Category: Continuous Cruising

Living on a continuous cruiser on the UK canal system under CRT rules.

Phone broke [Nether Hayford]

My Wileyfox, that all UK mobile-phone brand, had a problem with the tethering – my access to the outside world, which ceased working last week.

I sent it back, and am writing this using my old Samsung Galaxy Prime.

It can’t take pictures, it can’t do video’s. For this reason, I’ve not been bothered to do the blog for a good few days now.

Nether Hayford
Nether Hayford

Nether Hayford

Currently located here, in Nether Hayford. Perhaps a five/ten minute walk from the village centre.

Before, I stayed down near the bridge.

The train noises really f*ck me off.

I stayed in the knowledge this was the case.

Luckily with a boat, you can move house any time you want.

I can’t hear the trains at all now.

I like it here. That’s nice.

Fastening fairleads to my boat pt1

After having painted it, it’s now time to make sure all my hard work doesn’t get scraped off the first time I go through the locks.

I’ve already fitted this roof eye hook on the narrowboat.

Centre hook
Centre hook

This goes some way to reducing the chafing across the apex of the roof.

Most of the damage happens at the sides, where the cabin is between the roof and the bollards.

As it moves backwards and forwards with the boat, it takes all the paint off!

Fairleads

To stop this, we’ve got some ‘fairleads’, also called cleats, skenes and other things.

Stainless steel fairleads
Stainless steel fairleads

Fairlead is the most universal term. It simply guides the rope from the side of the boat.

Fitting the fairleads

As it’s going to take the weight of the boat, it’ got to be a sturdy fitting. Continue reading “Fastening fairleads to my boat pt1”

Blisworth Marina

Whilst the others are holidaying in France, I’ve parked the boat outside Blisworth Marina to try and finish the paintwork off.

You can see her nestling under the bridge over the A43.

It’s pretty close to Gayton, where the junction leads up to Northampton, where I originally planned taking the boat.

Wifi signal is quite strong and there’s the slight noise of traffic from the A43.

It’s a lot less windy here than outside, and I should get some painting done during the course of the day.

I’ve also got this interview thing at Amazon flex, so I might be working for them in my spare time also.

Nene and onwards

Or not, as the case maybe.

Contacted one of the marinas – firstly, I was interested in knowing about staying, then I got to realise going on the Nene was going to cost and EA licence.

EA Licence

Basically means paying twice. If you’ve got a CRT, you’re going to stick to CRT waters.

If you’ve got an EA, you’re going to need to licence for each individual stretch.

Can work out costly.

For this boat, just to go on the Nene and surrounding waters was £800.

Not money I have lying around. Neither worth it, since we’ve already forked out to stay in CRT regulated waters for the next 9 months or so.

Marina

I spoke to this marina, who told me that, like the CRT, if you’re on their water, you’re going to be paying their rates.

Looks like a trip to the fens is out of the question.

At least for the moment.

I need to do some more work and save some more money up.

Gayton

Started raining and I really didn’t fancy getting wet.

Called it a day at Gayton have hung up my boots and started cooking some dinner.