Pics - Slough Festival

Tortoise (undecorated) tucked in behind Herbie (very much more decorated) after they'd saved me a slot for the Slough festival. You can see how far out from the bank Herbie had to moor - what you can't is how much closer in a v-bottom boat can get. ;-)


Phil's boat Becky was just behind me, so I got to watch him being interviewed for livingaboard.tv, although their website cunningly doesn't actually explain how anyone might actually get to see the results.

(ha - I've just spotted Herbie in the background - they didn't want to interview us as we weren't liveaboards, but obviously Neil was determined to get in somehow...)

I also had a nice poke around Ricksmanworth Waterways Trust's 1936 boar Roger's boatman's cabin, although without a fisheye lens the pictures aren't worth posting. It's a fascinating space, though. I must admit I'm vicariously enjoying Sarah's blogging about Chertsey's. I suspect it's all psychological, as a boatman's cabin makes the interior of Tortoise seem postively palacial... ;-)

Pictures - GU trip

Don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting bored of just text, so to make amends:


This type of springer (pretty sure it's a springer) is the closest I've seen to a distant relation for Tortoise (see 2006 for earlier photos) - square transom with hull tumblehome etc...


Possibly the tallest cratch I've seen around, but I don't see why not, no taller than a pram hood on the stern...


I love the various colours on this boat, and also that it dares to be just a little bit different. So many boats - GRP or not - all look the same. It also occurs to me that a little plastic cruiser could well be fun to see how well it would run on electricity, assuming it could carry the weight of batteries required. Assuming enough charging opportunites could be found/created (friendly pubs and a long extension lead?), could well be a pretty green - and beautifully quiet - cruising option.


We crossed locks with Chiswick on the Leafcutter John/Lisa Knapp tour. Didn't manage to see any of the gigs, but they sounded interesting - apparently LJ had been using underwater mics to record th sound of the boat to use in the performances.


Logs, acquired in Uxbridge on the way home. They look great (don't they?) but being freshly cut were merrily leaking sap all over the roof, so are now languishing just off the towpath until next winter...

low voltage links for me

just wanted to stash these away where even I won't lose them...

discussion about running a 12v house - boats already do, of course... (cwf people may recognise the intolerance people who know a very little have for each other in the comments)

USB phone charging (and other thoughts) and USB gadget roundup (have been looking into a standard 5v charging/connection system for phones, mp3 players etc, especially if based around solar/wind up sources)

stuff & nonsense

A work meeting on Friday introduced me to the idea of 'Project Rainbow', which seems dedicated to pointing out the bleedin' obvious which had gone un-pointed. In front of three senior managers, it took a lot of sitting on hands for me to avoid asking which of them were Bungle, Zippy and Geoffrey.

In other news, far less connected to gainful employment, I get to do sound for Jeremy Hardy, singing on Thursday. Regular Radio 4 listeners will understand what a personal best, if not career peak, this is for me. ;-)

fired up

Well, not quite, although I was a couple of weeks ago when I wrote, and then spared any poor passing readers, a largely pointless rant about a cyclist - in London, this is - who told me that traffic lights didn't apply to cyclists, they're for cars. Suffice to say i still haven't entirely calmed down from this comment, speaking as possibly the last cyclist in London who does pay some heed to the highway code. Not only does this behaviour lose us respect (and therefore rights) from other road users, but it completely ignores the safety of pedestrians, who's right to cross a road without being run down is pretty fundamental in my book.

Perhaps you got the rant after all.

Anyway, work progresses on the boatman's stove; Jon at Windy Smithy (.co.uk) has made me a nice adapter plate to bolt to the top plate of the stove, to fit a flue to. Meanwhile I've been working on the surround; according to the BSC inspector masterboard (as sold - and already bought from - by one local chandlers) isn't considered to be up to the job, or at least won't be in the future, and asbestolux - aka Supalux, it actually says on the board - is better. I remember trying to research this some time ago, and going round in circles a little, so for my own peace of mind rather than the regulations I've got some supalux and put that over the existing masterboard, whoich will then be tiled over that. I've a feeling anything bigger than 4" tiles will look daft i the space, so sill be doing some serious tile shopping soon.

All this is in the context of seeing a completely burnt out boat recently, and reading the safety report on Lindy Lou, who's well fed stove set the rest of the boat alight, casuing one death. I suspect most boat fires are down to 3rd party action when no-one's aboard, but even so, one to be careful of.

live from Slough Canal Festival

It's Saturday afternoon, I've wandered around everything there is to be seen and now I'm back on my boat just enjoying being on the water. There's a few boats here - I'm moored next to Herbie (Neil & Kath even saved me a space, for last night, although they weren't really expecting me until this morning), and the Batchworth trip boat are down here offering trips to the winding hole and back for a pound a go (although a trip to the Slough basin is £4).

This is my first time here, and it's nice enough, a village fete really. BW came down to cut the weeds along the edge, and have been cutting the weed from the bottom of the canal too - but none of it was cleared, so progress was even slower than was to be expected - around six weed hatch clearances in the mile from the moorings to hear, and another four this morning when I turned the boat around first thing. Hopefully it'll be a little clearer on the way back tomorrow, but it certainly isn't a great advert for BW.

I'd got back to Iver yesterday afternoon, after a lovely few days with some unexpected but very welcome company from Kings Langley back to Uxbridge. I always try not to name & shame (despite passing the working boat who tore past me and nearly had me in whilst retying the rubbish barge at Bulls Bridge on the way home from Little Venice), which makes it diffiult to relate the otherwise humourous tale of a boat who's name suggests a bit fo a devil-may-care nature, and yet they had planned each day of their cruise by spreadsheet. We should also report that the pub adjacent to Widewater Lock is possibly the worst canalside pub ever, so don't aim for it as an overnight stop (although the moorings weren't bad). Good weather always helps, and of course it was my first time heading south on the lower Grand Union - I've been up twice, but both times come back down the Oxford & then Thames.

Just opposite Uxbridge Boat Centre a voice called out to ask if I wanted any logs - they were cutting down a couple of small trees in a garden, so I'm the proud owner of a pile of cut wood on the front of the boat, freshly cut from a live tree, so it could be quite a while until they're worth burning. They look good, mind.

Again, pictures to follow when I manage to connect memory card & laptop...

Lock Gates

A contentious issue, I may as well post something about 'keeping it simple' on 12v electrics on the CWF...

I wherever possible, close lock gates behind me when leaving a lock, obviously unless a boat is ready to come in to the lock. Old working boats didn't, and the trip boat I shared a few locks with today didn't either, and many other boaters these days don't.

I must admit, largely being single handed, being able to go straight in to a lock, or indeed leave one without closing the gate behind me, would save the time & hassle of moving the boat, tying up again and going to open/close the gate. Obviously if they've been left open in the wrong direction, they have to be closed, but the lock needs to be 'turned around' anyway? I guess with leaky gates as common as they are it's best to close both, but as the trip boat guys said, in that case the lock ends up half full, set for neither end.

It's a question of convention & respect, which is which I try to do the right thing. But I'm also happy to apply a bit of logic to the situation. Either way, we probably end up doing about the same amount of work?

Copper Mill Lock

Boat Safety stuff finally sorted; all, impressively all things not down to me, and others shoud have been failed five years ago, like the exhaust not being lagged, and the dip in the diesel filler line. The latter needed a new thread filler and angled hose tail to sort; not cheap, but needs must. Frustratingly the gas failed due to the regulator fitted last year; I could be cynical about ways & means here, but I suspect such connivance may be beyond the organisation concerned. ;-)

I've still got a week off work, so I get to head away for a few days. I've brought the laptop but no card reader, so no pictures for the the time being. It's lovely & great, but I'm still reminded the fundamental truths of when sharing a lock a single hander still does most of the work, slowing down when passing moored boats is a thing of the past, and the moored boat a little bit down from me is STILL running his engine. At least the the latter case it must be more annoying for them than it is for me...

BSC

quick post to report BSC inspection today - largely fine but not a clear pass - a couple of niggly things on fuel & exhaust pipes, and a tiny gas leak somewhere near the Morco water heater I'm not looking forward to trying to find. Also the gas regulator cut out is out of of spec - that's something that really should have been checked when installed relatively recently, so something I may be able to follow up on. I have over a month to get things sorted and have my second (included in the price0 follow up inspection, but knowing me that will go past all too quickly...

of festivals and domes (tangible ones, even)

I've been out and about with the PA again; a two and a half week road trip of an album launch and two festivals was thrown into the air by the short notice cancellation of the Big Green Gathering. I've heard as many reasons and analyses as people I've spoken to about it, but it's clear that the local authorities wanted to kill it, and kill it for good. For words more well informed than mine try these letters in the Guardian a few days ago and George Monbiot on the subject. Are people who are taking the future of the earth seriously really that much of a threat to the status quo? I can only conclude we are, which suggests to me that they know we're right, which isn't what they want to acknowledge,let alone do anything about other than suppress it.

My second festival went ahead, though - I'm still processing a great few days, but the interregnum beforehand gave me a few hours to build a 1v geodesic dome to sleep in at the event. A temporary structure made from plastic tarps (uncut, and therefore very much reuseable), the frame being plastic tubes joined by cable ties:




all sides are 1.5m, giving me a tent only slightly bigger than the minimum I'd need to lie in and yet I can stand up in it. A blue tarp forms the groundsheet and door, the green one (after a lot of faffing) more or less covered the dome bar the triangular doorway. A suitably successful indulgence - sorry, experiment, and well worth a mk2 with wooden frame and canvas cover. Not a tent to go backpacking with, but if I need transport for the PA anyway and I'm staying more than just a couple of days at an event, it'll be good to have the space - and a little bit of uniqueness. ;-)

The link hidden above to simplydifferently.org is well worth a peruse - lots of info about different semi-permanent structures - with lots of diagrams, and serious maths for those that find it useful (and scaleable diagrams with stick men in for the rest of us). My dome is essentially 2/3 of a regular icoshedron made purely out of equilateral triangles (hence being almost as tall as it is wide) - domes with higher (non-equilateral) triangle counts get closer to being half a sphere - prettier, perhaps, but a lot more poles to carry. The 'yome' uses this shape to full effect (clear distinction between sides and roof, so half yurt, half dome) as a commercial enterprise - but it's easy to see how I could easily modify the design above with more triangles around the side and longer roof supports for more floor area - in fact if I bear this in mind with the mk2 version, at least side struts & panels could be reuseable in a wider version...