A fleeting visit

Today, I went back to Lincoln to pick up Jess for her Easter hols. On the way back we took a slight detour to visit the boat.

The good news is that Mick is continuing to make progress inside with the shower room, the hatches, the mushroom vents, filling gaps in the bulkheads, etc but the bad news is that the exterior paint has not taken at all. After various attempts using a electric spray, manual roller and old fashioned brush (and various combinations of these), the resulting finish turned out matt rather than the expected high gloss.

The supplier of the paint blames the hot weather but Mick is not convinced. So, the surface has been sanded down and another brand of paint is to be tried. If it works, I'll tell you what the brand is. If it doesn't we may just brush over it again! 

To be positive about this, at least the boat will have had about 4 or 5 coats by the time its finished which should give it a good life span.

We looked at some of the colour options for the scotia that will follow the frames around the wall panels. We discounted a darker green because 3 greens will be a bit over-powering. Red and orange looked too bright in our subdued colour scheme and white looked too wishy-washy. Then, brainwave - why not  use the buttermilk? I trotted off the the workshop and quickly painted a length of scotia and offered it up to the wall and Bingo - it was perfect. It obviously complements the 2 greens because it has already been used on the walls and ceiling but it adds a subtle thread of colour throughout the boat, tying the whole thing together. Further more traditional colours, such as red, yellow and blue will be introduced with cushions, carpets, plates, cups, etc.

So, tomorrow, Kay and I will return to continue the painting. I will initially paint the scotias, while Kay continues the walls. I will then complete the kitchen cabinets while Kay completes the bathroom.

Jess takes a leading 'hands on' role in the choice of colours for the scotia.

Eight more hours

Nothing much to report other than Kay and I did another 8 hours painting on Wednesday. It's only when you look at the boat inside that you realise how many walls there are, even with an open plan layout. You see, it's 60 feet long and about 7 feet high so that's 840 square feet without all the bulkheads. More painting next week, once Mick has had the chance to get on with some more internal fitting out.

More help on board

After a brief visit to B&Q to pick up some more paint, Kay and I went to the boat. I'm not going to write much in this post as I think the photos speak for themselves...

 

The kitchen cabinets, sink, cooker, and fridge are fitted. The pipes are boxed in and front door and its adjoining panels are complete. My trusty assistant is togged up for another day of painting. Nice boiler suit!

 

Technical stuff: shower pump, water pumps, pipes, etc.

Fantastic weather for March! While Kay and I were inside painting the primer, undercoat and silk emulsion, Mick was outside applying the first coats of external paint.

The artist at work...he looks very Parisian in that tee shirt.

Ten 'man hours' today and less than a month to go to launch day. Another day of painting is planned for for us all tomorrow.





A long working day

9.30am - 4.00pm at the boat plus an hour and a half travelling. That's a total of 8 hours by my calculation - that's a long day for me! Anyway, I was mainly painting the walls again while Mick was working on the front door.

Last week, while I was away up north, Mick really made some significant progress fitting the shower room, kitchen cabinets and worktops, and boxing in most of the pipe work. As I didn't take my camera today (oops), I will report more fully tomorrow following another fun packed day painting.

S2S Report

Did I complete my bike ride from Scotland to Suffolk? Well, yes, almost.

Sunday 11 March - Train journey from Suffolk to Edinburgh. Arrived at 4.22pm. Rode to Mortonhall Camp site on the southern edge of the the city - 6 miles of potholed city roads avoiding buses and cars. Bought a Chinese take-away. Arrived after the site staff went home.  Set up tarp using the upturned the bike as a ridge and settled down for an early night. Very windy but dry night.

Monday 12 March - Early start into a light head wind. Followed A7 and A68 to Galashiels, my expected second stop over. Decided to go on to Jedburgh. TIC advised me of a small camp site called Jedwater about 3 miles south -about 45 miles today. I was the only camper as the site had not officially opened. Cold but dry night.

Tuesday 13 March - Another early start heading SE again towards the Scottish border. Steep, dramatic climb to the border but then a long downhill ride into England. Very undulating road - tiring. The brisk southwesterly wind caused further discomfort often hitting me in the face. Booked into the attractive Wheatsheaf Hotel in the centre of Corbridge - about 45 miles today. Again, I was the only person staying.

Wednesday 14 March - Left after a Full Monty. Undulating road through foothills. Took slightly longer detour towards Durham to avoid further hill riding. Booked into B&B in southern part of Darlington - about 50 miles. Repaired a puncture to rear tyre. The new 'puncture resistant' tyres could not cope with a 1" nail! Quiet night but woken by an owl at 4.00am.

Thursday 15 March - Took the A167 towards Northallerton then the A19 to York - 50 miles of flatter riding. Booked into the old-fashioned Greenview Guest House, 10 minutes walk from the northern edge of the old city walls - again the only customer. Starting to feel like Billy No Mates.

Friday 16 March - York to Lincoln via Selby and Gainsborough. Long day through fairly flat countryside - 73 miles today. Spent the early evening with Jess including a huge burger each. Weather forecast predicting rain and more wind over the next few days so I decided to call it a day. It would not be enjoyable riding through Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk under these conditions so booked a train ticket from Lincoln to Stowmarket.

Saturday 17 March - 12.23 train from Lincoln, arriving home at 4.00pm - approx 125 miles. The ride from Stowmarket to home was only 4 miles but it was in a cold, driving rain - horrible. My decision to abort was the right one.

Conclusion - Of a total distance of just short of 400 miles, I cycled about 273 miles, an average of about 55 miles per day. I had set myself the challenge to cycle from Scotland to Suffolk aiming to average about 40 miles a day and that, crucially, it should be enjoyable. I knew it would not be fun in the true sense of the word and I told myself it was not a competition so I would not need to rush from one place to another. Until I reached Lincoln, all was going well but it was really the weather that stopped play. I felt the forecasted wind and rain would not be enjoyable so I decided to complete the last 125 miles or so by rail. The rain arrived during the train journey and the final ride from the Station to home was very unpleasant indeed.

What did I enjoy most? All the people I met were friendly and interesting; on the trains, in the B&B's, in the pubs and shops. I enjoyed the countryside in the Borders - much more dramatic than the flatter countryside to the south. I enjoyed my stop-over with Jess. I enjoyed the overall challenge and, even though I did more miles each day than I planned, I don't think I'd pushed myself too hard. I enjoyed eating high carb/calorie foods (pasties, pizzas, chocolate, chinese, nut bars, etc) to keep my energy levels up.

What didn't I enjoy? Far too much roadside litter. Potholes. Poor road surface. Broken tarmac around drain covers. Cycle ways that start then disappear for no reason. Some drivers passing too close. The constant head wind. Aching leg muscles. I didn't lose any weight (the pasties and beer probably didn't help). And finally, it wasn't all down hill as most people had told me.

Would I do it again? Yes but it would not be the same.

So what would I change? It would be more enjoyable if the ride were a bit shorter, say, 100 - 150 miles with only 2 or 3 stopovers. The route could also be made more interesting by following, say, a coastal route. It would be better a little later in the year but outside the spring/summer holidays to get warmer,dryer weather - maybe April May, June or September.

Would I camp, B&B or do both? I enjoy camping (especially ultra-light wild camping) but carrying a tarp, sleeping bag and mat does increase the weight you have to carry. B&Bs are fairly cheap at the moment (about £30 -50pppn) so are well within grasp. Doing a bit of both is certainly possible, as I did, but the novelty of carrying camping gear when it's only used a few times starts to wear thin after a while. So it really comes down to balancing your aims and objectives against weight and cost. In future, if I go out of season I would opt for B&B unless cost really did preclude it. For the warmer periods, I would favour camping with an odd B&B just to freshen up.

The Apprentice

I had an assistant in the boat today. Kay joined me for a bit of painting. We stopped off at B&Q to buy a couple of pots of paint to test on the walls and we started as soon as we got to the boat. Almost iimmediately we decided the two tone green approach complemented the buttermilk just right - so went on to paint as much as we could in the time. At the end of another 5 hours painting, Skylark was looking fantastic. Many thanks go to Kay for all her hard work - she's hired!

Mick was still working on the kitchen, making finishing touches to the sink cabinet and worktop. No photos today but I can report that this part of the build is looking very good indeed. I'll take some more snaps when I get back from Scotand.

I leave on Sunday for my bike trip. I went over to Woodbridge yesterday, a round trip of about 38 miles, made much harder by the head wind on the return journey. Under those circumstances, even cycling down hill can be hard work!

My bike is ready to go, complete with packed panniers bags and my first night is booked in Edinburgh. I thought it would be good to book into a camp site on the first night as I get in to the city at 4.20pm. With only about 2 hours light left, I felt a short trip to the outskirts and the relative comfort of a camp site would be the best approach. From then on, the real hard work will start and places for over-night stops will be decided as I go along.

I won't be blogging until I get back but there will be lots to report on, so, bfn.

A sad day

Today, the country is mourning the loss of 6 British soldiers in Afghanistan - the highest single loss in 5 years. A very sad day indeed. And only two weeks before my youngest son Ben goes back there for another tour of six months. A moment for private thoughts...




While I was listening to the news and various interviews on the radio, I was busy brushing more undercoat in the boat. Mick was working on the kitchen cabinet. Earlier this morning, while preparing Kay's first cup of tea, I realised that the cabinet didn't have a drawer for cutlery, etc. I mentioned this to Mick and he casually said he would fit a drawer inside one of the cupboards. This meant the overall symetrical design would be kept and the need for somewhere to keep the cutlery would be satisfied. Mick then went to work sorting it out. The following photos illustrate the result so far. What a star!

This will not only be a very functional piece of fixed furniture (one of the only pieces in the boat) but it will also look fantastic - I keep in mind our aims to keep it simple, going for quality and making it look traitional.

The back of the cabinet shows how 'bomb proof' it is.

When I got home, Kay and I looked through the various paint catalogues I had picked up from B&Q. We plumped for a couple greens; a light green for the wall panels and a darker green for the frames. The plan is to purchase a litre of each tomorrow and we will both go up to the boat on Friday to test them on a single panel.