Getting up at 05:30...

...does have it's better points!

It's not often I have time to take pictures when on the boat (I'm too busy driving), but this morning there was no wind, so when we got to the end of the river it was engines off and drift in silence! Apart from the racket from the birds, that is...

A pic from this morning's bird-watching club's river cruise (departed 06:30, returned 10:30, two boats full of people with cameras and binoculars!):


A total of 4 hours on the river yesterday, and 6 today. Knackered!

:) :)

Watching her grow!

As with my post on this day last year, another picture of the most important part of our lives. She's so incredibly observant that she's been promoted from Bosun to Officer of the Watch!!!

It's been a good year, and 2011 is going to be better!


Reminder: clicking on the picture shows you a larger version...

:) :) :)

The "mouse" floats!

41 hours, 1.5 sheets of plywood, 5.5 metres of meranti strip, 10 metres of woven glass tape and about two litres of epoxy, and this is it:


I like! She paddles nicely, and after 45 minutes on the river this afternoon, I think I'm going to be a bit stiff tomorrow.

Now, I need to name her? Suggestions?


:) :)

Nice!

Not taken this evening, but a couple of weeks ago - just thought I'd share:


:) :)

Boat shaped.

So, the latest project is taking shape:


This is the "Mouseboat" designed by Gavin Atkin as a "OSD" (One Sheet Design), meaning it can be built out of one standard size sheet of plywood. Not strictly true, as the decks will have to come from a second sheet, as well as the two frames - but the hull all came from one sheet!

There are two reasons for building this - one is that the local kids keep messing about on "Platanna" where she is moored on the river bank, so I want to move her to the other side of the river and I need a little boat to get there and back. The other reason is to see if there is a market in out not so sleepy little village for a boat of this kind. Market night is in two weeks' time, so that is my deadline for getting the little mouse finished.

So, lots of glassing, gluing sanding, and painting to be done!

:)

Now that I'm back...

...I need another project (between cruises):


This is a model I knocked up this morning, after spending a few hours converting the imperial plans to metric, of what's known as the "Mouseboat" - an OSD (one sheet design) stitch-and-glue paddling boat. A standard sheet of plywood is 1220x2440mm (4'x8') and to get a useful boat out of that is quite difficult, but we will try, starting tomorrow!!

Cool, I'm building another boat!!!

:) :) :)

There and back again!

Well, after an e-mail from our estate agent in London quoting us £1700.00 (!!) to repaint our place, we decided it was cheaper to do the job ourselves; so off I was for a week in the sun (ha, ha) in the smog - £700.00 for the air ticket and about £75.00 for paint. Job done - let's go shopping! No, not really; we're on a strict budget, so only a couple of boaty things and baby toys came back to Africa with me.


After painting, couldn't wait to get back to the sun (no smog or traffic or people for that matter), and had my first cruise booking within a day - London, or this?:


And now back into it - the cruise bookings are rolling in, and we're looking forward to a really busy season.

:) :)

She's done, painted and afloat!

Been too busy to blog, and here's why:


A race against time to meet the local bird fair (which started yesterday), but we made it. Launched on the 30th, first booking the next morning.

Weather today was a bit mizzy, so no trips - no rest either, as I was putting a web site together. Maybe tomorrow I can sleep?

Here's hoping!

Later.

Skip.

:)

Gone!

And not too soon.


Now to start on the other boat, Platanna - anyone know anything about Hamilton Jet Drives?


What a mess, but mostly a clean-up job rather than a repair.

Here's to a summer's cruising!!

Cheers,

Skip

:) :)

By A Country Smile: A river runs through it…

Oh!?

Blogged by another blogger!

Nice trip Fred, thanks for coming!

Skip.

:) :)