Shopping list for first trip

The licence application is with British Waterways and I am starting to plan that first trip on Kathlyn. Considering that the boat is missing the majority of accessories to make her able and safe to do a trip I thought I should start thinking about a shopping list.

This is what is on the list so far: -

Windlass (Maybe two for when one gets dropped in!)

Mooring Pins and mallet

Working Ropes for use in Locks (have got mooring ropes already)

Anchor with chain and Rope (as on River)

Boat Pole and Boat hook

Boarding Plank (Painted in boat colours of course!)

Horn and Light (also to be fitted) - Is this a requirement?

Life Ring?

If anybody has any other suggestions of must haves before the first trip do feel free to drop me a comment.

Blinding Food (Blind and Food)

To be able to sleep on the boat I have the curtains up in the bedroom area, but the front doors still let a lot of light in.
Today I installed a roller blind in front of the bow doors. It was quite a cheap blind but as I am not sure really what I want and what will work I think it will do. It is made of PVC so hopefully will be good in the damp conditions and it seems to manage to keep the light out.

With the blind down and the curtains closed I could just lie on the bed and fall asleep. Of course I didn't, so much to do!

The other landmark event of today was my first meal on the boat. I thought it was so significant that I took a picture of the meal. It made my mum smile so I am sure it will you as well.

It is amazing what you can do in a microwave!

Licence Application

As I start thinking about my first trip on Kathlyn and that spring will come so I can enjoy her I thought it was about time I got her a licence. Today the licence application was sent off, it is supposed to take 15 working days, but have heard it normally does not come in that sort of time. Lets just hope I have it before the summer comes and goes!

www.kathlyn.co.uk

She might not have a kitchen, shower room or living area, but she has now got her very own web address.

Currently just pointing back at this blog, but endless opportunities for exciting things to come. I have never bought a domain name before, did not realise how simple it was.

If anybody has links to this blog, can you update them to point to http://www.kathlyn.co.uk
Thanks

The First Lock

No, not that sort of lock, don't think she is quite ready to brave one of those types of locks just yet. A lock for a door silly!

Kathlyn has been quite happily moored stern end into the pontoon, so it has been easy to get in and out by undoing the padlock on the stern doors and getting in. Now she is moored bow end in (is there a technical term for bow or stern end in?) I suddenly realised that I could not get into the boat using the front doors. I still had to go along the length of the boat on the gunwhales to get in the rear doors.

So time for a bit of woodworking and the fitting of a lock to the front doors. Please notice the handy work and the careful positioning of the lock in the front door in the quite narrow wooden frame. I was quite pleased with myself.

I then started thinking, always a bad idea. I can now get into the boat from the bow all very well, but it still leave the rear hatch and doors locked from the outside. This means that if I want to move the boat, or escape in a fire I can't get out the rear doors. Not very good really. I also can't quite work out how I can lock the rear doors and hatch from the inside that actually makes it secure! All the options seem to still leave the hatch to be able to be lifted up and pushed back.

So one step further forward and another little challenge to work on. Still pleased with the first lock though, and didn't get stuck on the sill once!

The new mattress

Lots of planning went into the calculation of which doors the mattress would or would not fit. I had worked out that the rear doors were going to be difficult and the front doors should be OK as long as the mattress bends a little. Well after the tight squeeze of the mattress in my car, meaning that I drove to the boat with my nose nearly on the front windscreen that mattress went in the front doors of the boat very smoothly.

Here are pictures of the new mattress firstly just sitting on the frame and secondly with the nice cover and pillows on.

And yes it is as comfy as it looks, very pleased with the bed so far, will sleep on that soon.

It will now be even harder to do work on the boat when I can just have a lie down now and again!

Ice and front fender

Today I had one aim that was to turn the boat round so it was bow end in so that I could fit the front fender and allow me to get the mattress in the front doors.

I was prepared for wind across the marina, but today was calm, very calm, the water didn't even move, the reason for this was that it was covered in ice. I have never taken a narrowboat out in anything other than spring and summer so it may not come as a shock but I have never been through ice. After some prodding at the ice and throwing some stones in the water I decided the ice can't be too much of a match to a steel narrowboat.

Going forwards was fine, the boat cut through the ice perfectly fine, but trying to steer was interesting as I pushed large sheets of ice to either side (I can understand why the marina were not keen on any movement around the plastic boats). Reversing was also an interesting task as the ice would really only let me go where I had already come from and nowhere else.

Anyway after a bit of fun turning the boat round she went back into her mooring bow end in and there was a loop cut in the ice for the swans and ducks to swim around in.

After getting her all tied up I could get on to the job of installing the front fender. This was a Christmas present from my parents, but I had not really fancied hanging off the front of the boat trying to fit it so now was an ideal opportunity.

All seemed to fit quite nice and snug but I think I need to hit a few lock gates to really get it settled onto the bow properly.

Thanks again to Tradline for their assistance and advice on how to hang it properly.

It has been a while

Well it has been a while since the last post on the 8th November so I better catch up on things.

Not much been happening with the boat over the past couple of months, what with the cold, Christmas parties, Christmas and getting that really horrible cold that has been going round I have only ventured to the boat on odd occasions to do bits and bobs. So here is a round up of what has been done.

Electrics
This actually got done in one of the weeks I had off in November after the last post but never got recorded. You may remember previous posts about should I or shouldn't I do a rewire of the 12v system to move the distribution panel from the middle of the boat (in the saloon) to the stern of the boat in the kitchen. Well I decided it should be done otherwise I would always be thinking "what if?".

So the re-wire was put in place. All the existing cabling was taken out from the roof cable run, the distribution panel was disconnected and then new cables (thicker) were run in from the new location to the drop off points down the boat.

The first picture (to the right) is of all the cables in the new location for the distribution panel before they are terminated and yes they were all labeled up!

The one of the left is of the distribution panel in its new location with all those cables terminated. The panel will be taken off the piece of wood it is on when I box in the electrics and tank, but it can hang off the wall for the time being.

The new cable runs now look something like this (right).
As probably anybody would have guessed the job took a lot long than first planned, mainly because of the effort in pulling cables through conduit but I am glad I did the job as moving the distribution panel gives room for the chimney of a stove later on.

Curtain Poles
The other job that has been completed is that of putting curtain poles up on all windows down the length of the boat other than in the kitchen. This may seem an odd job to have completed but it has been done for two reasons. One so that in the bedroom I can have some privacy when I (hopefully soon) stay over and two so that I can hang temporary curtains down the length of the boat to keep some heat in, when there is some. Thanks must go out to my mum for her expert curtain making abilities even for the temporary curtains.

Stern Fender
And last but not least the stern fenders that I bought a while ago have been fitted which now keeps the boat from being held directly against the pontoon.
They took a while to get the chains right so they hold in place correctly, but I think they are about right now and are looking good.