Last post for this morning, have work to do... but... here we go. Are we sitting comfortably?
I'm interested in cycle touring (I'm not a boater by nature!) (although I was born half a mile from the Stort Navigation) and 'accidentally' won a Dawes galaxy bicycle on Ebay 4 years ago. I picked it up in Liverpool on my way from Worcester to Inverness (overnight in Dufton Youth Hostel) and there it stayed until June 2012 when we picked it up again on our trip (via Uig in Skye!) from Birmingham to Worcester.
That June 2012 we made a a cycle trip along the Kennet and Avon Canal Bath to Reading, up the southern Oxford Canal, Grand Union Canal into Birmingham, and down the Worcester & Birmingham Canal to Lock 18 near Wychbold - my sister lives there. This trip was made on 2 different bikes - my green Dawes Galaxy collected from Reading (in April 2012) and a red Ladies Dawes Galaxy collected from Colne (in April 2012). These bikes were won from Ebay. I ripped them to pieces and rebuilt them so they were in 99% good order. My girlfriend had got interested in canals and I thought this would be a good theme for a cycle trip, to follow canals. It was a good trip. We came back alive and with photos.
Now... that blue Dawes Galaxy that I picked up in Liverpool... in Sept 2012 I had the crazy idea to go and collect it from my sister's house and ride it home to Finland. I made detailed plans but what happened is that I ended up driving my car to Drammen in Norway, dumping the car there, catching a plane from Oslo scareport to shitty old Gatwick (what a dump!) and taking trains to Droitwich Spa. I had a day to dismember the bike and rebuild it and off I set to cross England. I'll post the link below (I'm sure you've seen it before).
I had time to ride slowly around Harwich before the ship to Esbjerg departed, and I met a chap on a bike who was cycling with his friends to Copenhagen. I asked him what he thought of my back tyre, as someone had pointed out they thought it was worn out; he said it looked OK. We saw each other on the ship, and it ended up like this that I transferred 2 other bicycles that I had won from Ebay (both Dawes Galaxies) that were in my sister's garage taking up room to his spacious garage.
In May 2013 I set out on an epic journey to collect these bikes and bring them to Finland. By car across snowy Norway. (This is also written down as a 'crazyguy' journal - you can find it easily from the link - if you want to).
When I got to his place in southern Birmingham, he mentioned he had a narrowboat - and would we like to borrow it?
I said "Of course!" (thinking of my girlfriend and her interest in canals) - amd so we ended up in June 2013 taking it to Stratford-upon-Avon and back, and it was a very nice trip, no problems. We really liked the design of the boat, and as it was someone else's boat, didn't think about things other than to check engine coolant & water, etc.
In October 2013 I was on holiday alone for a week and borrowed the boat again - took it down the Tardebigge flight to Tibberton, 3 days out, 3 days back. Coming back included my surreal experience of doing all 42 locks alone up to 1130pm in the dark with the full moon shining. 24 locks in the evening, 18 locks in the morning - and in 3 hours, that's 6 locks/hour!! Very nice sunny morning, boat looked good sitting in the locks with smoke coming out of the chimney. No other boats (well, I started out at 5am!).
And that was that. I had thought we could buy a narrowboat when I retire and live on it and go round the country for 2 or 3 years, then sell the boat. However - January 2014 this chap tells us he is now selling 'Tempus Fugit' and are we interested in buying it... we made a list of pros & cons.... and said YES!
In March 2014 I went over and started installing our stuff and removing the previous owner's things.
In June 2014 we set off - with a Japanese girl on board who had never been on a canal boat before - I got her to steer through the Wast hill Tunnel and she did the 'hobbling' down the Tardebigge flight. She left us at Lock 18, and here we loaded our 2 bikes from my sister's house onto the boat. They lay on the roof during cruising. Bicycle components such as rear derailleurs I can bring home to Finland and clean.
June 2014 off we set towards Oxford, working on this boat all the time - steam-cleaning it first at Alvechurch Marina, scraping it all over, painting the roof 5 times. There had been money invested into this boat but it was also somewhat neglected - the engine 'ole was filthy. It's a story in itself, how we have tried to bring this boat 'up to scratch'. I won't go into that now, suffice to say we have spent hundreds of hours of our own labour into this project, in the aim of giving an old boat a new life. The boat is a Delph Marine build, about 27 years old - the engine is a Bukh DV10 about 29 years old.
Our aim is to 'continuously cruise' the whole country over a period of about 5 years, and then see shall we keep the boat another 5 years? And so on. We did think we could lend the boat to friends, as it's good to have the engine running, and also shows other people what the canals are all about, and what a different way to see England!
We still like the design of our little boat very much. It does seem as if the boat has found new owners in a rather mysterious way. We didn't go looking for it.
The name had to go, though - I think names in Latin is so pretentious - and there are another 6 'Tempus Fugits'. As we already had the 'Witch and Fox' theme going (another story there!) we decided that 'Witchy & Foxy' would be the name of our boat. A new name, a new life. new adventures, new friends. Some people I have met of Canalworld and Thunderboat seem genuinely nice, others seem a little strange, but despite differences, if we ever come across people in trouble then we'd like to, as canal novices, like to help out, and gradually earn our reputation.
So far I have had 2 warning imposed on me from Canalworld, and been called a 'Half-Wit' on Thunderboat. So I think we are doing quite well, all considered. Eh?!
Here's the link. How I ended up in Harwich and to an unknown fate:
www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=tS&doc_id=11398&v=Iq