Narrowboat Just Heaven

We have had several nights onboard during March and April, but we havent actually moved.
By now we should have moved to our new mooring in Cropredy Marina. It was due to open on April 1st. But, due to the bad winter weather the construction is several months behind.
We had thought to take a long cruise of 3 weeks or so between Kinver and Cropredy, but now we think we may extend our mooring here by a couple of months.

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Just a short trip to Stourport to top up the diesel and get a pumpout. We stooped on the way down near Pratt’s Wharf as it turned bitterly cold and started to snow.

Sheila popped in for a coffee and a chat while we did the services, then we headed back to Kinver

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We arrived on new year’s eve. The plan was to go on a short cruise with two other boats. But one of them is stuck at Evesham on the Avon and cant get here because the Severn is still in flood.

So we have spent a few days walking and visiting. We went to Ironbridge to visit some of the museums and take a long walk around the area. We had to divert part of it as the riverside path is under water.

Met the friends we should have been boating with in a pub for a meal instead.

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We have just popped up for one night to complete the winterisation. The weather forecast is for extreme cold next week so I wanted to top up the antifreeze in the engine and partially drain the calorifier.

The Eberspächer powered central heating is on a frost stat so should keep the ice out, but in the past occasionally it has run the battery flat so failed to light. I’m hoping the solar panel will topup the battery during the day, but with short daylight hours and fairly low light levels it may not.

This afternoon we drove to Stourport and had a cream tea and some pleasant nattering with Andrew & Sheila and Andrew and Wendy. The six of us are planning a late December/early January cruise on the three boats - providing the weather allows it.

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Back to the home mooring this morning. Weather a bit cold but not too bad. The autumn colours are lovely but had to clear leaves round the prop several times

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We havent moved today.

The morning was spent doing some of the paint touch up and cleaning out the engine bay and bilge sump.

In the afternoon we walked along the west bank of the Severn up to the modern road bridge just before Bewdley and then back down the Severn Way along the east bank, about 7-8 miles altogether.

Wetherspoons for “Curry night” tonight!

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The weather looked bright, but cold so we set off at about 8:00. The autumn leaves looked really good in the sunlight, but we had to frequently clear the prop with a blast of reverse.

In Kidderminster we stopped outside Sainsbury’s to do the shopping for the week’s food. Also a trip to The Range to look for Christmas presents.

Then over to the mooring by the church to stop for a full English breakfast.

We arrived in Stourport just before 2:00. Part of the reason for the trip was to touch up some paintwork that had got damaged on the York trip, but it was too cold. Paint doesn’t flow well below about 10°C so we did some general tidying up and then went for a short walk.

In the evening Andrew & Sheila joined us for a meal and a natter.

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Just here for a few days to prepare the boat for the winter. We have arranged to see Andrew & Sheila in Stourport tomorrow, so we set off partway today.

C&RT are supposed to be resurfacing the track from The Vine to our mooring car park this week, so we had to leave the car down by the lock. Hopefully they will have finished by the time we get back, otherwise it will be a long way to carry everything.

It was a bit cold and looked like rain but we set off anyway at about 12:00. A short stop for water at Kinver services, where I fitted the new hosepipe to the reel. I should have waited for warmer weather! The plastic fitting was a bit brittle in the cold and has cracked. So now we have a leak. I’ll have to buy some Araldite, or similar, to try to mend it.

By 3 o’clock it was cold and dreary, so we stopped just above Debdale Lock. As we were away from any other boats we could run the engine to watch TV, so it was “The Producers” on DVD.

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We have been through all the votes and analysed the results. For the first vote ‘Green and Blue’ was a clear favourite. This is probably our favourite too.

For the second vote on the contrasting coloured name panel it was less clear cut.

The boats we saw like this did look very smart, maybe my mockups didn’t convey that. We’ll have to have another think!

Thanks everyone for your input.

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We had a good response to our last request for your input into our decision on a new colour scheme for the forthcoming re-paint.
Could we ask for for your help again?
We have recently seen some boats with a contrasting colour name panel. We quite liked the look of it so I mocked up possibles. Please have a look at the pics below and us have your opinion.

Blue and cream

Green and cream

When voting please bear in mind:
1 ) The cream in the pics is actually slightly yellower than we would have.
2 ) For the green pic I haven’t attempted to change the roof and some other parts from blue. Please imagine as green!
3) Please click the pics and see them full size to get the best impression.

By the way, all the pictures for the two votes are derived from one of the boat on the floating pontoons at Torksey where we were moored waiting for the tide to turn.

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