That waiting game again!

It seems our cruising time is to be further delayed. We are told that our mains generator is fixed, and back in England, but Sam Matts of Foxton Boat Services, the guy who's dealing with it, doesn't know when he'll be able to refit it for us. The frustrating thing is that we could happily cruise without it, but we have to stay in the marina so that he can fit it at the drop of a hat. He took it out of the boat back in October! And of course, we have to take Kantara to get her shower room rebuilt in a couple of weeks' time, too. We're hoping Sam will be able to arrange to fit the generator at the same time as that is done.


Further, our 3G router is clearly faulty, even though Westlake Communications, from whom we bought the device, say they've tested it and found nothing wrong! I've been in contact recently with the manufacturers, who admit there is a fault - although there has only been one other case - in Sweden - of this fault showing. But now, the thing either loses its signal frequently, and for several minutes at a time, or it simply switches itself off! It's very frustrating!


The day and a bit of rain earlier this week has really made a difference to the canal level, although I'm sure it won't have done much for the reservoirs. More rain is forecast for next week, though, unfortunately, it is expected here tomorrow now, too, and that's the day our kids are coming to see us (IS there a word for adult offspring??). Still, we're really looking forward to that.

Rain at last!

Well, you may think us mad, and we're really sorry if you hate the rain and it's spoiling your day, but Grace and I are delighted that it's tipping it down here, and has been since yesterday evening. It's very windy, too, rocking the boat a lot, and repeatedly blowing our 3G antenna right off the signal, and we could happily do without that. But the rain...! It sounds so good on the roof, and it has to be making some difference to the canal level.
 
OK, I'm not about to say I relish the thought of going out in it. In fact, we postponed a trip to the cinema this afternoon because we really didn't want to leave the cosiness of Kantara, but I'm beginning to appreciate the sentiments of a lady whose blog I looked at recently, speaking of her new experience of living in a tent in a barn!

 ...it has been fascinating to me to notice not only how unharmed I remain from the ostensibly hostile elements, but in fact how much better I feel. For example, rain is usually thought to be an excellent reason to stay indoors, even if this means staying cooped up in a dim, gloomy house. But meanwhile I'm out there enjoying the song of the rain on the roof, leaves, grass, driveway, and myriad other musical surfaces! I'm amused now at the discrepancy between how pleasant it is to experience rain and the gloominess that I felt when I voluntarily limited myself to the house so as to avoid the hardships of being exposed to the rain! The beauty of the sky-water's earthbound journey, the splashes and drips and gathering into pools and rivulets... Rainy days are not inherently dark, depressing occasions, quite the contrary. It is our allegiance to the dark, disconnected house environment that make them seem so.
Likewise for temperature: I have noticed that while a warm spring day feels nice at 50ºF (10ºC), even 60ºC (15ºC) feels cold in a house.  ("The Adventures of Christopher and Rosemary")

In cold weather, Kantara starts the day colder than a house. The windows are double glazed, but there are gaps around exterior doors, and around the side hatch, and drafty ventilation grills - a health and safety requirement. We have central heating, but it takes longer to take effect than in a house. So we have got used to living in a colder environment - and it doesn't feel so bad any more, it feels normal. I surprise myself by walking across the marina after dark  without a jacket or sweater on.

But today is an exception! We'll just stay in, and stay snug, while the rain beats on the roof and walls, the boat rocks, and night draws in. My one excursion onto the starboard gunnel to tighten a loose anchoring bolt for the antenna was quite enough!

A lazy day!

After a cold night and an oversleep, we awoke this morning to another beautiful day, warm and cloudless... but the water level continues to fall! It occurred to me as I lay in bed that, this being the Easter holiday for schools, I am now two thirds of the way through my first year of retirement. This is the life!

We enjoyed something of a lazy morning, postponing a few jobs until tomorrow, and set out at 1:00pm for a leisurely stroll to The Moorings at Crick Wharf (formerly known as Edwards) for a drink out under the sun by the canal before an excellent Sunday lunch, and the return walk.

The BBC weather forecast tells me we will have rain this week - fingers crossed. 

The Kantara project

It has to be said that life on Kantara has taken me by surprise in a number of ways - none of them unpleasant. The one on my mind at the moment is the degree to which I am finding, with Grace, the need to personalise the boat, not to leave any detail, however small, which was to the taste or preference of the previous owners, but is not to ours.

When we chose Kantara out of the dozens we had looked at, we knew that there was a chance that the wash basin would not be usable long term. We would give it time, and see if we felt it needed to be replaced.

And the time came - pretty quickly! We weren't surprised. That space the basin sits in is just ridiculous! We called in boat fitter Roy Grassby of Days Afloat, and he drew up a plan. After a couple of visits to chat over the plan, and hours of poring over catalogues of basins and taps, we have now booked for the work to be done in the last week of April. We'll take a couple of days to sail down to Braunston, where Roy's workshop is, and we'll have to leave it with him for a couple of weeks - we'll go back to St Albans for the duration.

And then there is the carpet. There's nothing wrong with the look of the carpet, but, well, it's not ours. It started off smelling very doggy, and still does to Grace, despite several cleaning sessions with all sorts of preparations. Our problem is that, as is common of boats of Kantara's age, the carpet is also on the walls, up as far as the gunnels...

...(ignore the seats - they're no longer there), so replacing the floor carpet might also involve replacing that... after removing radiators, wall cabinets, power sockets and hi-fi speakers. Our challenge now is to find a plain carpet of a different colour from this, lay this on the floor and have the existing wall carpet (still in pristine condition) being what in any house would be wallpaper. We think we've found the carpet. Today, we measure up and get it costed.

Good morning!

Well, this was supposed to be a photo of the new blinds and cushions in the dinette, but turned out to be a picture of breakfast instead! The gold and red of the fabrics really warm the interior of the boat, especially with sun shining through the blinds, like this morning, or at night in the cosiness of the electric lights, but I think it's going to be difficult to capture that with the camera, simply because I can't get far enough back to get it all in!

It's another beautiful day. Lots of little jobs to complete, and a quiz tonight here at the marina. Weekend boaters are much in evidence, and many others returning after the winter. Have a good day, all of you!

Settling back in

It's incredibly frustrating that, now we are back on Kantara, we are still having to wait even longer for our AC generator to be repaired and fitted - at huge cost, but a third of the cost of replacement! - when the engineer involved has had it for nearly four months! Sam came to see us today (to sort out the problem we had in the matter of the engine ignition system being dead - we had both thought that an isolator switch was on, when it had been off!), and he told us that the kit will be repaired and back to him in just over a week, at which time he will refit it and... we'll have 240 volts on the cut at last! And not too soon!


A further frustration has been that the guy who designed and quoted for a remodelled shower room was not replying to my attempts to contact him, but he did call today, and we drove out to see him, to discuss the finer details of the job.

The work is going to take a week and a half to do, and we'll have to drive the boat to his workshop in Braunston for the duration, so it will mean us having to go home for that time, since living aboard with no shower room and toilet is out of the question!

Other jobs to do... replace the rather odd brown carpet tiles on the foredeck with more suitable rubber tiles (dark grey, not blue!)...

...find a suitable mat to cover then engine hatch on the stern deck, something like...

...get a satellite TV system installed - we are currently missing some good TV, and watched none for the three months on Kantara last year. We don't watch a lot, but are annoyed when we have to miss something worthwhile.

...get a handle fitted to the stern deck hatch above the weed hatch (a secure hatch through which access is gained to the propeller, on occasions when it gets tangled with weed, fishing line, plastic bags, anoraks, shopping trolleys) It has never had a handle, and lifting it is something of a challenge!

...replace the carbon monoxide and propane gas alarms, both of which have just died on us, and fit a smoke alarm, too.

The weather these last two days has been amazing... too dry by far, but amazing! I have been outside for long periods without jacket or jumper, and it's been really mild. I'm sure the birds think it's summer, listening to their songs. And we're seeing those dramatic sunsets, too, just like last autumn. I am worse than itching to get out there and do some cruising!