the fluid ran out, we could never find anything as nice to replace it. As we plan to stay here a while, we should be able to enjoy both for longer.

The day was hot. The electrics were still not working (no amount of switch flipping had worked). Chris: a Whilton Marina employee was on duty over the weekend (although the Marina was officially closed Saturday & Sunday). We had met Chris last time we were up and had chatted. Having discussed our woes of no water and no lights, he offered to take a look. This would be after seeing someone out of the canal, via the diesel pump, to set off for London and blacking a boat. This was a tall order as the afternoon was moving on.

Meanwhile, the heat continued to rise, the sink continued to stink and the lights continued to not work.

The people for London left, the boat for blacking got blacked and Chris, true to his work came by. At the stern of the boat (the technical end) he assessed what we had. He decided to start the engine: an Isuzu Marine block. He turned the key in the ignition. It started! This was good news. We had an engine! It also meant at least the Starter battery was working. After head scratching (he scratched his head, I scratched mine. After all, we were socially distancing and it would have been inappropriate to scratch each others) it was decided to flip the fuse box switches. Each switch was in a green state and we flipped them to – white! Not red as expected. We tried this first with the Horn fuse – but nothing. We tried one more – the Lights fuse. They worked! We tried the Water Pump fuse, the water flowed like a river. The Water Pump kicked in. We tried the Tunnel Lights (there were two), one worked and one didn’t. It didn’t matter Everything was working. The new fridge and freezer purred into life once the switches were thrown.

Life had gone from Bronze Age to Post-Solar System Travel in a few flicks of switches – life was good. We rejoiced. Our choice of narrowboat had been vindicated. Thanks Chris.

Chilli, rice and Cider on the stern, under the canopy – our first meal. Afterwards, we went for a walk around the Marina, up over the bridge that spans the mouth into it. The sun started to fall, it was a little cooler now. It had been a successful first day in marina life.

rp – peace and narrowboats

Moving Aboard Silverdale

Moving Aboard, Nb Silverdale, , ,

Friday 29 May 2020

murpworks - The Tales of Silverdale - Moving Aboard Silverdale - a loaded Golf image

Moving Aboard Silverdale

We got up early to face the packing of the car in readiness for moving. It took a long time. A VW Golf is not that well known in moving circles, it’s not the ‘go to’ vehicle. It strained and groaned at the extra weight after being used to its minimal aesthetic. With the task eventually completed, we set off approximately on time, as planned. However, we had to fill up with petrol and then stop off at the Chemist. We finally got off and drove slowly so as not to shift the load. The route was familiar and Guns and Roses accompanied us as we made our way to Northamptonshire.

#marinalife

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We arrived at 15:00 and met Harvey of Whilton Marina by the socially distanced window. “How different from when we were here doing this last time”. We had been here in 2018 at approximately the very same time purchasing Nb MIRRLESS.

Paying for Nb Silverdale was simple (too simple). Just like that we owned a narrowboat again! It was a beautiful baking hot day. We were told Silverdale sat at a pontoon by the workshop and was ready for handover.

Whilton Marina via Harvey had purchased a flexible, food-grade water hose, on our behalf as the Chandlery only opened until Midday due to Covid-19 restrictions being in place. We would have had to go through the weekend without a way of filling the water tank. They kindly refused payment for it! A nice boat warming present but it wasn’t the only one.

Unbeknown to me, my team from work had arranged for a hamper of delights to be delivered – a Birthday/moving aboard present 🙂

Piping Aboard

I felt we should have been piped aboard but it doesn’t work like that. We drove down the drive by the marina and pulled up just outside Silverdale. Down metal steps to the marina-side, and onto the pontoon, The windows were open, the doors were open and a faint breeze blew through from stern to prow. We stepped onto Nb Silverdale – home. Our Nb Silverdale. Stepping down through the open doors, the new Morso Squirrel multi-fuel stove, replete with fire bricks gleamed black in the corner, by the entrance.

We shunted bag after bag from car to boat, the VW sighed and relaxed. It was still hot and continued to be so into the late evening and eventually, our things were aboard. So far, so good.

murpworks - The Tales of Silverdale - Moving Aboard Silverdale - a loaded Silverdale image

It became apparent , very quickly how clueless I was regarding the dark art of boat electronics. However, before I enter into the murky world of bespoke narrowboat electricals, I feel I have to mention the sink. I believe it is in part allied to the electrical as will become apparent. To cut to the chase: it was blocked. No problem, we were prepared. We had a plunger and to hand. Big mistake!

That Certainly Doesn’t Smell Like Teen Spirit!

The plunger brought up foul-smelling ichor, as though from the depths of Davy Jones’ Locker (straining the metaphor as it’s a canal and not the sea but you get my meaning). Now this would have been fine, had the plunging released the blockage, to be flushed away by flowing water. There was no flowing water. This was due to the sink being connected to a Whale Gulper (don’t ask) and said Whale Gulper requiring electricity to run. What we were now left with was the whole boat smelling as if something had died aboard it. Quite some time ago.

The 240 volt hookup was working – we could plug anything we liked in: vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, Laptop, curling tongues, juicer, grill… You name it, we could plug it in. However, the lighting and the water pump runs on 12 volt and that wasn’t working. I flipped switches and flipped them back again, I really did. Nothing happened. The Dodo had more life.

Our new, gleaming 12 volt fridge and 12 volt freezer we had purchased and had the marina install on our behalf, cooled nothing. They weren’t on. They were 12 volt. I flipped the switches but nothing.

If you need someone to flip switches, I’m your man.

After the Cool Hand Luke locker-like stifling heat of the sun, its descent, as evening came was welcome. However this bought a new challenge: the lack of light. We started to bumble around like moles with no whiskers but our trusty torch saved the day. We had used this on our previous boat: MIRRLESS and it had never failed to illuminate our way.

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And So To Bed

The bed. Ah, the bed. The mattress we were to discover, although extremely comfortable, resembled an 8-piece Tangram puzzle, with multiple solutions. All of which didn’t just quite fit correctly.

It was very quiet and peaceful. Lights at the marina provided a subtle illumination. I managed to snatch a few paragraphs of Lord of the Rings via torchlight before the day had faded into sleep.

rp – peace and narrowboats

And They’re Off

Moving Aboard

28 May 2020

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And They’re Off – tomorrow

Friday 29 May is an auspicious day – we purchase and take possession of Narrowboat Silverdale. It’s been a long road, not least because of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

We first found Silverdale back in January 2020 (see Searching for Silverdale). We took a second look (although we had already put down a deposit in February 2020 (see A Second Look). That was it! We didn’t get to see the boat again until the end of May 2020 (see To The Shire) when we took up our belongings to store at Whilton.

Well, the time has finally come. and we’re off. We move to Northamptonshire to liveaboard Nb Silverdale.

Wish us luck – we just might need it.

rp – peace and narrowboats

A New Squirrel

Moving Aboard, Nb Silverdale,

26 May 2020

A New Squirrel

murpworks - The Tales of Silverdale - A New Squirrel - squirrel image

Just got news that the stove aboard Nb Silverdale has to be replaced – with a new one!

As part of the Boat Safety Scheme certificate, the multi-fuel stove comes under its purview. Ours fails as it’s not up to scratch so, Whilton Marina are fitting a new one. They are awaiting its arrival and it may delay the move aboard but this is good news.

A stove forms an integral part of the narrowboating experience, it becomes the heart of the boat. Whether it’s burning foraged wood, smokeless coal or briquettes made from recycled waste wood. Only a small amount is required to warm a 50-something foot long, 6 foot 10 inches wide metal tube. Its temperature can be regulated by using the vent in conjunction with a thermometer. It results in a smaller footprint of use.

We’re thrilled it’s being addressed and we get a new squirrel as it means we probably have another day for that final preparation.

We had a similar stove on our previous narrowboat – MIRRLESS (see Tales from the Bilge – Is it Cold on a Narrowboat?) so it will be like meeting an old friend…

murpworks - The Tales of Silverdale - A New Squirrel - Multi-fuel Stove image

rp – peace and narrowboats

Blue Sky Day

Moving Aboard, nature,

25 May 2020

Blue Sky Day

murpworks - The Tales of Silverdale - Blue Sky Day - III image

Today is a Bank Holiday in the UK which normally heralds clouds, torrential rain and winds. However, today is beautiful.

A glorious sun in a blue sky broke the morning and has continued throughout, so far. We have made use of the garden to sit amongst nature: trees, bushes, crows, butterflies, a squirrel and a myriad of insects. A refreshing can of Thatchers cloudy finest seemed a fitting tribute to the sun, which ripened the apples for its making.

Tomorrow is my birthday, the day after, we hopefully purchase Nb Silverdale and the day after that, we hopefully move up to Northamptonshire and move aboard. Anticipation, coupled with not daring to hope all will go to plan…

Today is a blue sky day.

rp – peace and narrowboats

To The Shire

Moving Aboard, Nb Silverdale, , ,

22 May 2020

To The Shire

murpworks - The Tales of Silverdale - To The Shire - Nb Silverdale I image

Yesterday saw us hire a van, load it with our worldly possessions and drive up to Northamptonshire – to our soon to be new home. The reason? To deposit said possessions in a locker, in readiness for moving next week.

In under a week we purchase Nb Silverdale if all goes to plan. So, with little to no time to effect a move, due to Coronavirus mayhem we headed to the shire. It was the first time out for a long drive in a long time…

We were up early on a bright sunny morning that was forecast to be cloudy with showers. We picked up a van from goselfdrive.com in Frome, a totally no contact, socially distanced transaction. The Ford Transit Custom was upgraded to a bigger Ford Transit but we weren’t complaining, we had stuff to haul. I stalled it on a roundabout on the way back to load it but apart from that, it drove really well.

Loading took place in the bright, hot sun. Better than in the forecast rain but it was hot work. A break for a cup of tea and a yogurt replenished the lost body fluid. then back to it. A second cup of tea, a few final items, then we were ready for the off.

Coffee Stop, Yes There Was One

We set off at approximately 11:15. We stopped at Solstice Services in Amesbury and Costa were selling socially distanced drive-thru coffee and a cinnamon bun – Cinanabon! Refreshed, we drove on and on and on.

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We arrived at Whilton Locks and the marina at 14:00. All was good. We obtained a locker and then spent an hour doing the exact opposite of what we had done back in Wiltshire, we unloaded the van of all our worldly goods (well, most of them. Some things had forgotten to pack themselves).

murpworks - The Tales of Silverdale - To The Shire - Lock-up IV image

We hired the locker for one month. I felt like a character out of The Sweeney with an East End Lock-up. We were lent a fat-off lock which had me spending 10 minutes trying to figure out how to lock up the Lock-up. With the unloading eventually all finished and locked up, we drove around to the marina car park and went to pick up the receipt/agreement.

The fridge and freezer we had ordered had arrived and were scheduled to be installed in readiness for our move aboard. Things were getting real! A parcel had arrived.

Whilton Marina Cafe was closed due to Covid-19 restrictions therefore we went and sat in the van and had a sandwich . Looking out across the marina, it was then that we realised this was to be our new home. It was quiet, peaceful, with birds singing – idyllic. Oh, apart from the trains thundering past on the nearby high speed line. Ah well, with Covid-19 restrictions in place for the foreseeable future, at least there might be less of them for a time 😉

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Back

The drive back was uneventful apart from the services being closed and us being unable to source a coffee or a tea. We had to wait until we were back. Tea was welcome as we unwound from the run by watching a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad. I tried to draw some parallels between our plans and the series. Thankfully, I couldn’t!

rp – peace and narrowboats