This is the blog of Norwyn & Sheila aboard their narrowboat Shell Bell.
We have had a great few days with this glorious spring weather hanging on. We have taken in some walks and a spot of birdwatching.
Ben and Claire came up on Sunday and will leave Monday evening,it was really good to catch up with them as we hadn’t seen them since early January. We have almost got everything ready as tomorrow, we travel up to Mercia Marina and join Shell Bell. The plan is to leave the marina on Wednesday morning and head off along the Trent and Mersey heading for Great Haywood junction, then down to Wolverhampton and onto Nantwich. The weather forecast is not brilliant but at least we will be cruising.
It has been around a couple of weeks since our last blog, we have had a busy time Norwyn had his birthday on the 26th. We had a great couple of days when Cliff and Chris came to stay. We are now getting ready to return back on board Shell Bell next Tuesday. Hopefully this glorious weather will hold, although in all honesty the canals need rain. British Waterways have issued their list of restrictions which means that the locks are only open for four to five hours, depending on location. These are mainly in the south east but of course this may feed its way further north if we don’t get any significant rain. Our initial plan is to to do the four counties ring then head north onto the Leeds Liverpool canal.
I drove up from Suffolk yesterday, leaving early around 06:15 i arrived at the marina around 09:30,it was a good drive up apart from some quite foggy sections. After sorting out the boat (gas \ water) i set about painting the gunwales on Shell Bell. Our next door neighbours on the Marina are Ian and Sally on there boat Thomas as i arrived they were preparing to go of cruising down the coventry canal for a few days, so that has allowed me to move Shell Bell across from one pontoon to the other saving a lot manoeuvres. The weather so far has been good and it is predicted to stay good until Friday.
gunwale undercoated
first coat of black top coat
After the long day Friday (a family funeral in Luton ) we have had a restful Saturday, and taken in a 6 mile walk on Sunday. The plans are made for next week I am going back on board Shell Bell for the week to do some painting, Sheila is staying in Suffolk, I hope this weather holds it will make the painting that much easier. I will hopefully update with some pictures of the progress in the week.
Well my predictions for yesterday turned out to be correct, a very wet and windy day that didn’t allow for any painting to be done at all. Our original plan was to travel home Thursday, and make arrangements for travelling down to Dunstable early Friday morning for a family funeral. But with the weather how it was we travelled home yesterday afternoon, hopefully we plan to go back next week and get some more painting done, well that’s the plan at the moment.
A nice frosty morning greeted us this morning,but it wasn’t long before the sun was warming up the temperature. We started sanding down the port gunnel this morning and managed to get it done and primed, and the first undercoat was finished around 5pm. We are hoping that the weather is kind again tomorrow but it is not looking hopeful. We had a nice visit just after lunch from Bob and Adele. It was nice to catch up with them and I am hopeful that we can employ Adele to help paint the sides and the roof.
Norwyn applying the primer or praying -probably both
Today we travelled north to go back on board Shell Bell for a few days. It was a good journey but the weather when we left East Anglia was awful, very heavy rain, but by the time we reached Kettering the skies were clear and it was quite bright. The plan is to start work sanding down and re-painting the gunnels, but we must travel back on Thursday as we another commitment on Friday. Today we arrived after lunch and set about topping the water tank and lighting the fire so the boat at least is warm and cosy.
March has arrived and the weather has had the feel of spring. We are moving ahead now with the plans to start re-painting Shell Bell. We have bought a new sander,some rollers, brushes, masking tape and masks. I must confess it is a bit daunting starting a project like this so if anybody has any advice it would be very much appreciated. Today the new chair and foot stool I had ordered on the internet arrived and it looks great and should be a good match for the one already onboard. Well, as mentioned earlier the weather has been very nice with no rain, this of course is great but not for the canals. BW are already warning of water shortages this coming summer and there is talk of them having colour coded routes with advice about what routes to travel and of course some restrictions. So this dry winter is not good for all.
New chair
This picture of the new dinette in bed configuration is for Ben
Dinette in bed configuration
What a pleasant few days we have had. the weather has been nice and we have just been relaxing and doing a bit of walking. On Sunday Scott came over to check out the final small problem with the car and true to form he fixed it in about 30 minutes. So after he left we went to Southwold to give the car a run. Today Sheila had lunch with some of her ex workmates, and I had lunch with Andy Lawrence one of my ex workmates. We are currently working on our plans for painting the boat. We hope to make a start next week.
On Wednesday Shell Bell had her free electrical check up from River canal rescue as part of our membership, river canal rescue is the waterways version of the AA. I had also organised for the engineer to service the engine after he had done the electrical check. He was very good and talked me through the service so I now have a better understanding of what needs checking and how often. After a quiet night on board I Packed things away and headed back to Suffolk. The only problem on the journey home was that the A14 was shut at junction 1 so I had to go further down the M1 and come back via the A45. Not too bad, especially as the weather was sunny and warm. Home again and it’s time to start planning the re-painting of Shell Bell.
