Today is the day the new cratch covers arrived for the boat and as I sit here now listening to the rain pitter pattering on the canvas I am delighted the bow cratch appears totally water tight! It’s like having a new extension, somewhere to eat breakfast (if I’m ever up in time!). Unfortunately the stern cover had a slight error, noticed not by us, but by the supplier, John of Jectec. He said he wasn’t satisfied with it so has taken it back to be altered. As he’s going on holiday for a fortnight tomorrow we will have to be patient and look forward to our stern cover on his return. Such is canal life! It also alters where we can go because we don’t want to be too far from Melton Mowbray, their home base.
We walked to the centre of Fenny Compton to pop into the Co Op for beer and red wine – for some reason there was absolutely none to be found on the boat which constituted a looming crisis! The nearby pub served us a very good early supper – they were gearing up for the weekly quiz and suggested we vacate ahead of time unless we wanted to join them. Not being a quiz sort of person we left only to be caught out in rather a lengthy downpour, unfortunate for R who’d come without a raincoat. With his leg also playing up, he took to his bed shortly after arriving home. Apparently the cartilage in his knee has all but disappeared. Depressing. The physio has given him exercises to do but so far they just seem to be aggrevating the problem. Combine that with my touch of bursitis (I think commonly known as housemaids knee) and we are a right pair of old crocs – nothing a few locks won’t sort out!
The last couple of days has been quite full on and a little stressful at times. Both good and bad. The good was meeting Gerry and Lin, moored up in the boat next to ours, who happen to edit and produce ‘Canalboats Online’, a free online magazine for anyone interested in narrowboats and boosting in general. Running for ten years, they have a large following and were interested in my prayer boat ideas and how we came to buy Naomhòg. They suggested I buy a teapot and place it on the roof or bow of the boat. Apparently a teapot is a sign to other boaters that you are open to chatting and being supportive and friendly to those who are alone on the cut. Lin, as editor, has asked me to be a regular contributor to the magazine which is exciting, if a little daunting.
Hearing of our engine troubles, Gerry said just the man I wanted to sort this was working on the boat moored the other side of us so off I trotted to ask for some advice. Martin (M J Craft, Marine Maintenance) could not have been more helpful. He’s serviced boats for 23 years so has a wealth of experience behind him. Word of mouth keeps him fully occupied and K, the girl whose boat he’s working on, could not speak more highly of him. K had bought her boat last year in need of a lot of tlc and Martin has been a jack of all trades although he has decided of late that he mainly wants to concentrate on engines, gas and electrics. He looked at our engine, fiddled around, suggested a few things and now we just have to see if the problem persists. One reassuring test showed that we have no water in our diesel – that would be very bad news. As would diesel bug, but that does not seem to be an issue at present. However the bad news was when he looked at our batteries and saw that the middle one of the three was just about to explode! The top is bowed upwards and thus very unsafe. Apparently he thinks the batteries have been placed too close together and the middle battery has absorbed extra heat from the two either side. Anyway, a blessing that he looked and was immediately on to ordering us three replacement batteries that he will fit as soon as possible. In addition he has sourced us a bigger inverter, needed to convert 12v power to 240v, so we are hoping he can fit that at the same time. I might at last be able to power a hair dryer, a kettle, a vacuum cleaner and a heater, although maybe not all at once! This will save us having to return to Solihull mid June when the exact same job was going to be carried out. The marina there had agreed to fit us with new batteries owing to our current ones having lost their charge but they hadn’t been in such a dire state a few weeks ago and anyway the marina couldn’t fit us in for six weeks. All in all this has worked out, hopefully, much better for us and means we should be able to start heading towards the River Lee sooner rather than later.
K, who has been living alone on the cut since last year asked what we were doing so I told her we listened to people’s stories and if they were agreeable, prayed with them or for them. Her eyes lit up and she said she had many to share so we met later at the pub and sure enough her life has been full of adventures, often the result of travelling solo around the world. Having recovered from a sickness in Africa she moved to South America, bought a motorbike and biked through myriad countries, often to very remote areas where she was able to photograph some amazing people and incredible scenery. Falling ill again she was, she feels, misdiagnosed and her appendix was removed. This in turn made her sickness worse. Fortunately the kindness of strangers resulted in her eventual return home but the hospital experiences had been so traumatic that she reassessed her life and is currently finding peace and enjoyment with the narrowboat way of life.
NarrowboatTLC 