The Waterways Wanderings of Narrowboat “Just Heaven”

Wychnor

Still no pics I’m afraid.

A busy day today, lots of hire boats about. We haven’t been on the Trent & Mersey for over six years. We used to have a share in the Ownerships boat “Symphony”. At one time it was based at Barton Turns marina. So we used to know this section well. It’s odd how much we remembered and how much we forgot.

When we reached Colwich lock there were two boats in front of us and four waiting to come up. One of the crew from an upcoming boat said that they had been waiting there for over an hour. At Wood End lock some told us that it was chaos at Fradley with boats having nowhere to wait for locks because of all the moored boats. But when we got there is was fairly busy, as is often the case, but not overly so.

We stopped for water outside the cafe and BW depot. There are some loose capping stones here near the original water point. BW have fenced the whole area off (for H&S reasons) and installed a temporary water point. It occurred to me that it would have been quicker & cheaper to have repaired the capping stones !

As we passed the Plum Pudding at Armitage I popped in to make a reservation as it’s our 37th wedding anniversary tomorrow.

Moored for the night just past Wychnor church on the river section. This was a favourite mooring of ours in the past.

Flying visit

Yesterday I put the old tank liner in the skip, we tidied up a bit and went home.

Today I contacted various companies about a replacement liner and found that Duratank had made the original and were prepared to attempt a repair. So this afternoon we dashed back up the M5 to retrieve it from the skip before the skip was emptied!

We got it OK, got home, packed it all up and I’ll send it off by courier tomorrow to Duratank.

Paperwork ! (28/2/08)

I have spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of days sorting out the paperwork.

Ringing round insurance companies, organising the licence transfer with BW, sorting out the mooring,  planning the new signwriting……

Quite a lot to do and we havent actually used her yet !

More Shopping ! (26/2/08)

It’s amazing how much stuff you need on a boat!

We went to Ikea & Stax to get a carfull of bedding, kitchen utensils, cleaning stuff etc.

There was also paperwork to deal with, insurance, change of licence, mooring ….

All this stuff to do and we havent gone anywhere yet !

She’s ours (25/2/08)

We went back to the brokers to meet the previous owner, a Mr Godsell. He took us over the boat and explained a few things to us, and it was clear that he was sad to see her go.

We went back to the brokers to finish the paperwork and get the keys. it all felt a bit odd.

Then we went back onboard our boat and had some sandwiches for lunch sat at our table!

Another look around and then home to plan the next steps.

Shopping (20/2/08)

Heddi goes off shopping to start buying the first of the many things we’re going to need.

Today’s purchases were - quilt cover, sheet, pillow cases, pillows & cushions!

The Result (19/2/08)

We couldn’t wait for the written report so I called the surveyor.

Except for a few relatively minor points the surveyor said that she was in good condition and there was no reason not to go ahead with the purchase.

Hooray! It’s all becoming a reality now.

The Survey (18/2/08)

The day of the survey we were on tenterhooks all day!

Is she out of the water yet?

What will they find?

So far it had it had all been too good to be true!

The Offer (5/2/08)

Steve called the brokers with an offer. There was an agonising wait for them to call back.

The owner wouldn’t accept the offer,but he would accept a thousand more as he had just paid for a new licence and an engine service.

The deal was done, we accepted subject to a satisfactory survey.

Our First View (6/2/08)

We saw ‘Leah’ (as she was then called) advertised in ‘Canal Boat’ magazine. We had viewed quite a few boats before so decided that this one deserved a visit too.

As soon as we stepped inside her we both knew that this was the boat for us. She just felt right straight away.

We had a good look round,and then asked if we could take her for a chug. The brokers found someone to accompany us on a short trip to a winding hole and back.

We returned home, neither of us wanting to get too excited about the long awaited prospect of owning our own boat (and failing miserably!)