Working Boats

Working boats have always fascinated me and the sound of their old engines are heaven. It's not thw easiest way of making a living by far but I do admire the people who give it a go and are keeping the tradition alive. I am pretty sure I could not handle the hard work that they do but I do understand why they do it. I do love working on the canal myself, but my work is a lot less physical than theirs! Here is some of my work - depicting their work!

Narrowboat MiFi

After my previous blog where I had a good old moan about mobile broadband I decided to do a little more research and although I still can't find a great solution where I can have unlimited data I have found an improvement on what I have presently. My pay-as-you-go MiFi (basically mobile WiFi) is costing £15 per 3GB which I have to use within a month, which means over the past 5 weeks (4 weeks aboard the boat) I have used nearly 12GB, which in turn means £60!!!!! OK, I have been using it a fair bit because I have been working for my graphic design company and sending files etc to clients. However, it seems you really do get hammered if you go down the pay-as-you-go route on data costs. Many people who use their boats purely for pleasure do not want to tie themselves down with a full on yearly data contract as they may not spend enough time aboard to benefit from it.

Well, maybe this is a good compromise: Three, the same people I use for my PAYG offers a monthly rolling contract for £16.02 (£29.99 up front cost) which includes a new MiFi box as pictured below and I get 10GB a month.

Now then, 10GB would have cost me just over £45 per month on my PAYG so this is a great deal for me, even if I am away from the boat for a month or two here and there as my average over the past couple of years has been around £25 per month. This obviously does not address the speed and connection issues outlined in my previous post but at least I am not paying quite so much and I also get a nice new MiFi box!!!

Getting crafty

I have been meaning to do this for ages, restore an old ships lamp and decorate it in the same style as we are restoring our boat. Not a particularly hard project by any means but fulfilling all the same. After getting rid of the rust and replacing a few screws and bolts it was ready for a base coat of enamel paint - the same mid Brunswick green that we are repainting Hannah the Narrowboat with. Once that was dry it was time to paint a few daisies to brighten it all up. I fitted a solar panel inside so it will light up once it gets dark!

Meanwhile the lady of the boat was making net curtains for the cratch to give us a little more privacy, as well as making the cratch look nice and homely. It took a bit of experimentation to work out how to make them hang correctly as the windows are triangular rather than the usual rectangle affair in most homes. We also have a few more brasses to help decorate the cratch - if you look at the bottom middle one you will see a circular brass disk which was actually attached to an old canal horse ear many years ago!

Scenes from the marina

It's been wonderful weather for early September here at Gayton Marina. Here are a few scenes from our mooring.

We bought a blank Buckby Can at the Blisworth Canal Festival 2014 so it needed decorating. Here is my attempt at painting canal art!

A little song I wrote about cruising on the canal aboard Hannah the Narrowboat

Making a cratch for Hannah the Narrowboat with no previous experience - this is how I did it!

The Northampton Arm Grand Union Canal

We have not been up to Hannah the Narrowboat since New Years Day, more down to other things going on than a lack of wanting to do so. Things needed checking out such as the level of water in the bilges, water pipes and the like so the visit was well overdue.

Everything was fine so there was no need for us to have been worried and I am sure that if anything had been untoward I would have got a text from Ronny or the marina itself. Although it was cold it was still great to be back aboard.

On the Monday we decided to get out and about for a walk along the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union Canal - we were not taking Hannah out as the wind was pretty blustery which is not fun on a narrow boat!

A quiet spot for winter

Lock No.1 Northampton Arm Grand Union Canal

Lock No.2 and bridge No.4

Lock No.10 with a swing bridge

Quite an effort to get through all these locks!

A swing bridge to nowhere

Winter wheat?

Lee gets more sense from this sculpture than from me!

Nearing the A43

Swing bridge