Repaint Week 2 W/C 22nd June

Scarboreugh / Redhill Marina

We’d hoped to be able to head down to see Oleanna on Monday, but we also wanted to coincide with Matt from Onboard Solar and he was busy. I worked the whole day model making for panto which meant I could afford to have a day off on Tuesday to accompany Mick to Redhill.

The temperatures in Scarborough were to remain below 30°C on Tuesday, well, they’ve managed to stay pretty low all week, but Redhill was in the Amber zone, so we opted to hire a car with air conditioning. I made sure I had plenty of knitting to keep me occupied in the car, casting on a second sock just in case I ran out.

The journey down was pretty pleasant, the temperature gradually rising the further south we ventured. An eye was kept out for the brief glimpse of the River Trent from the M1, just in case NB Alchemy had headed that way, but no boat was spotted, green or otherwise. Nb Alchemy had actually set off pretty early to avoid the heat of the day and headed for the River Soar, they were most probably already moored up in Zouch for the day the time we arrived at the marina a little before midday.

The roller shutters were rolled part way up at the front and back of the paint shed, almost a breeze rolling through past the two boats. One chap was busy sanding away the gunnels of the boat next to Oleanna, the blue paint on its bow a mirror finish. Not much left to do on this boat which is headed to AquaNarrowboats for fit out.

Stood in front of Oleanna we could now see where the blasting had happened and where had been left. The front bulkhead was just about untouched, which had been deceiving in the photos we’d had last week, but stood here in front of her it was now obvious why it had been left, the wooden front doors and hooks would need removing first.

**Big rusty patch where the wooden rest for the top of the cratch normally sits**

Tom was busy with a scabbler stripping the paint off around Oleanna’s starboard side gally window, the last of the paintwork to be stripped on the cabin sides and gunnels. Apparently under the top coats Oleanna had what I think Tom called a filling coat which was taking time to grind off to get back to the steel. This may have contributed to some of the rust patches we’d been getting as once chipped, water could easily get behind it and make it bubble up, the bond between it and the steel not so good.

A drain from the galley was dribbling, possibly where a damp trap had been emptied down the kitchen sink when she’d been stood out on the hard. Now Oleanna sits at a different angle, so what was left in the sinnk bend is able to leak out. Tom will put a bung in this and clean up before she is blacked.

Attention was given to the porthole above our crossbed. When Oleanna’s layout was designed we wanted a porthole behind our heads and a picture window at the foot of the bed, so we’d have a nice view to drink our morning cuppa’s infront of. Once the plans had been handed over to Finesse, we remembered that we’d wanted to have the stove chimney on the port side. A quick solution was to flip my tracing paper drawings over and rescan them so that the apertures could be cut in the correct places on the other cabin sides.

**You can see the rectangle of what was a hopper window**!

In early years I’d often stood looking down at Oleanna in a lock, her (then) shiny paintwork slightly rippling in the sunlight around the bedroom porthole. Then after she’d been sat on the bottom in Goole after the Aire and Calder breach, the sun had started to bleach the paintwork, revealing the reason for the ripples. Where the porthole was had originally had the picture window cut in it. Once the mistake had been spotted the hole was filled back in with steel. Thank goodness it was only one opening.

**Enough of the anodes left for a few more years**

The chap who does the welding had been to have a look at the couple of jobs we’re wanting doing. He’d walked all the way round Oleanna to check the state of the steel. No signs of any pitting, no dints from collisions and the prop dint free too.

The stick on solar panels had been removed. You hear so much about how the roof can rust underneath them, Tom said the roof wasn’t bad at all.

Now our attention turned to the bow thruster locker, the main reason for our visit, to try find the cause of all the water in there. First things first, empty the water out of it. A wet dry vac was found, but there was far too much water for that, so instead a bilge pump was set up with an added hose reaching out of the paintshed door. The pump was set going, it carried on for getting on for an hour, the colour of the water checked. If it was clear water, that would suggest it had come from the fresh water tank, but it had a tint of canal colour to it, so it had come from outside. Good in one way, bad in another!

**You can see where the water tends to sit in the gas locker**

The gas locker was emptied of gas bottles and hoovered out. The vents very visibly below the water line. Oleanna has always sat low in the water, most probably lower than thought when the gas locker floor was welded in. When Tom had been removing the windows and their liners he’d noted that above gunnel height the cabin sides had been lined with 18mm ply. This is usually 9mm. I wonder if my choice to not have any visible grain on the painted cabinsides meant they ended up using 18mm? Anyway all that extra weight will be helping her to sit low.

No obvious hole in the locker floor could be seen. So whilst the bilge pump continued to do its thing, we headed to the cafe for lunch. We managed to find a bench outside the portacabin just about in the shade to have our cuppas and sandwiches. Next we headed to the office to pay the remainder of our dues for sitting out on the hard for eight months. We chatted with Mandy about when we go back in the water and that we might need to be on one of their moorings for a couple of days, this was fine with her, if the boat that had been dumped would only move on, it’s been there for weeks!

Redhill is very much a working boat yard. One old wooden cruiser came past heading to sit out on the hard for a while. Then another narrowboat came past, this was laid off outside Tom’s paintshop. It had been jet washed on the hill and was now due to be blacked.

https://youtube.com/shorts/QQxCXD2FKFM

Whilst we’d been elsewhere Tom had managed to get his phone deep into the bow thruster locker to see if there was any sign of where water might have been coming in. He videoed a pan round, the depth the water had been obvious. Right at the pointy end of the bow, possibly the least accessible part of the hull. A rusty dribble from an inch under the gas locker floor which had then spread. Somehow the water was getting in here. Possibly a failed weld at the pointy end of the gas locker floor which always sits in the water. This leak I suspect has been happening for sometime, but Mick reckons he’d have noticed water on the bowthruster locker floor. When was the last time he’d looked in there? Just how long had the leak been leaking? How had the weld failed if that’s where the water is coming from? Well we just need a solution for it.

**That looks like where it’s been coming in!**

Can it be welded? Most probably not as this part of the boat is likely to have been made early on in the construction, working from bow to stern and getting in to weld it just about impossible. Tom could do a broad band of PU filler around the edge of the gas locker floor, sealing in the weld. Or maybe some two part epoxy putty could be pushed in where the hole might be. We planned on emailing Ricky at Finesse to see what his thoughts might be on a solution.

Matt from Onboard Solar arrived. Mick chatted away to him about solar panels. I’ll let him chat about those later.

The odd wiring, loose connections were chatted about. It looks like the cables from the electric cupboard to the junction on the roof had been cut too short on the original fitout, so short lengths had been chock blocked on the end, these were loose when Tom came to remove the junction. Matt will see if it’s possible to replace the wiring in the roof. We’ve dug out photos of the fitout and the cables should run in a conduit along the edge of the roof, but to access this will mean removing the covers which have been plugged with wooden dowels.

Matt is going to email through a quote for new panels and installation next week sometime

So Oleanna will continue to be prepared this week, it’s all in the preparation, After the preparation is completed she’ll have a good clean inside and out. She’s quite a state inside, so I strongly suspect we’ll be hoovering for a while once we start to move back onboard, maybe we should have removed EVERYTHING to make this easier, but we didn’t as that would have required several more trips in a van and then finding somewhere to store it all.

**Just because they are there, demolition due 2029/30**

Once Tom gets started with painting, the blacking will go on, the whole boat gets painted. Jacks will lift her so they can paint the base plate too, then below the gunnels will be skirted off with brown paper for them to work on the cabin sides and roof. The next coats will go on the day after so that there is a good bond between coats and no need to sand between them. Then layer on layer and sanding smooth will happen to get a mirror finish.

We reminded Tom of when we’ll be needing to move back on board. Claire the signwriter is booked for the beginning of that week so all the major painting will be done by then.

Will high temperatures affect the painting? Tom said that actually the heat will make the paint more viscus, so they shouldn’t need to thin it down. It’s more about keeping himself hydrated as he paints. He wears a suit and gloves, fresh air is pumped to his face behind his mask, so that is quite pleasant. But when he takes his gloves off they tend to be full of sweat! We wished him well, wanting to provide icelollies to keep moral up, but they’d melt before they got anywhere near the paintshed.

We headed back to Scarborough with a little list of jobs that need doing. New fenders, photos of the electrics to find, an email to Ricky.

Wednesday Mick put together an email with photos for Ricky at Finesse. Maybe he could come up with a solution to the leaking gas locker. On Saturday morning we’ve still not heard anything back.

Mick also chatted to Hannah our most recent BSS examiner regarding the vents from the gas locker. She’d be happy to leave the existing ones and then add new ones above the next rubbing strake which will be above the water line.

Friday morning an email came from Claire regarding the bow flash design. She has worked up the one we prefer, suggesting keeping lines parallel to each other rather than parallel to the shape of the bow, all of which we are very happy with, so she has been given a big thumbs up from us.

Little else to report this week. Hopefully sometime next week we will get info about the solar panels, finalise a solution for the leak and maybe just maybe Oleanna will start to change colour, but that may be the following week.

Meanwhile I continue to paint my panto model, being in a snowy world is helping with the heat, although we are very lucky not to have reached silly temperatures. The other evening we used the barbecue to roast a mass of root veg from our veg box, the aim of keeping things cool in the house, we however required jumpers as we watched things cooking. I’ve attended the last mosaic session I think I’ll be able to go to, things are nearing completion, and too many hands are trying to fill gaps now. Hopefully soon we’ll get time to think about starting to pack our belongings ready to move.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hire car, 30+C, 1 cool Scarborough, 1 almost naked Oleanna, 1 shiny neighbour, 1 leak! 1 welder with Gogo Gadget arms required, 10cm christmas tree, 18mm! 1 prospective lodger informed, 1 last mosaic, 1 set of bow and stern fenders to find.

Repaint Week 1 W/C 15th June

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Scarboreugh / Redhill Marina

After the excitement of Oleanna getting blasted on Monday we expected things to be a bit quieter on Tuesday, which they were.

I had an email from Claire the signwriter with a sketch of a Rennie Mackintosh inspired bow flash. Oleanna’s bow flash originally was just a dot with a dash either side of it. I’d not had any major inspiration for it to be anything else at the time. But after our visit to Hill House earlier this year we’d wondered if we could have something a little bit more Mackintosh inspired. I’d put together a few images I liked for Claire to have a look at to see what she came up with.

The photo of her sketch was a little hard to see, but I got the general gist. Having an afternoon of waiting for things to dry for panto I decided to see what the sketch would look like in colour. This then turned into a few more sketches.

Wednesday. An early phone call from Tom regarding taking the windows out. A question about the window in the galley where the extractor fan had obviously been installed after the wooden window surround. Did we have any ideas? Maybe removing the filter in the extractor would shed light on how it was fixed. It did. Half an hour later the first window was out, the rest would be easier now Tom understood how they’d been fixed in.

Around lunchtime I got a photo from Tom with a concerning message.

“Did you know your bowthruster locker is full of water?“

No we didn’t.

On the photo it was hard to see the level the water had reached. Mick was in York and he was likely to have been the last person to have put his head down into the locker, I relayed the photo. He’d never seen any water in there before. Where had it come from?

The water was level with the bottom of the battery, Tom had isolated it already.

There were another two photos, one of each side of the bow near the bow thruster tube. If water had been coming in from under the waterline, he’d have expected to see a weep of water somewhere. But then Oleanna has been stationary for eight months, so surely the water would have drained away in that time. It had to be coming from above the level of water in the locker.

Had it rained a lot since we removed the cratch cover? Not especially, and the 20mm upstand around the locker lid you would think would keep even a torrential downpour out. Could it be coming in from the gas locker?

Another photo came through with Tom pointing out where the bottom of the gas locker sits. It’s a possible as it is over part of the bow thruster locker and it is a wet locker that sits with water in it. Tom will investigate more once he’s removed our gas bottles and had a look. A wet/dry vac was needed to remove the water. At the moment we don’t know if the bowthruster has been affected.

Another photo, this time from the solar. Had we been having problems with the solar? No.

The connections in the white box on the roof were interesting. Four orange wires were only half in a chockblock. Mick was very unlikely to have done this when we installed our second panel a few years ago. The connection box had rust bubbling up around it a while back so I’d done a touch up. Maybe the wires hadn’t been connected properly in the first place. At the moment we don’t know if the wires were from the panels or from inside the boat.

Mick plans to head down to meet with Matt from Onboard Solar next week, so he’ll enquire more about the solar connections. We also hope that a reason for the water in the bowthruster locker can be found, the bow thruster also needs to be checked to see if it still works. If we need a replacement, while she’s out of the water will be the time to do it.

No more news from Redhill this week, on Friday Tom was spraying the boat next to Oleanna.

Blasted Boat! 15th June

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Scarboreugh / Redhill Marina

The title of today’s post could mean one of two things.

Oh, that Blasted Boat! When will work ever start on her?!
Blasted Boat, she’s finally got blasted!

We’ve spent the last week, well longer really, watching the weather forecast. Our local map is a bit too far north to show south of Nottingham. The country map has shown bands of rain over the midlands most days. Mondays forecast might have been okay, but there were some showers that would creep across from the west.

Most evenings we’ve watched the end of the local news program in Nottingham, presented by a lady who looks a lot like Nana Mouskouri. A band of showers would be crossing the area late morning. The weather presenter waved her hand directly over where Redhill Marina is. We couldn’t see if there was a gap in showers! The clouds moving over the map jumped ahead, possibly leapfrogging the marina!

Would the showers halt work on Oleanna? Would the possible forecast mean they wouldn’t start blasting on Monday morning? I’m starting to sound like a vlogger!!

We played it cool. I got on with updating drawings for panto, reading the new draft of the script, taking photos of model pieces. Mick headed off to watch the final days play of cricket at North Marine Road, a thicker coat required for sitting around all day. If things hadn’t gone to plan Tom surely would have been in touch.

Then at 15:08 a photo without explanation dropped into my Whatsapp folder.

There was Oleanna sat on the hill. At first glance she looked dusty, her hull looking like it had been blasted, but elsewhere still had quite a tinge of blue.

When looked at on the computer, rather than phone, I could see where the blasting had avoided getting too close to the her windows, nav lights had been avoided. Her cream line was only now visible above and below windows as if someone had left a reminder of masking tape.

**Oleanna’s last view of the cooling towers for a while**

Then at 15:43 I got another photo a very grey, blasted stern was about to be reversed into the paint shed.

One Blasted Boat!

**Dark patches on the stern where the hook up and stern light are usually**

One blasted boat, now in the paint shop out of any weather.

Neither of us bothered to watch the weather forecast tonight!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 dry day, at last!!! 1 blasted boat, 0 more watching the weather, 2 glasses of wine to celebrate.

Not On Our Side! 14th June

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An update at the end of a week when the weather showed potential but then turned out to not be on our side!

Oleanna was moved out from her resting place of the last eight months on Tuesday. Yes this is now the longest we’ve been on dry land in twelve years. She was moved round to the hill ready for blasting on the next dry day. Her baseplate was blasted and then she was lowered ready for the cabin and hull to be done. Friday was ear marked as a possible day.

Friday came, Mick headed to watch Yorkshire play cricket and I headed to London for my white card model meeting for panto. Both of us had lovely dry days. Sadly a raft of showers were forecast to cross over Nottingham, Redhill Marina actually, so the blast was postponed till after the weekend.

Whilst on my train heading south I had a phone call from Tom, our boat painter. He was removing all the fixtures and fittings before the blast could take place. They leave windows in to avoid ingress of the grit, but nav lights, aerials, cratch and pram, plank and pole rack amongst other things, all get removed. He was having severe difficulty in removing the cratch A frame. He could reach inside the gas locker and feel that there were three bolts, but none of these had nuts on them. Did I know anything that might help as they didn’t want to force the A frame and end up breaking it.

I recollected a conversation with Ricky at Finesse, when he told me that the cratch was there to stay, we’d never get it off! Handy when you want to repaint your boat. It appears to have been glued on so well that it will end up staying in situ. The blaster has been advised to give it a wide berth, then Tom will strip the paint right up to it by hand, protecting the woodwork. Oleanna will be given coats of rust-inhibiting paint and Tom will make the join between wood and paint work water tight.

Photos and measurements have been taken for a new hole in the gas locker, so that it actually vents to the outside. This will happen once Oleanna is stripped and moved into the paint shed. Tom said to expect to be inundated with photos early next week. I’m so hoping it’s very early next week as I’ve lots of work to do on Panto and could do with uncrossing my fingers!

The cricket it going well, Yorkshire achieving lots of runs. It’s nice for Mick to be able to make good use of his Scarborough Cricket Club life membership for once.

My model meeting went well, a few notes which I expected, indeed even asked for. A new draft of the script now needs reading to check through in case I don’t know about something that’s been added or removed. Then I can get on with adding colour to the model and finalising the drawings. I just need to find someone in Scarborough with an A3 scanner as the printers and architects I used to use have both closed now.

***Tom Tom, please get on with it, they keep taking me to the VETS!!!!***

I hope to post again , once Oleanna is stripped and ready to paint. So tata for now.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 stripped bottom, 1 stubborn A frame, 2 boaters wondering if they’ll ever get their sea legs back, 1 cat whisperer beaten, 1 more notch in my tail! 1 design meeting at the National, 1 thumbs up, 3rd WC alteration, 1 more mention for Duncan, 1.5 pairs of socks knitted, 3 days of cricket in a row.

A Roll In The Right Direction. 8th June

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Scarboreugh / Redhill Marina

On Friday morning I was sent contact details for Claire Norton the signwriter, I left contacting her until Monday morning. Once I send her some photos of Oleanna with her current signwriting, along with an idea for a different bow flash, Claire will give us a quote for her work. Less is more in the case of Oleanna.

Around lunchtime Friday, Tom sent a message saying that the plan was to move Oleanna to the hill on Tuesday, so that she’d be there ready and waiting to be blasted on a suitable day. Soon followed an email regarding our first payment for the repaint. The boat moves and grit blasting all have to be paid for upfront with the yard, plus Tom would also be able to order in the paint and materials for the repaint. I set about moving funds so we could pay him.

I asked Tom to send us photos as everything progresses. Tom’s reply was that we’d have ‘a full gallery as stuff happens’. His social media posts tend to have pretty good photos.

Our weekend was spent thinking about other jobs that need doing for Oleanna, some purchases were needed to replace weather-worn tatty things that will not aid in showing off her new paint job.

I also cracked on with working on panto, I have a white card model meeting at the end of the week and want everything ready, so should I get the thumbs up on the design, I can get cracking with painting the model up. If I can get the model finished whilst having access to my work room in the house that will mean I’ve more space for clothing on the boat, Mick will be able to use the dinette table and have space to exist whilst I work, but also once Oleanna is back in the water we can enjoy time cruising rather than stopping for me to work.

**Oleanna’s movements this month, according to our GPS tracker connected to the Victron Venus GX system. It is currently inside Oleanna and as you can see not terribly accurate!**

A little after 3pm today, Monday, I got a photo message through from Tom. There, on a trailer was Oleanna. Extricated from her resting place after 236 days of sitting still, she was finally on the move. It had been such a nice afternoon the boatyard had decided to move her up to the hill ready to wait for a weather window.

A closer look at the photo shows what a difference the sun has made to the blacking. One side peeling off like an hundred year old weather worn door, the other all still in tact and going quite green in parts. The port side was the side that was prepped first when we had her reblacked in 2021, so the chaps removing the failed blacking then may have done one side very well, but got arm tired and bored by the time they got round her bow to the starboard side. Or it’s just the difference of how much the sun has baked the southern side of her hull whilst she’s been sat still.

All very exciting, this warranted a glass of wine this evening to celebrate her rolling in the right direction.

0 locks, 375m on land, 1 trailer, 1 chunk of money moved, 236 days stationary, 1 roll closer, 35.75 fingers crossed for dry weather.

Deep In The Jungle. 4th June

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Scarboreugh / Redhill Marina

Mick picked up a hire car first thing, returning home for a quick breakfast, then we were on our way to Redhill. Tilly was miffed as she wasn’t allowed to come with us, but she’d not have enjoyed the car journey, best to leave that for another time when she wouldn’t have to come back again. Pah!

The drive took around two and a half hours, thankfully not too much traffic but the occasional rain shower. We pulled in towards the back of the marina (if you can class the land based boats being in a marina), away from the workshops and even further away from the river. Gosh things have grown since I was last here! The ground before was at least visibly uneven, but today it is hidden beneath an awful lot of friendly cover, Tilly would so love it. You can tell Oleanna has been sat here for around eight months, thistles, nettles, even an elder bush has grown alongside her, the flowers pickable from the side hatch.

**The hill where Oleanna will be blasted**

First thing was to open up Oleanna and find the sketches I’d done of her new colour scheme. The step ladder was brought down out of the welldeck and Mick climbed on board, the sketch book was soon found where it had been left ready for today’s meeting. Then it was over to meet Tom in the paint shed. It took a little while for us to realise he was inside and shouting that we should come in.

Inside was the 45ft boat that was ahead of us and another boat, more like 58ft which has been primed and is sat waiting the next stage. The 45fter was having its windows put back in, ready to be taken out of the shed tomorrow and refloated, she looked good.

The three of us walked back over to Oleanna to take a look at her and discuss the jobs we are wanting doing on top of the repaint. Time to show Tom my sketch, cream cabin sides and roof, the bow and stern to be the dark blue, grab rail still red, lettering blue with a red shadow. I made sure Tom knew where I wanted the shadow to be and why, we don’t want another paintgate!

RAL numbers were discussed, I still had the touch up pots of paint inside so would dig them out later for the numbers. We may go for a dark blue with a touch of purple in it, which was the original plan when she was first painted, but Finesse couldn’t match the colour.

Extra T studs at the bow to match the one by the gas locker, welded or bolted on, we opted for welded. The locker lid hinges have seized again due to lack of use this winter, they will get looked at. The Alde boiler flue on the cabin side will have new screws and a clean up. Mushroom vents will be painted to match the roof. The stern locker lids which have done serious damage to the paintwork will be adapted by a carpenter, leaving a wooden surround and then having a lift out section to keep the maximum opening rather than adding hinges to the lids. Our double-glazed windows arrived a few months ago and the internal window surrounds will need some alteration for the increased depth of the thermal break frames. The galley sliding windows will remain single glazed and get a good clean before going back in.

We looked at the state of the hull with all the large rust patches. Tom gave them a wipe with his hands. Apparently 1mm of rust equates to a thou of steel having eroded. The large areas of the hull feel pretty smooth so he suspects once Oleanna is grit blasted we won’t be able to tell where she’d rusted with little if any pitting. We’re hoping he’s right about this and await the verdict once the paint has been stripped. Tom did say that the chap who does the grit blasting will love doing the hull as the paint will come off very quickly.

The vent from our gas locker has always been very low. It’s a wet locker meaning that water gets into it when we cruise, well if the water tank is full and the gas bottles are also full we rarely get to see the vent even when stationary. Hannah, who did our BSS last year, suggested we have the vent extended upwards. Tom will check inside the locker as to where the water lies and most probably put a new hole further forward so as not to cut through a rubbing strake. The amount left on the two sets of anodes is more than brand new ones, so we’ll not be needing to do that. Tom suggests that after four years we get Oleanna out of the water to inspect the blacking, and then we might require new anodes.

He looked at the woodwork we want re-varnished. Moving the plank and pole rack towards the bow, so that the centre lines don’t catch. We talked about removing the solar panels, which we intend to replace with modern panels, a chat with Matt from Onboard Solar will be arranged for when Mick is next down.

Clare Norton the sign writer will be put in touch with us to discuss any art work we’re wanting.

**We’ll be staying with the same type face**

Next we got onto talking about windows of good weather. The forecast would be watched over the weekend, he’d chat to the grit blaster if there was any chance of a dry day on Monday. The marina was also aware of Oleanna needing to be moved to the hill and then into the paint shed. Then we chatted dates and how our house will be full with nowhere for us to sleep in a few weeks. Tom counted the weeks, we should be back onboard before we run out of time, but we can always move back onboard whilst Oleanna is still in the paint shed as the final jobs are done to her.

With everything discussed, Tom went back to putting the 45fter back together, and we walked down to the cafe for lunch. A tuna cob and a jacket potato were enjoyed with a refreshing cuppa before we headed back to Oleanna to do some jobs.

**Really hope the sink can be cleaned once we’ve got water again**

Mick ran the engine whilst I got a scraper out to see what I could do with the sticky mess we’ve got on the dinette. The new cushions and covers with flame proofing have reacted with the ten year old varnish and made it all sticky. This has stuck to the cushions over the last couple of years and left red sticky fluff everywhere. We’ve had the cushion covers dry cleaned, but now the stickyness on the woodwork needs to be solved.

I spent a good couple of hours with my scraper removing the failed varnish, it was a bit like chewing gum. Then I had a go at cleaning the remainder off with white spirit. This worked on the solid wood edges, but once dry on the faced ply areas they were still tacky! Further investigation was later done, so I may try meths, thinners, acetone, but I don’t want to sand the wood as it’s only faced with oak and it won’t take much before the surface has gone.

Whilst this all happened, Mick busied himself removing the pram and cratch covers. These would be taken off by the painters anyway before the grit blasting. Our original plan had been to get new ones made either by SPL or All Seasons, keeping the same framework. However, due to the delay in our repaint we now won’t be going anywhere near either of these companies as we’ll be heading southwards not north once back in the water. So the new plan is to clean the current covers up as best we can back in Scarborough, re-waterproof them and continue to use them until we return northwards to have new ones made which will also take into account the new T studs in the bow.

As we were closing up a chap from the marina drove along the track infront of us, he was checking to see what would need moving to get Oleanna out from her resting place, a small dinghy was the only visible thing. He drove round the friendly cover opposite to check there wasn’t anything lurking there and then warned the boat across the way that we’d be moving next week. Tomorrow the jungle surrounding Oleanna is likely to be strimmed to make her extrication easier.

With jobs done it was time to say farewell to our dull rusty dark blue Oleanna. We climbed into the car and headed back northwards. Sadly the distance between Redhill and Scarborough means we’re unlikely to be able to watch her transformation in person as much as we’d like, but Tom will send us updates and hopefully we’ll be down to see her for ourselves at various stages.

As we dropped back down from the Yorkshire Wolds, I put an order in for fish and chips from Capplemans. These were enjoyed with a glass of wine, it’s been one of those weeks where wine is allowed most days. The covers are folded up and in the dining room, we’ll have to hope for a dry day here to give them a good clean in the back garden at some point, then when dry, store them for a few weeks.

So at last things are progressing. We still need everyone to keep their fingers crossed for a fine dry day early next week for the blasting.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hire car, 0.75 of a sock knitted, 1 colour scheme, 1mm equals 1 thou, 1 jungle, 3 colours, 1 different blue, 1 jacket, 1 cob, 1 shiny boat, 1 rusty boat, 2 hours scraping, 1 hour white spirit, 2 sticky still! 1 jungle to be strimmed, 0 elderflower cordial, 1 rusty sink! 1 service station pit stop, 2 of each, 2 covers taking over the dining room, 1 busy week.

Maybe May.

Remember Us? 1st June

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**Photo from way back when we used to live aboard**

Yes we are still here.

Yes we are still on dry land.

But we now have a date to go through everything with Tom regarding Oleanna’s repaint.

This morning I’ve had a chat with him, the boat ahead of us just needs the finishing touches doing, it will be out of the paint shed by the end of the week.

Oleanna now needs to wait for a suitably dry day to be grit blasted. Sods law is that the forecast for the last few weeks has been, as we all know, pretty dry and hot, but this week it is likely to rain most days. The grit blasting needs to be done on a dry day to avoid any moisture getting on the bare steel. The chap doing the work will start at 8am, have a short break for some food, then crack on with the job, hoping to be finished by around 3pm so that she can then be moved into the paint shed where the environment is controlled.

We have a hire car booked, an appointment has been moved, mosaic won’t be attended that day. We now need to remind ourselves of the extra jobs we were wanting to get done before we meet Tom later this week.

All our fingers and toes are crossed for the weather to be fine so that work can start ASAP.

If anyone else fancies crossing theirs that would be great.

April, Ticking Away. 30th April

Scarboreugh / Redhill Marina

The last day of April!

Well, where do I start? I believe I last signed off saying that hopefully next time I posted I’d be talking about Oleanna’s repaint. Well, I will be, but not in the way I thought I’d be talking about it.

We gave Tom a week after Easter for the dust to settle and kids to have gone back to school. I called him to have a chat and explain that we really could do with an approximate end date to the repaint as we have lodgers booked in, maybe more wanting to book and our thoughts had been turning to where we might end up living if there was a delay in the repaint. We really needed to be back onboard at the end of May. He reassured me that that would be the case, he’d look at the jobs required and let me have a better idea.

**You’re not leaving me our of the packing!**

With each week passing and no news, canal time was setting in. We started to think of contingency plans for when lodgers arrived. We could stow all our boaty belongings in the room we call the shed and sofa surf, but what would Tilly do? It would be very unfair to leave her with three lodgers, maybe a cattery would have to be the option! What CAT PRISON!!!!! I don’t believe you were even considering that! A better solution was for us to find another bed that we could put in my workroom, I had offers of futons and inflatable mattresses, but so far we’d not had any more enquiries from lodgers, maybe we’d be okay for a few more weeks.

Last Monday I sent an email to Tom. The days of April, our paint slot, were rapidly running out. Would he be starting the repaint later in the week, next week, in two weeks, or would the wait be longer! Would it be worth us popping down to talk over the jobs and colour scheme? We really wanted to know so that we could plan what to do with ourselves!

We got on with jobs. A couple of hours later we received an apologetic email reply from Tom.

‘I’ve had a few delays alongside some other things essentially dropped on me, which has jumbled up my running order. I have a 45ft Narrowboat in the shop which your boat will follow‘.’

It sounds like its not all his fault, but whatever the reason it’s not fair, but what can we do, other than be patient. At least we now have dates which we can work to, he’ll be in touch towards the end of May for us to go to chat things through. He has also said as a goodwill gesture that he will be giving us a discount.

There had been places we wanted to go to by boat, but now they will have disappointingly passed before we are back on board. This means, that to us, it doesn’t matter when Keadby Lock and the leaking culvert is mended, or worry if Vazon Rail bridge goes faulty again, as we won’t be heading northwards anymore. It does mean that Tilly will have the long journey back to life afloat, we’d planned on bringing Oleanna up to Goole before she joined us to make her journey about an hour shorter. I’ll cope, just so long as the outside can move again!

**Swarkestone Pavillion painting ready to be hung**

We could have decided to have Oleanna put back in the water and postpone her repaint, most probably a wait of another year, but the blacking desperately needs doing before she touches water again. So we may as well sit it out and have her back with all the other jobs done to our satisfaction.

**The first of the Felicity Edition Sockathon socks**

Now we could plan, we’d not want to sofa surf for a month. I emailed the SJT saying that we would be staying in the house so our third room was no longer available. They thought they were now sorted for the company of the Calendar Girls. However, within 30 minutes I got another enquiry! Over the next few days I’ve had three enquiries from actors from the next company which overlaps. Should you happen to live in Scarborough and have a comfortable spare room there are actors desperately looking for places to stay, get in touch with the theatre. After a bit of jiggery-pokery with a shoehorn we have managed to accommodate someone else, an old friend, with an extra buffer around Oleanna’s repaint. If we’re not back on the boat by then, well!

Anyhow. It’s disappointing, but it does have its advantages. Firstly we won’t be chomping at the bit to get onto the Leeds Liverpool Canal, possibly getting jobs rushed or even put off.

I can carry on helping on the community mosaic for a while longer. I’m really enjoying it and now know quite a handful of new people around Scarborough.

I also have access to my work room at the top of the house. Yes, I’m designing Chippy Panto again this year. The Snow Queen is a very VERY Christmassy panto. So I’m hoping to get as much work done designing it before we get back on Oleanna, meaning we can make the most of boating again when we hit the water.

In 2021 we were in Scarborough until mid May, escaping from Goole after the breach on the Air and Calder Navigation. This year we’ve already had chance to enjoy our bluebells. I’m loving seeing all that goes on at the seaside on sunny days. The spring tides have revealed sand banks that you can almost walk into the harbour. Then when the tide is in the sea covers most of the beach meaning ice cream, wind breaks and deckchairs are all squashed up against the railings. Daleks, Wookies and Storm Troopers took over the Spa for a weekend and there’s a new market once a month to peruse.

We’ve also been along to celebrate the SJT’s 30th Anniversary at the Odeon. The occasion was marked with a rehearsed reading/sing of HONK! which was produced for Christmas 1997. It was lovely to see some old work friends, especially Michael Holt the designer, I used to paint his sets at the theatre and a few years ago I made a model for him whilst we were on the Peak Forest Canal, the last time I saw him.

So with the news our repaint was delayed, Mick made plans to head down to check on Oleanna again. She’s been off shore power for a few weeks, and he wanted to run her engine and check her over as she’ll be sitting still for a few more weeks. He caught an earlyish train to East Midlands Parkway and walked down the long road to the marina, the cooling towers still keeping an eye on everything.

Oleanna was checked over, the engine run, lunch enjoyed at the cafe. Plenty of people were about doing jobs on their boats in the sunshine. I’d like to have a visit too, so that I can clean off the sticky varnish around the dinette before we move back on board and have to do it with ourselves and Tilly about. But that will have to wait a little while, maybe for when we visit to chat to Tom. The dinette cushion covers have been successfully dry-cleaned and forced back onto the cushions and new blinds for the bow doors have been sewn, they just need fitting to the poppers now.

All we can do is wait.

0 locks, 0 miles, 130 miles walked, 1870 brisk minutes walking in April, 1 repaint delayed, 1 hotel required? 1 contingency cottage to be used, 30th anniversary, 2 now 3 lodgers booked overlapping, 2 drafts of panto, 1 storyboard started, 1 very icy mood board, 1 mosaic paisley finished, 4 Felicity Edition pairs of socks, 3 life jackets tested and repacked, 1 painting finished and framed ready to be hung, 2 boaters and 1 cat resigned to life on dry land for a while longer.

Waiting Patiently (!)

Just before we got back from our holiday to Scotland we contacted Tom at Gibson and Kentwright to see if there was any news on Oleanna’s repaint and if it would be worth keeping the hire car any longer, should we need to do a trip down to Redhill to see him. His reply was that they were not far off finishing the painting of the boat just ahead of us, then there is the putting it back together again. So it’s getting closer, however so is Easter! Tom thought that realistically we’d be looking at after the Easter break, the chap who moves the boats (and most probably Tom too) will be having a break as it’s school holidays.

So we still need to be patient for a bit longer. Timings will be getting tight for us soon as we have bookings for lodgers in the house. At the moment we still have a buffer zone, and another week over lapping the first lodger if needs be!

This time last year we were back on board and joining the flotilla on the Trent. Have to say when I left my community mosaic group on Monday after the clocks had sprung forward I really wanted to be back on the boat. Watching and reading about people’s cruises will have to do for now though.

Tilly revisited the vets and got the correct jab this time. They must alternate the vaccines and her card didn’t match her vet records. She got this one free, though, as it was their mistake. It had also been suggested that maybe she should have her blood pressure taken to check for various things now that she is over ten. As a few months ago Ziggy my brother’s cat, passed away I thought that maybe it would be worth having it done in case they come up with any early signs. Tilly was quite put out that an inch of her tail needed to be shaved. How is one meant to relax in such a situation? I reckon my pressure was through the roof! Green coat syndrome and all. I did check that the nurse wasn’t going to touch Tilly’s white tipped tail. It just looks like someone has taken a bite out of it now, but it’ll grow back Tilly! Apparently the vet will be in touch with the results, we’ve heard nothing as yet so I’m hoping no news is good news. Now her paperwork is correct she will be granted shore leave once we’re back on board.

Over the last few years it has been obvious that Tilly knows where she is when we move back onto Oleanna after a stint in the house. We do our best to moor up for her first shore leave with not too many other boats about and she comes home. This year we’ll see if she identifies Oleanna by colour, scent, as it will have been six months since she was last on board and Oleanna will be a different colour. Maybe we should keep her onboard for a few days so she finds her way back home?

In other news we can report that the first of this years Mikron shows is well worth a viewing. Top of the Wolds is about a mobile library in the East Riding, Yorkshire. True to form Mikron are touring the show around the East Riding, village halls and libraries before embarking on their usual tour on NB Tylseley. We got to see the show in Bempton a short train journey down the coast. Bempton is mostly known for its cliffs and puffins. We thoroughly enjoyed the show, a mixture of history, songs, modern dilemmas and a chance meeting with people I used to work with on the Yorkshire Moors made it even better.

Mikron’s second show this year is called Wensleydale Whey, about the cheese! Sadly I don’t think we’ll be in the right place at the right time to see it though. Whilst in Bempton we had time to look round Jose’s Antiques, a favourite for propping shows, it’s amazing what you can find there!

When we do get back onboard, we are wanting to head north, downstream on the River Trent to Yorkshire. Currently there is a failed culvert at Keadby Lock which connects the tidal river to the Stainforth and Keadby Canal. Because the culvert has failed the lock is hard to empty, so access to and from the lock is only possible when the river is either level with the canal or higher. Not too bad for cruisers who can push the tide, but not so helpful for narrowboats, as to reach the lock from the tidal river you’d have to push the tide as it came in. We have two other options, going round Trent Falls or the long way round, up the western side of the Pennines. CRT are suggesting the culvert may be mended sometime in May, I’m hoping that’s just before we want to use Keadby Lock.

Oleanna’s insurance has been renewed with Craft Insure. Mick double checked about our LiFePO4 batteries. These are fine so long as we have a lithium fire extinguisher on board. Mick did some research on the type of extinguisher and has purchased a 2 litre extinguisher (£51 including signs and delivery) which can be used on all types of fires. We now just need to find somewhere to store it on board! Of course should we have a battery fire on Oleanna, which is less likely than one from lead acid batteries, the extinguisher would only serve to validate our insurance as it would be too small for our batteries and anyhow we would grab Tilly and get off the boat rather than use the extinguisher!

New curtains have been made for the main cabin. They will need fitting once the new windows are in and the rails put back up. I’ve given them some tolerance to see if that makes any difference, a nicer vertical hammock for Tilly when she sits in the window. But they can be tightened up should they need be by adding another line of stitching. New bedroom curtains were made several years ago and have been kept in storage.

Next job is to purchase an escape ladder, one we can attach to the stern somewhere that can be deployed should one end up in the water.

That is all for now, hopefully when I next post, things will be starting to happen on the repaint .

Happy Easter everyone.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna

Repaint Week 2 W/C 22nd June

Repaint Week 1 W/C 15th June

Blasted Boat! 15th June

Not On Our Side! 14th June

A Roll In The Right Direction. 8th June

Deep In The Jungle. 4th June

Maybe May.

Remember Us? 1st June

April, Ticking Away. 30th April

Waiting Patiently (!)