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.
Blue skies in Scarborough
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.
Blue skies, with clouds in London
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.
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.
Tracks round the yard
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.
Panto front cloth needing tweeking
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.
Hello Oleanna!
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.
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 lower cream one
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!
Paint tins for reference
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.
Poor Oleanna
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.
Can you spot the vent?
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.
Hello!
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.
Lunch at the cafe
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.
Covers off
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.
The River Soar
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.
Still smiling
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.
Yum!
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.
A bit of an update before we get going on what Oleanna news there is, as I’m conscious that some are missing out on the design of panto this year.
Chippy Panto. The Snow Queen model box has been stripped back. A storyboard was drawn up, ideas swapped with Caroline the Director. Then I’ve worked on the white card model, a couple of versions have been worked on and now I’m starting to work on the sketch working drawings so that quotes for the build can be worked out. I have a white card model meeting in London next week, so fingers crossed everyone likes what they see!
Bridget and Storm have been to stay. It was lovely to spend some time with them and show them around Scarborough. The tide was well and truly in, and they met up with Freddie. Hopefully they’ve had a great time on a hire boat with their grandkids and they’ve had more thoughts of being boat owners once again.
John Godber recently turned 70, so there was a big catch-up with lots of old Hull Truckers at The Little Wold Vineyard near Brough. The dress code was ‘A nod to the 70’s’, so with two charity shop shirts and half a metre of suitable fabrics, I adjusted the collars and made us each a kipper tie. It was great to see so many people from my Hull Truck days to celebrate John’s birthday.
Us
On the hottest day of the year so far we travelled over to York for a night with the London Leckenbys in their top floor flat. Gosh it was hot! Wonderful food as ever, time to catch up with them all, Josh currently in the middle of his second year exams.
At around 10pm we had a walk down to the River Ouse where the air was cooler. A sign on the Blue Bridge, where the Ouse meets the River Foss suggested that work was ongoing at Castle Mill Lock. So we wandered up to take a look in the nighttime gloom. New lock gates were sat on the bank, and the lock had a work boat in it and two cofferdams were doing their best to keep the lock water free for the works. We had been planning to come up to York this year and had hoped to be able to get onto the River Foss. But with the slipping of time on Oleanna’s repaint we’ve run out of time to visit as we want to be in the south by the end of August.
We now have two lodgers living with us, both rehearsing for Calendar Girls at the SJT. So we have a full house which will get fuller in just over a month’s time, so the clock is really ticking now until we become homeless.
Everyone with their heads down, cutting tiles and sticking
Mosaicing is having to take a bit of a back seat whilst panto needs my attention, but I try to go to a session every other week. Things are progressing very well and I suspect all the pieces will be finished soon. Sadly I don’t think I’ll get a chance to help with the installation, but hopefully that will be because we’ll be moving back onto Oleanna then.
I’ve had a break from knitting socks for a few weeks, making a cardie for myself. But now I’m back on with Felicity Edition Sockathon Socks in memory of my friends Mum, Felicity. I have several pairs to knit for children, so I’m concentrating on those before their feet grow too much!
I’ve also been doing some trial baking. Just which is the best GF cup cake recipe? The jury is still deliberating and wondering if a third version would be worth trying, however Spanish Buttercream has been deemed too much work for not enough flavour. Our alpine strawberries are doing very well this year after transplanting some into a urn at the house.
There have also been numerous walks around Scarborough, I’m quite enjoying seeing the town full of visitors and at a time of year I’ve not been here for in over a decade.
Tilly still waits in hope for an imminent return to Oleanna. Whenever a bag is brought out she makes sure she is the first thing to be packed. Well, I can’t have them leaving me here with all these singing Shes and annoying cats can I !!!
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 trips away, 1 confused cat, 70, 2 kippers, 12 cupcakes, 2 ex boaters, 30C, 1 emergency cardie, 1 mosaic coming together, 2 new lock gates, 1 white card model ready, I think!
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.
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.
Nearly walking into the harbour
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.
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.
Easter visitors diverting nature
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!
New painting coming along
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?
Mikron van
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.
A section of the mosaic finished
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 .
Life continues in Scarborough. The sun has finally shown it’s face and Tilly has finally woken up from hibernation, finding sun puddles to help top up her solar. When’s the outside going to start moving again? There are no friends round here, not since Tom put mesh over things. How’s a cat meant to keep themselves occupied?!At Tilly’s annual check up and vacination at the vets there had been an administrative error last year, meaning that this year she didn’t get the correct booster! So we await to return so that she can have the correct one which must be administered 3 to 4 weeks after the first one. So she will be super dooper covered this year when we eventually return to the cut, but it does mean a second visit to the vets, but shhh, don’t tell her!
Two days a week I join with a community group working on mosaic panels for a community centre, sadly I won’t get to see it finished and installed as we will be back on the boat by then, but I’m hoping to have cut and stuck plenty of tiles this year to have contributed more than I managed on last year’s project.
I’ve reclaimed one side of my work room and popped my sewing machine up there. Some big door stops have been made from dumbbells, cardboard boxes, wadding and some off cuts of fabric to help protect new radiators in the kitchen. Boat and maybe house curtains will follow.
Daffs in the valley
Walks around Scarborough are more appealing now the sun shines. The daffodils are showing their sunny yellow faces to the sun down in the valley, new sculptures appeared in the cliff gardens, the tide comes and goes, recently moving all the sand the council had moved from one end of the beach back to the other and depositing plenty of pebbles.
Deliveries in big boxes keep coming, some (a new sink) far heavier than others. The last pairs of my sockathon socks need their ends weaving in, in fact there is only one pair now to finish which are for Mick, these will take a bit of finishing as they need extra lines sewing on them, each sock taking around 4 hours to complete!
But I have a new sockathon to keep my needles busy for the next year. An old friend asked if she and her brother could hijack my sockathon this year. Their mum, Felicity, used to be a major sock knitter, she suffered from dementia for years, passing away before Christmas. At her funeral people could choose a ball of her wool to have knitted into a pair of socks for them. At a get together with the girls on Saturday I was presented with the bag of yarn, 47 pairs of socks please! The first pair were cast on last night, I’m not aiming to do anything too fancy, so I’m hoping they will fly off my needles pretty quickly whilst watching the TV on an evening or on car journeys.
Friday is the new Sunday round here
On Thursday we got the news through that Oleanna’s new windows had arrived with Tom at Red Hill. We’d still some sorting out of things to do onboard before she gets grit blasted so we hired a van for the weekend, cheaper than a car.
Hello lovely
We set off quite early Sunday morning, most people still tucked up in bed making the roads quieter. On arriving we checked Oleanna over. The blacking is doing a very good job of peeling on the starboard side, possibly because it gets more sun, possibly because when she was last blacked this was the second side the chaps ground back and they’d most probably had enough of it by then! Hopefully in a few weeks time it will all be flaking off with the grit blasting.
First job was to move all the dinette cushions into the van, before it started to rain. The fabric I used to cover them has had a strange reaction to the original varnish put on the woodwork. It has all gone sticky and remains sticky even after a few months of the cushions not being in position. I may have to find time to give the woodwork a scrape back and clean down, then apply a new coat of varnish or Danish Oil. The cushions are headed to Scarborough for the covers to have a clean, hopefully this will stop the reaction from happening again. They will also be out of the way for work on windows and any muck created by the grit blasting and painting.
Well a bacon butty simply wasn’t going to be enough! Photo to keep Ade happy
It being Mothering Sunday the marina cafe was going to close early, so we headed over for an early lunch, or maybe it was a very late breakfast. A big treat for us nowadays, very tasty it was too. The cafe is well worth a visit should you be passing and at £5.80 for a breakfast an absolute bargain!
Back at Oleanna Mick set about clearing the stern lockers. Not as much to throw away as he’d thought there might be, but still quite a lot. New buckets are needed, we’ll go for the collapsable ones. Some old ropes were kept, others were deemed not worth keeping just in case and were destined for the skip.
The wind got really rather strong, the ladder needed bringing inside so it didn’t blow away and leave us stranded on deck up in the air! We both found ourselves compensating for the wind, leaning as we would if Oleanna was afloat. It’s funny how this just happened to us both even though Oleanna was rock solid, muscle memory kicking in, compensating for nothing.
The bow lockers were emptied. I was quite proud of how the painting locker looked, but surprised at how much white spirit there was inside, 2 brand new bottles. The fictitious red paint, an old tin of Woodskin and a dried up Epifanes black headed into the skip box along with a can of lighter gas, the gas long since having dissipated into the atmosphere! Any useful paints were put into my empty clothes drawers.
I cleared the decks in the galley. I’d originally thought we might clear out all the cupboards to make it easier to have a good clean after the repaint, but that would mean at least another two of three days moving everything off the boat, which isn’t so easy when you’ve only got a step ladder perched on top of a few bits of wood. Measurements were taken to check things would fit, Tilly has a new pooh box, higher than the old one.
The anchor chain and rope were brought inside, tucked under the bathroom sink, the shower now filled with water hose, fenders etc just as it looks when we cruise on tidal water. The engine was run up to temperature. I swept through the boat. Long things went in the wardrobe, wrapping paper and Mick’s Akubra hat popped in a box to return to the house. Galley blinds taken down and stowed with the curtain rods.
A dust sheet was laid over the sofa, then another placed over our mattress which was left wedged on top of the bed base, hopefully away from the porthole and any possible leaks from the mushroom vent. It’ll need moving when they come to take the windows out, but it would need moving from where ever we put it.
By now it was peeing it down. Rubbish went in the van for a ride to the skip. Then Mick coiled up the hook up cable. Oleanna will be off grid from now, the solar should keep everything topped up until the panels are removed. We’d rather the extra long hookup cable Mick made up was kept somewhere safe and sound by us than ending up being forgotten about by someone else. All systems off, the doors were locked, ladder tucked away and covers done back up. We pulled away out of the marina at 16:00. With a 2.5 hour drive back to Scarborough (according to the satnav), would we make it back in time for last orders (18:40) at Cappleman’s for fish and chips.
Thankfully there were no hold ups on the way back. Our order was sat in the on-line check out basket as we came down Staxton Hill, as we came round Musham Bank roundabout we reckoned we’d be in time. I clicked the button to place our order. In fact we were early, I had to wait a good five minutes for the fish to come out of the frier and be boxed up.
A second treat for the day
A very productive day with two treat meals. Oh well, we deserved them!
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hire van, 5 hours driving, 7 cushions, 4 lockers cleared, 2 breakfasts, 2 mugs tea, 1 downpour, 2 dust sheets, 4 bags and 2 boxes of rubbish, 1 pat goodbye, 2 of each, 1 portion mushy peas, 2 glasses of wine.
February this year marks a couple of tenth anniversaries for us.
On the 14th February Oleanna’s baseplate was laid at Tim Tylers in Newcastle Under Lyme. We visited her on the 15th and got to stand on the bare steel 58ft 6″ apart with cuppas in hand. What an exciting day that was. Once the majority of her hull was completed she was moved over to Sheffield for Jonathon Wilson to finish off the shell, then for Finesse to work on her fitout.
It doesn’t feel like ten years ago in many ways, but it does in others.
I maybe should have worked out her total milage and locks over the ten years, but as she wasn’t officially launched and handed over to us for over a year I’ll save that for the anniversary of when she got her bottom wet for the first time.
Also back in 2016 we’d been without a second mate for a year. Whilst we moored at Kings Marina in Newark for the winter I hunted round the internet hoping we’d be able to rehome a rescue cat. One cat caught my eye with Burton Joyce Cat Rescue. They had no probelm rehoming to someone living on a boat, but they’d rather we adopted a younger cat, the one I’d spied was a year old. I’d thought this might be better for Mick as he’d never lived with a kitten. We waited and around the beggining of February the ladies at the cat rescue got in touch offering us Amelia, a Tuxedo kitten of around four months old, she was the last of her litter. I requested a photo and on recieving it instantly fell in love.
Just look at that face!
Amelia had to wait to be picked up as we needed to be through Meadow Lane Lock in Nottingham before it closed for winter mainteneance. A handy visit from the London Leckenbys meant we could head to pick her up in a car. A few days later she was renamed Tilly, the Tiller cat, Cat Stevens singing in my head
Choosing some toys
Ten years later both Tilly and Oleanna are bored and wanting to be back on the water. But they will both have to be patient, as will we.
Ten years later
0 locks, 0 miles, 10 years of Oleanna, 10 years of Tilly, 2 very lucky boaters.
Here in Scarborough we’ve had snow, quite a lot of it. It was over six inches deep with us at the house. Friends who have a work shop further north, and our veg box people found they had snow drifts of getting up to two foot. Dawn and Lee spent time on admin in the warmth of their house and Tree Top Press kept their shop closed, suspended deliveries and headed out to sledge with their kids as their local school was closed for an extended Christmas holiday.
Snowy Scarborough Castle
Mick and I managed a lovely walk when the snow was still pretty fresh and crunchy underfoot, heading to what I call my old back garden of the North Bay. All very magical, all very white and the chill in the air requiring serious down filled coats and thermals. We stopped off for a toasted sandwich in M&S on our way home to warm up. The following day, pavements started turning icy, far too treacherous to head out for a brisk walk, so the house maintenance jobs were started.
One living room is getting a makeover, the ceiling of a bedroom getting a nice smooth layer of plaster, if the builder ever gets back to us! Then there are other improvements on the list including getting a nice carpet to replace the one we ended up with once our tenants left. I took great pleasure in cutting it up so it could head to the tip. Sadly we’ve still got the same carpet on the other side of the house, that will have to stay for another year.
A soggy Sunday at the pictures for Georgie’s birthday
During the cold weather Mick has watched the temperatures and state of the batteries onboard Oleanna. The meter she ended up being plugged into on New Year’s Day, seemed to have had quite a bit of credit on it. But with the boiler trying it’s best to keep the interior of Oleanna above freezing, the electric meter whizzed round. Some days the solar helped, but then when we had our thaw in Scarborough, snow must have fallen covering the panels. The batteries started to discharge and Mick could see that the electric credit had run out! Thankfully the boiler will only work on electric when she is hooked up. As the gas is turned off it wouldn’t be able to revert to using gas. Oleanna was now cold and because various electrical things had been left on, to help us monitor the state of things, the batteries were slowly being discharged. Time for a visit.
Gluten free yummyness from Capplemans
We hired a van for two days, meaning the horrible carpet could be taken to the tip, after which we could celebrate with fish and chips from the other side of town. Then early on Tuesday morning we set off with numerous empty Ikea blue bags, a basic tool kit and a pair of socks to knit. Thankfully all snow had melted, the temperature having risen pretty high, however the snow had been replaced with torrential rain which was very far from pleasant on the M1.
The cooling towers could only just be seen as we pulled off the motorway. Mick pulled us up as close as we could get to Oleanna. It was heaving it down, we’d be soaked just walking to her, never mind getting the ladder in position to climb onboard, we’d then likely stay wet for the remainder of the day. We’d watched the forecast last night or so we thought! Time to have an early lunch and hope things dried up, we headed to the cafe for a jacket potato each and a steaming mug of tea.
River’s up!
The level on the River Soar was high. A black narrowboat was moored where we’d been before we moved off. I remember it being a step up onto the mooring from the welldeck, we also couldn’t get Oleanna right into the side as the mooring was shallow. Today the black boat was more or less right up to the scaffold poles. The mooring under water, at the bow of the boat it looked like palletts had been added to the mooring to give a dry place to step off.
Hello lovely!
Thankfully things did dry up, so we only had to tip toe across the muddy puddles to get to Oleanna. Mick added credit to our electric meter, then headed to the office to buy some more credit. Later on he ran the engine for a while bringing it up to temperature. This was as long as Mick was willing to give the engine,as being out of the water there is no way of keeping the engine cool.
This was my first visit since mid October. She always feels so unloved on these visits. The rush to leave when we move back to the house means she never gets a clean, not even a sweep through. Everything was cold and felt damp, the front door swells over winter and requires a good bit of umph to open and close it.
No curtains
My jobs today were to take down the curtains. I intend to make new ones for the main cabin and already have a spare set I made a few years ago for the bedroom. Tilly climbing between the curtains and the windows to watch the world go by has taken its toll on them. I just need to find the new fabric now.
A stubborn Frank screw
All the curtain rods both at the top and bottom of the windows were removed, despite there being a couple of Frank screws which took some coaxing. These have been labelled so can go back on the right window frames to save drilling new holes. That is of course if we keep the same internal frames once we have thermal break double glazing fitted. The frames will be deeper than those we currently have, so some carpentry will be required no matter what.
15 inch
Next I took measurements of the windows. Talking to Caldwells the other day this is best done on the inside and sure enough the measurements came to exact inches. 15 inch portholes and 21inch by 36 inch full hopper windows with round corners. I checked the radius of these too.
Oh p**!
Sadly our current window frames have had condensation collect on them this winter, well they have done every year, but usually we’ve been around to mop up each day and the fire going helps to reduce the amount we get. We now have visible pale dribble marks at both ends of most windows, which has run down onto wood trim below. Maybe a layer of Danish oil in the last couple of years would have stopped us from getting the dribble marks. Looks like I may be re-oiling the woodwork when the temperatures come back up.
This side has no rust or big flaky bits of blacking
Time to fill our Ikea bags. The spare duvets came out from under the sofa. Scatter cushions, pillows, all spare bedding and towels were packed to return to the house for washing and storage until Oleanna is repainted. Full bags were handed down for Mick to put in the van.
There were still a few spare bags. The contents of the cupboards under the dinette were in need of rationalising, so I started to empty out the shoe cupboard. Hang on what is that?!! I was lifting out shoes from a puddle of water inside the cupboard! Contents removed, puppy pads unfolded to start soaking it up. Nappies reached for and deployed, they quickly filled up. Just where had the water come from?
Oh B****er!
A frozen pipe? Well the water pipes are under the floor here. The stop cock to the tank has been closed and all taps left open. Yes there may still be a bit of water in the low sections of pipe which might have frozen, but how would that get up through the floor and into a cupboard? There certainly shouldn’t be a joint in the pipework there either.
Condensation from the window above. Yes there were dribble marks down the woodwork, but not on the dinette woodwork, apart from at the opposite end of the dinette and this hadn’t made it through into the cupboard below. Mick thinks it may have been condensation in the cupboard. I’m not convinced, yes it’s cold in there but the contents were shoes and plastic boxes, nothing metal. The next door cupboard has some spray cans in it which were far more damp to the feel.
The dinette was pulled out. Trim behind the back removed, no signs of anything damp there. Just where had the puddle come from? The amount of water amounted to a mug full. Any other ideas anyone?
Catching containers just in case it’s come from the window
The other cupboard was emptied, a very small amount of water had crept through from next door. All mopped up, we opted to leave fresh nappies in place, elastic cut so they lie flat, pulled the back of the dinette down to being flat, this has holes in it, leave the doors open too. We then positioned containers to sit directly underneath where the window tends to dribble. We’ll see how much condensation we’ve collected next time we visit.
Until next time
All damps traps were emptied and refilled. The mattress we bought last winter was better positioned away from mushroom vents and the windows, our big lasagna dish left under the mushroom vent in the bedroom which had been leaking today when the rain hammered down. Jobs done and extra ones discovered, it was time to head home.Thankfully the M1 was dry for our return journey, but slow traffic and someone taking a very long time to park meant we got a bigger telling off from Tilly than we’d been expecting. Well I’d run out of sleeping several times before you got back to give me my dingding!
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 hire van, 2 of each 2 celebrate, -1 horrible carpet, 1 monsoon of a drive, 1 bank needing sorting, 1 approach, 1st enquiry, 111th pair nearly finished, 1 boat being patient, 2 jacket spuds, 2 cuppas, 0 running water, 4 windows, 3 portholes, 3 duvets, 5 towels, 6 ikea bags full, 1 unexpected puddle, 2 puppy pads, 2 nappies, 1 puzzle, 2 much rust on the starboard side, 0 rust on the port side, 1 very hangry Tilly, 2 portions of left over turnip curry, 4 sprout and red cabbage pakoras which were really rather tasty.
