Mid Summer

So here we are, the Summer Solstice. This is as long a day as we are going to get! We plan to make the most of it by continuing the second coat of undercoat which we started yesterday. We had hoped to do both sides of the boat, but events intervened, such that we ended up co-ordinating the mooring of a flotilla of boats which came to moor with us in the Jesus Lock basin!

Why were we moored in the basin in the first place?


That's why!

Midsummer Fair has begun setting up, and all residential boaters who normally moor on the Common are allowed to colonise the visitor moorings at Jesus Lock for as long as the fair is in town. We got there on Thursday, as did Kestrel, and soon other boats began to arrive. Some have gone out of town as well, but we would really rather stay in Cambridge!

We spent Sunday afternoon (after a lazy moring reading the paper) sanding and painting one side of the Duck in another layer of undercoat. It's coming up very nicely, although doesn't look any diiferent in photographs- still the same lurid blue. We were considering turning the boat to do the other side, when a flotilla of shiny narrowboats arrived, all within about 20 minutes of each other (they are part of a cruising club and had come from Nottingham!). So the basin soon resounded with the sound of bowthrusters, and sparkled with their shiny brass mushroom vents, dollies and tiller pins (from which coiled ropes dangled). Adrian the River Bailiff was about, and instructed them not to moor on the lock side of the basin. This left us to find spaces for them, breasted up to the boats already moored up. We would have been happy for them to moor against us, but there was a little plastic cruiser behind us, whose width meant that they couldn't. So they ended up truple breasting against Kestrel and Sirius. Merchant unfortunately already had Samson double moored against them. This all means that the Riverboat Georgina is going to struggle to wind in the basin... But Adrian seemed happy with the set up...


Jesus Lock basin yesterday

We had already contacted Caxton and Matilda Rose who are on their way down the Ouse that this week would not be ideal for visiting Cambridge, as most of the visitor moorings are full. We suggested that perhaps they explore the Little Ouse to Bedford first and return to Cambridge when the fair's been and gone!

Late Licence

The mooring scheme in Cambridge runs March to March, and when we arrived, we were given the yellow 09-10 stickers to display, with the promise that the 10-11 stickers would be with us soon.

Well, they just arrived today, only 3 months late, in a tasteful share of lilac!


That will complement our sludge-brown river licence nicely!

Rowing and Regattas

All those not interested in rowing, look away now!

I just got sent through some pictures of our races at Peterborough Regatta the weekend before last. My womens' crew came 3rd (out of 4 in our heat) but it was close, and a great race.


Me at bow (photo S. Andrews)


Looking good! (photo S. Andrews)

James' crew were pipped to first place twice on Sunday. As the second placed boat the first time round, they went on to the Repecharge, and then came second again, just missing out on the final by fractions of a second! But they were pleased with their performance.


So close! (photo S. Andrews)

We're currently heavily into Bumps training (the Bumps races are on the 20th-22nd July), and its going well. James is coaching my W2, and I feel that we have got potential to do pretty well. James' M1 beat the club record for a 2.6km head course and recorded a time fo 9.19 at the X-Press Head on the Cam on Monday night, which they were very happy with.


M1 out training last night

Part of the furniture

Our roof furniture in the process of being painted up

We'be been too busy to paint another coat, but need to do so soon, as the undercoat isn't going to be weatherproof forever! One evening this week, we might get the time, amongst all our rowing training. We're both in Bumps preparation gear again, and as James is cox of M1 and I'm Captain of W2, its only going to get busier!

A Smashing Time

So, more on that tarpaulin-covered window. We had been reluctant to post much about it until it was safely fixed!

On Friday, while we were still out at the Clayhithe visitor moorings, I got a call from James saying 'something bad's happened, one of our windows is smashed'. It was a flying piece which had broken off the Perago while James was removing paint from the tiller which he'd set down on the bank. Being toughened glass, it smashed safely, into tiny glass cubes that went all over the kitchen. We both went into panic mode, as it seemed like such a major thing to break! We arranged for a boatyard in Ely to fix it, at great expense, and thought about getting the insurance to cover it. We anticipated spending hundreds on a new window.

We were very busy over the weekend, and had to put it to the back of our minds, while we spent two days racing at Peterborough Regatta. But from talking to various people, we began to realise that we could fix it ourselves without much hassle. While I subbed into a college boat (Caius W2) on Sunday evening, James helped (big)James take Kestrel back to Cambridge from the Clayhithe moorings that evening, and they met a chap who seemed to know all about windows and offered to help if we couldn't do it ourselves. But he said it was so easy that we'd probably not even need to ask him! The window is pop-riveted on, and big James offered to lend us his, so that we could fix it back on.

On Monday, I rang various glass cutting places in Cambridge, and found that several places would cut a piece to shape for £20-30. In the evening, (big)James was coming out to Clayhithe to collect his car, and stopped by to help us see if we could remove the window. James drilled out the pop rivets and then they both levered the frame off using screwdrivers to break the mastic seal. It was surprisingly easy, and we soon had the frame off and ready to take to the glass cutters. That evening, we cruised in, with tarpaulin and a piece of plywood keeping the window rain-proof and secure.


Pop! The window comes loose

I took the frame over to Glass World, as they were the nearest place and they were very helpful. They took the whole frame, plus the unbroken top pane, and cut a new pane to fit the broken bottom section. I asked them to fit it too, since I wasn't sure how easy that job would be and wanted to leave it to the professionals. When I collected it today (with (big)James who came in his car to fetch it) it was securely sealed in and the whole unit ready to fit back into the vacant hole. And all for £29.77!

This evening, it was a 15 minute job to gun some mastic around the opening, put the window in place and pop rivet it back on again. We're very pleased with how easy it all turned out to be.


Off comes the weatherproofing (made from an old tarpaulin bag)


Black goo goes on


Fixing the last rivet on

For both of us it was a lesson is several things. Firstly, in not panicking, and trying to fix things ourselves (albeit with help from friends) the way we always used to rather than assuming we needed to throw money at the problem. Secondly it was a lesson in how simple narrowboat hopper windows are, and how easy it is to fix/remove them!

Now That's Something

Bath and Petrel, moored just down from the visitor moorings at the Fort. We've seen Petrel here before, but not Bath, which is a Town Class Big Woolwich of the type collected by Sarah in her 'sticker album'.

True Blue

The Duck is now undercoat blue. I'm quite taken by it, but it will eventually be Craftmaster Union Blue. And the window? It needs a bit of extra waterproofing following a mishap! More on that later.

Prime Time

(thinking up new puns for the title is becoming harder now the Herbies have used all the good ones for their painting blogs!)



So, yesterday, another mammoth day of Peragoing and grinding for us! James did most of it, but I was on hand to relieve him of his duties and take over now and again, having decided to work at home and provide moral support! We both had to go into town for rowing, so had to be done by 6pm. Amazingly we managed to take the entire side of the boat back to bare and prime it in time to go back into town. for 6:30. So the entire boat had a coat of primer by the evening!


Battleship Duck!

One of the interesting this we found was the many layers of varying colours that the Duck has historically sported!

The Duck's New Clothes

We are currently on the visitor moorings at Clayhithe, well away from the centre of town, where the halingway is set back from the moorings and the passing traffic is light compared to our normal mooring on the common.

After a hard day's work yesterday, all of one side of the boat- from the rubbing strake up to the lip of the lid-, plus the top tunnel band and the foredeck and cants, have all been stripped back to bare metal using a combination of angle grinder, Perago on the drill, and a sheet sander.

John and Jackie on Pippin came to inspect progress last night, and after Amy and I had a wash and brush up, we headed over to the Bridge pub for CHIPS as a reward for a VERY hard day's work, before showers and early bed.

Today, at 11:47, we've already sanded back half of the top plank (well, it's not really a plank as this isn't a wooden working boat, but it't the bit between the top rubbing strake and the gunwale) and all of the gunwales, plus about a third of the cabin sides.

The plan is to finish stripping this side of the boat today, and prime that too, before putting on a second coat of primer tomorrow morning and then, in the evening, the first layer of blue undercoat, with further undercoats and topcoats going on in the evenings of next week.

Pictures to follow.....

To Crick (and Back)

At 8:30 on Monday morning, James and I excitedly unlocked the little grey VW Polo that was to be ours for the day. After a few hitches involving unraveling the mystery of the warning light (the handbrake wasn't fully off) and the scary 'CLONK' when it stalled (its a diesel and it stalled very readily and noisily!) we were off on the A14 towards Crick. As an inexperienced driver, I needed all the help I could get and was glad of James' support and extra pair of eyes, even though he can't drive himself. As he put it, 'every overtake is an adventure!'. It took us just under 2 hours to get there (with a stop at the Bar Hill Tesco for refuelling) and it flew by.

Soon we were safely parked at the Crick Festival, and went off for our canal fix. It was lovely to walk along a stretch of proper canal, with a tunnel and everything! Soon we came across nb Alnwick, and had a much welcome cup of tea aboard, with GC sleeping off a busy night catching mice in the corner. We were pleased to see that Jane is looking very well, after her ankle operation. After that, we headed off into the festival itself, where we had a few purchases planned:

As avid blog readers may have noticed, we are always talking about the Grand Repaint but never actually get round to doing it. Well, this could not carry on, so we took the opportunity to head to the Craftmaster paint stand and speak to Phil Speight, who knows all there is to know about painting and signwriting. We want to base our new paint scheme on the 'two blues' used on the early GUCCCo boats, without aiming for anything like a replication. We just like the colours. He suggested using 'Off-white' as a liner, and a little bit of red to warm up the colour scheme. He had a tin of the dark 'Union Blue' which we bought, as well as blue undercoat and grey primer. (The Light Union Blue will come along later). Now, with our Perago, and the half term off, James (and me to an extent) can get going! No excuses now: we have all the tools and the paint ready.


Last night we got started!

Next was to find ourselves a new bow fender. Our old one was rubbish - so flat that it barely protected the stem at all. We shopped around, and found a great deal from Trafalgar. On the web, a black U shaped bow fender is £69.99. Not a bad price, but we got it at the special show discount price of £55. We are very pleased with that!


The old bow fender, about to be replaced with the new one

We also picked up some International Atlantic Grey to touch up the roof, as well as a couple of new mooring pins, and an Arnco piling hook.

While at Crick we also caught up with several other people from the CWDF forum in the Beer Tent. As well as Graham and Jane from nb Alnwick, Rosie from nb Oakfield was there, and Dr Bradley who we met at Cropredy hears ago, and a chop from the forum called Peter.

The journey back was uneventful. We we glad to be able to park as close as we could to the boat to drop off our heavy purchases before dropping the car back in its designated spot. We were impressed with Streetcar. The only hitches came from my inexperience, and they will go with practice. Other that that, everything ran smoothly, from unlocking using a card, to refuelling using a fuel card.


Boot full of purchases!