Racer

This is me aged 50 on my way to a runner up trophy in my first year of racing in the 600cc Steel framed Championship. I never won a thing after that apart from a few endurance events finishes medals. I carried on for the next three seasons and then gave it all up(been there done that sort of thing). Now I'm looking forward to life in the slow lane cruising at 4mph along the canals of England and Wales.

Updates

Betty is doing fine and managing at home on her own. She has been offered chemo but has refused this as surgeons say they have removed the tumour and there are no secondaries present,why go through all the sickness Chemo would bring if it is not really necessary.

The cars alarm was fixed but it developed another problem, the battery keeps discharging ,so it is back in the garage having this sorted. We will put her up for sale when we get her back as we don't need two cars now Sue has stopped work probably sell the other one once we have settled into life on the canals too.


Just got to book the flights and car rental for our boat hunting expedition next week.

Hunt is on

Went to see the boat on eBay I blogged about last week but it wasn't suitable. It was an owner fit-out and he had done a first-class job apart from the insulation(Rockwool) and I really prefer spray foam also the saloon was too small and had no stove. We looked at a few others in Thames and Kennet marina but they didn't come up to scratch either.  It might be just me but boats in marinas south of Watford and especially on the Thames seem vulgarly overpriced?

Sue has come home with me so plan is to fly to Birmingham in 3 weeks time hire a car and have 6 days boat hunting, so if anyone knows a suitable boat out there for us to look at please let us know.

Dinner date

Rang Betty last night and have persuaded her to come out for dinner Saturday evening. This has cheered her up no end, but I will have to take her to her hairdressers first. She ventured outside her home for the first time yesterday and walked around the garden, so well done Betty.  She is not getting breathless quite as much so I presume she is slowly getting used to her smaller lung capacity.

Party

Just got back from my latest and hopefully last hospital appointment for awhile. Had to go into theatre and have my colon stretched, without going into to much detail this involves sedation, a balloon and some compressed air. All free on the NHS, bet there area few MP's and Lords who would pay top dollar for that kind of party.

Anniversary

Can't believe it's nearly a year since I was diagnosed with a  tumour in my bowel and the resultant meeting with the scalpel wielder. My darling wife nursed me through, without Sue's physical and emotional support I would not have healed so readily and now she is doing the same for her mother, we both owe her a great deal.

Love Amazon

My Chromebook's screen was playing up and as I  had it less than a year(11 months and 3 weeks) I rang Amazon and they told me to send it back for a refund as they no longer stocked that model.

So I ordered the latest model £229  what a result I'm getting a £349.99 refund for the old one. The new one came today and as Chromebooks have all my info and settings in the cloud I just start it up and off I go.

Insulation

The hospital rang Betty yesterday to confirm an appointment for her chemo! That was a bit of a shock because as far as she was concerned the surgeon had told her he had removed all the cancerous bit and the scans had shown it hadn't migrated anywhere else. This has knocked both of them for six and they won't find out any more info till the 28th Feb.

On a lighter note, I watched England beat the Scots at rugby in the six nations competition yesterday.

Whilton Marine sent details of this boat today


http://www.whiltonmarina.co.uk/used-narrowboats/details/2431.aspx

but it uses Thinsulate as insulation which I think is unusual for a 2006 craft much prefer spray foam as (or so I believe from research) that it creates a moisture barrier. Have been on boats that use polystyrene Thinsulate and Rockwool and have noticed watermarks in the panelling where the slabs of polystyrene etc join.

Extraction

Went to the dentist for root canal treatment today but the tooth couldn't be saved so had it pulled.

Oh well, looking on the bright side as always it cost £46 instead of £250.


Betty is doing well and moving around indoors quite well, making tea, loading the washing machine and pulling the curtains at night. Sue believes it may be only be a couple more weeks before she can come home 'Hooray' Then we can both start narrow boat hunting in earnest.

Shopping on line

Did my first Tesco shop online today, not for me but for Sue and her Mum down in Somerset. It was simple(although Sue was prompting me at the telephone) and will undoubtedly be a great help for when we are afloat.

I think this way of shopping could be kinder to your purse as you have to think before you shop and you don't see all those promotions that the stores tend to place at eye level and strategic positions that tempt you to overfill your trolley.

Semi

Venetian marina sent me this one today

http://www.venetianmarina.co.uk/used-narrowboats/details/2357.aspx


Ticks  all box's bar one.(semi instead of trad).

Ah well sure the right boat for us is out there somewhere.

Re think

I have been re-evaluating our requirements.

Must-haves are:-

Trad Stern  with 8'.6" Cabin

1. Range
2. Water can
3. Bucket
4. Oil lamp

That's how the boat people of old managed.! ...and if it's good enough........

Save a bit of money too including cheaper license and mooring fees.

I bet the boat brokerages won't have many boats with that spec. I'll maybe try ABNB's Crick office first!

Haven't run this one past Sue yet though, don't think she will be to agreeable.

Hospital

Betty had her Operation Tuesday and will be home tomorrow (Sunday). Marvel at the speed of things these days major op to remove a lung and home for  Sunday roast in five days.

Sue has been staying in a hotel in Bristol which is by all accounts a bleak and dingy 10-minute walk to visit mum, dossers and beggars among the genuinely homeless en route so she won't do the trip in the dark.

Just need for Betty to recuperate and be strong enough to look after herself before Sue can get back home and we can narrow boat hunt in earnest.

Searching

Don't know what all the fuss is about Tesco burgers being "Contaminated" with horse meat, at least horse meat is edible, just ask our continental cousins. The burgers probably contain a lot worse ingredients.

Been trawling the web again and this is the best that fits our needs although still not all box's ticked.

http://www.abnb.co.uk/boat_pages/2267web/2267abnb.php?BoatID=2267

A long day

Just got back from picking the car up from Somerset total of 240 miles to Birkenhead and then a 4hour ferry trip back to the Isle of Man. Will take it to the garage next week.

ABNB Crick office has sent me details of 3 great boats the best of the bunch is

 http://tinyurl.com/2238abnb

Bit out of our price range but then I have seen boats dropped by £10k :)

Somerset

As I said in my first post Sue is in Somerset looking after her Mum. She took the car over on the ferry but unfortunately, the car has decided to play up. The alarm keeps going off at all times of the day and night Sue has had to disconnect the battery so as not to annoy her mums neighbours, she called out the AA but they couldn't sort , she took it down to the local village garage and they removed the alarm fuse but then the car wouldn't start. So I am off to Somerset tomorrow to bring the car back to the Isle of Man unfortunately on this occasion I won't have time to stop at marinas and look at boats on my way up to Liverpool.

Boats we've owned

Most of our boating experience has been on the river Thames in fibreglass cruisers.

1. Dutch-built Passat 21ft with outboard engine
2. Freeman 22  with inboard petrol 105E engine (think Ford Anglia)
3. Princess 32 with Volvo Penta petrol engine to stern drive
4. Birchwood 33 GT  twin Ford  diesel engines

We love the Thames and we spent every weekend most evenings and all our holidays on the boats. 

We did toy with the idea of buying a steel dutch cruiser and live on the Thames but then we would be missing out on all those wonderful canals

We had a 20 foot fishing boat with a Mercedes diesel engine for a couple of years on the Isle of Man but didn't get a lot of use out of it because the mooring was a drying out harbour and when there was water under the boat the weather might be awful and when the weather was good I'd be at work or there'd be no water under the boat, or so it seemed.

Looking forward a narrowboat is the sensible option for us for sure.

Christmas present.

t

We received these really useful walkie talkie's from our daughter.  Be very handy for comms between the Skipper and Lock Wheeler.

Suits you

Spec of our ideal boat would be :

• Trad style 
• 55 to 60 Foot
• Engine 40hp +
• Spray foam insulation
• Raised Pullman Dinette
• Side hatch 
• Cassette loo (or room for one if pump out fitted)
• Pure sine wave Inverter
• Alde Diesel C/H and S/F stove
• S/S water tank
• 12v Fridge
• Hob and oven (microwave not required)

Nice to haves:

• Solar panels
• Genny
• Battery management system.
• Washing machine
• Cratch cover
• Bow thruster

Preamble

Since giving up boating on the River Thames 15 years ago and moving to the Isle of Man. Sue and I (Andy} have always said we would like to move on to a  narrowboat when we retired, officially this date is still another 8 years away for me and a little more for Sue, but after a health scare for me and redundancy for Sue in 2012 we hope to achieve our "dream" this year (the earlier the better).

For the last few years, we have looked at every boat in our price range and above on every boat brokerage website daily to see what is available and what would suit us. We have toured a few marinas too. I read lots of narrowboat blogs from liveaboard boat people every day (these are a great source of useful information about the lifestyle, canals, boats, equipment, problems and friendship's made} Read all the canal magazines.

Betty and Sue

Unfortunately, Sue is away in Somerset to look after her mother who is having an operation. She will probably be away for a few months.

I will post about what should be included in our ideal boat  soon