What's in a name?

This evening I took the plunge. Not literally, I hasten to add!

The Duck finally has its name back, after a year incognito. And it was pretty nervewracking (I had to ask James to go to the pub - this was something I needed to tackle on my own) but it turned out OK I think.

I started off trying to use a one stroke brush, but once I found I could get straighter lines with a long signwriting brush, I carried on with that. And yes, the C's and U's don't match or look as smooth as I'd like, but I'm pleased with it.






That dent above the C is from where the Georgina hit us two years ago...

Happy Birthday James!

James is 23 today, and we are enjoying an evening in the pub with rowing friends. I made him a cake which was a brownie recipe with Celebrations in it. Yum! I decorated it with an aerial view of the Cam complete with rowing boats, Mr Asbo the swan and Battleship Bob.

He got a kite from his dad, a new cycle helmet and cycle computer from me and a nostalgic duck toy from hiss mum. Lyra brought him a feather at 4am, yowling as if she'd caught something live!

Exciting News

James has a new job for next year - working as a TA in a local primary school, in order to gain experience before applying for Primary PGCEs. I'm so pleased for him!

The Blues

We decided, a while back, that we were going to paint the Duck in the 'two blues' which used to be used on Grand Union Canal Carrying Co. boats in the thirties. Not because we want to paint it like a trad boat, but because those two blues look fantastic together on every GU boat we've seen restored in that livery, so we knew they'd work.

But, of course, the shade of blue is based on black and white images, contemporary description, and the odd flake of paint which survived, so there are various interpretations of what the colour scheme looked like. Below are two of them: Archimedes and Ara, and Callisto.



Callisto is the only one I've ever seen that uses the light, greenish blue. All the others are variations of the blue Archimedes and Ara use. So I was a bit disappointed to open the can and find it Callisto blue. So we are not sure if we will be using tho other blue after all. It is a shame but I just don't think it will look right. We should have had a swatch sent, but foolishly assumed that because every restoration we'd seen in the two blues was nice-looking, if we bought a 'GU Pale blue' to go with our Union Blue, it would be a colour we liked.

This weekend was absolutely the worst weather for painting: very hot and very windy, right up until quite late on Saturday, and threatening rain on Sunday. Still, we've just got to carry on with the Union Blue now, paint a line along the lid in grey, an then next weekend I shall attempt sighwriting!

Grand Onion Pale Blue

Our tin of GU Pale Blue just arrived from Craftmaster. I am dying to know what it looks like!


Note the name!

Reflections

Last night we painted one side of the Duck in its first coat of Craftmaster Union Blue. It is beautiful. Such a rich indigo. And it's shiny. Even on our battered boat, we can see our reflections in it (although they are quite hazy!)



Now, I am beginning to think about signwriting! Exciting. Although I have one question, which I hope someone can answer: What is the point of a mahl stick and how does one use it?

Ling and I: Braunston, Sunday

Well, not just "I", but also Amy along with Liam, Daniel, Kerry and Sarah from the Young Working Boater's Society.

On Sunday morning, we awoke into a fast heating tent-the sun was up, and the day heating up rapidly! We spent a glorious hour or so on Chertsey, drinking several cups of strong tea from the brown measham-ware teapot, and eating pain-au-chocolat in the sunshine.

We also met Bones and Boots, and it was lovely to see them both. Boots in particular seemed very happy on Chertsey's cabintop, grinning away. I think Bones really appreciated a little present from John- a tillerpin, made out of a child's boot last, that John bought from Emmaus- where else?!

(Picture stolen from Sarah)

Amy and I had arranged to temporarily abandon Sarah and Chertsey for the day, and to travel in the parade instead on the Josher Ling, now owned by another Sarah who is a founding member of the YWBS. http://www.workingboats.org.uk/boats/FMC/Ling.aspx

Ling is still in the condition that BW left her in- empty hold with battered plywood shuts, a small cabin with formica bench, a loo (which apparently needed a LOT of cleaning after many years of use...) and a small engine room with air-cooled Lister HB2 engine. There are plans, however, to restore her to full historic condition, when time and funds allow.

I rigged up a support for the banner in the hold, using ex-BW blue polyprop rope- much to thick and strong for them to tie the boat up with, though, they always seem to use blue string!- and the cabin shaft, between the chains and the back-end rail, and we were soon off into the parade.

I was given first go at steering, which was daunting but great fun.

Liam keeps a watchful eye...

The big problem I found was that because the boat was unloaded and unballasted, it was very quick! It has quite a fast tickover, and because of the very slow moving traffic, it was hard to go slowly enough. I managed to get nicely through the first bridgehole, avoided Pelican- the oldest wooden narrow still extant, I think!- and passed the marina entrance, mostly out of gear, with the occasional burst of reverse.

Passing the marina entrance, just drifting forwards-note the lack of wash from the prop (sorry, blade... must get my working boat terminology right!)

The next part was even tricker- oncoming working boats, returning for the next leg of the parade, and a very narrow channel. I successfully passed Themis in a narrow bridgehole, but managed to suck the stern too close to the bank, swinging the bows in line with Archimedes, towing Ara, both of which were quite well loaded and so hard to stop. I handed the tiller over to Liam who extricated us, only for him to receive the good-natured abuse from Tom on Archimedes for my mistake. Not a bad baptism of fire, though! I could get used to steering 72 foot working boats....

We unfortunately had to jump off the boat half-way through the parade and head back to Cmabridge- there was rowing to do....

But we still had a fantastic weekend, both on Chertsey and on Ling. It was wonderful to see Sarah live her dream, of steering her own working boat in the parade for the first time. I also got to steer a working boat, albeit not my own, and I achieved my own dream. Whilst the Duck won't be appearing on any brokerage pages in the forseeable future, in the longer term.... who knows?

Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally 2010: Saturday

Skylark, Chertsey, Chiswick and Victoria

On Saturday morning, at 8 on the dot, we picked up our Streetcar from Churchill college and drove to Braunston. We liked this car more than the last one: although it is also a VW Polo, it is a petrol car, and a bit newer. Unlike the last one, it didn't stall all the time and was much better to drive. Its small engine made hills a bit of a struggle, but that was it. By 9:30 we were parked up at Braunston Marina and ready to go boating!

We headed for the canal, and looked for Chertsey, where we were to be staying in the hold in a tent overnight. It was easy to spot, even amongst all the other historic boats, as we have been following the process of its restoration with some avidity! Thankfully we had arrived in plenty of time to join the Parade which went off at 11am. We sat on Chertsey's backboards as Sarah expertly steered her wonderful boat along the Parade route, past the Marina entrance, up to Braunston Turn, reversing under the bridge and back down to enter the Marina and head all the way through it and back onto the canal. The whole process took about 3 hours! We saw many fabulous boats: there were a record 94 historic boats in Braunston for the rally.


Victoria and Chertsey ready for the off


Sarah steers


James relaxes



Passing Branston Marina, with Archimedes and Ara looking fantastic fully loaded!


The Young Working Boaters Society (YWBS) stole the show with Dan's kit car parked on Liam's cut down BW boat Ariel!


James on Chiswick makes reversing round Braunston Turn look easy!


Here we are enjoying the ride. Note the excellent signwriting!




Entering the Marina


A boat unlike all the others!

As predicted, the intrepid punters who are on their way from Cambridge to Oxford in aid of Help for Heroes made their way through between the two parades. They're nearly there now, on the Oxford Canal. The Parade commentator made sure that they were well received.

The morning Parade over, we headed to the beer tent, having met (big)James and Emma on the bank. There, we found a conflab of bloggers, some of whom we'd met before and some we hadn't: the Alnwicks (there despite Graham's crutches), the Herbies, the Hadars and Simon from Tortoise. (We met various other forum members and bloggers throughout the weekend, on the towpath, on boats, and in the beer tent!) After a convivial few hours, and having bought a hippie dress for £3 from the hippie clothes stall, we headed back to Chertsey to make sure that our accomodation was sorted for the night. We set up a little tent in the hold, next to Jim's which was already up (he doesn't fit in Chertsey's cross bed!)

In the evening, we went for a walk, and came across a gathering of the YWBS guys in the hold of Sarah E's newly acquired Ling. Dan, Sarah, Liam and Kerry were there along with some others who were playing an accordion and singing! We spent the evening with them, which was a lot of fun, eventually heading to bed at about 11:30. James was very excited, as he was going to try his hand at steering Ling in the Parade on Sunday morning. To be continued...

A new toy!

We've always had a problem on the boat with dust. The solid fuel stove generated quite a lot, and living as we do next to a field, the floor and doormats would often be dirty and require cleaning quite often.

We had a small hand-held vacuum cleaner, bought for roughly £10 in Argos when we first bought the boat, but that gave up the ghost long ago; and only having a 500w inverter we didn't have any other vacuum device.

A dustpan and brush is effective, but very time consuming, and it's hard to get into all the little nooks-and-crannies. The carpet and rugs in the bedroom are also quite coated with cat hairs- the bedroom floor is the coolest place in the boat, so Lyra seems to qpend a fair few of the warm evenings flopped on her side, quietly moulting away!

James and Emma on Kestrel have a constant battle with Jess' hair, which comes out in great volumes when she's moulting, and they have a very snazzy handheld Dyson vacuum cleaner. We've long admired it, and so now we have bought our own- £150 new normally, but we got ours from Amazon, reconditioned, for just under a hundred quid.

Yes, that is rather a lot of money to spend on a vacuum cleaner, but having used James and Emma's, and seen that several other boaters also have them, this type appears to be the bee's knees for cleaning boats.

It has a rechargable battery, which charges in 3 hours, giving 10 minutes of normal vacuuming, or 6 minutes of suck-up-everything-super-high-power. It's very good for all the little gaps and corners on the boat, such as under the kitchen units and along the edges of the floor and the sides of the boat.

But, most importantly, it's quite fun to use! It's loud, technological, and has lots of gizmos, so it's really a big toy. For now, I'm very happy doing the vacuuming...

200 Mile Punt

An intrepid team of punters left town a few days ago in order to punt from Cambridge to Oxford, beating the current Oxford to Cambridge record of 14 days and raising money for Help for Heroes (donate here). They will be punting in shifts through the night in order to try and make it it 12 days.


The team leave Cambridge (Lucky Duck's bow is in the background!)
Photo: Cambridge News

Interestingly their route takes them up the Ouse, across the tidal stretch to Salters Lode and the Middle Level, then along the Nene, the GU and the Oxford Canal. Personally, I would have looked into heading to Bedford and thence to Milton Keynes and the GU. It would probably involve a short portage, but they don't seem to be averse to assistance, having secured tows across the tidal stretch and Braunston Tunnel! I'm sure there is a reason that they chose the long way round, I'm just intruiged to find out what it is.

So if you'll be on an of those waterways in the next two weeks, keep an eye out, and cheer them on! They will be in Braunston for the Historic Boat Rally, which will be interesting. They have a blog so you can keep track of how they are getting on.

Incidentally, we'll also be in Brauston for the weekend, meeting up with Sarah and Jim to see Chertsey for the first time! The car is booked and we are very excited.