What I've been up to.

 It seems a few people were wondering what I've been up to between my two last post which were in January and then mid April. Well here's a quick photographic tour of some of the highlights. I don't normally do posts when we're not at the boat, but there are some boats shown below so you can't complain.

January

A visit to Portsmouth to drop off a guitar of mine to be refurbed by a specialist.  Having time to spare we went on to the D Day museum to look at the amazing D Day tapestry which stretches almost round the whole building. Well worth a visit.

and of course we had to get on a boat so here is Kath on the bridge of a landing craft

There's always something to see down by the harbour. Here's the Isle of Wight Ferry pulling in to it's berth. I hope the skipper is paying attention, there ain't much room for manoeuvre.

and February is the month when we get excited to see the first spring flowers in the churchyard behind our house

 

Who wouldn't want a back garden like this?

Then in March I drove all the way up to Blackburn for the funeral of an old friend Gordon and on the way back dropped in to see our grandson Jacob in West Didsbury, Manchester, so we went out to dinner at a lovely Persian restaurant called Pomegranate.  Who needs a photo of Jacob when you can feast your eyes on this instead?

 Our garden at home was waking up by March and ship's cat Gertie was exploring in the hellebores.  This is about as tidy as our garden gets.

Still in March we spent a weekend in Cambridge with our son Peter and once again a food photo shows the highlight. Turkish breakfast at our favourite Cafe Camtown hidden away on a back street well away from the city centre.

and so to April when we went (sort of) to the theatre to see Steve Coogan in Dr Strangelove - a belter.  When I say 'sort of' because we actually watched the National Theatre production from our local cinema.  It's a great way to see the theatre without the bother and expense of going to London and they do make you feel like you are there (and you get close ups)

The man took ages to fix my guitar (he did a great job though) and it was only last week that we went back to Portsmouth to pick it up, so we treated ourselves to lunch at our favourite pub in Old Portsmouth, first visited when I was a student there way back in the 1960s. It's a gem.  Here's Kath on the patio.

It's not every day you eat lunch whilst looking at an aircraft carrier. Here's a better view of it from our table inside the pub.

So you see I've been having quite a nice time in between doctors appointments, Covid jabs and clearing up the garden.  And now here we are back on Herbie.  The plan had been to go home today to see Jacob who is visiting his mum, our daughter Claire, then they had the bright idea to come up to us here on Sunday, so we're staying on and I can do a bit more on Herbie's roof. 

Like all these jobs it gets worse before it gets better, but I now feel I have the right tools for the job and bit by bit, we'll get there.

Meanwhile Gertie has overcome her fear of her new surroundings and is beginning to go off exploring for long periods. She comes back when she's hungry.

 More soon.

Eating the elephant

 A request has flooded in from our old pal Rainman asking me to do a blog post. I've almost forgotten how to do it, it's been so long.

Well we are back on Herbie at last, although not out cruising yet. After the long wet winter, floods and mud, I thought I'd better sort the garden out before boating, then we had a number of medical appointments etc etc.  Anywhere we're here now for a few days and of course the weather has got worse. It's really windy today.

Herbie has over wintered very well internally. We left a couple of cheap moisture trap thingies inside and the interior was dry as a bone.

Ship's cat Gertie has been refamiliarising herself with the boat and our corner of the marina.  Fun seeing her see a swan for the first time - a mixture of fascination and terror.

There's lots and lots to do on Herbies paintwork and you have to take the first bite of the elephant somewhere, so I've made a small start on the handrail.  You may recall I pulled of the old wooden handrail top last autumn.  Here's a pic to show how the wood sits on the metal.

of course in due respect to sods law many of the old retaining screws chose to break off rather than unscrew, leaving little studs or nibs or whatever you call 'em. I didn't count them but one every foot or so

so I decided to hand file them off before attacking the surface with a scratchy thing on the angle grinder. Here's before filing and after

Aquavista's Ts&Cs say that you're not supposed to use noisy dusty power tools at your berth, but the lady next door says that people do and no one has complained so the angle grinder is the next job.

It'll never come really smooth and flat with all that pitting, so then it'll be a choice if using a filler and painting over to finish, or just painting then putting new wood back on top.  The wood is a bit of a pain because although it looks and feels nice it seems to need repainting much more often than the metal. We'll see.

Then the whole roof needs rust spotting and repainting, which I've done a couple of times before, one section at a time. I think next time I'll use a harder surface paint than the raddle I used before.

So it feels like we're back on track a bit.  We have to go home on Friday but we'll be back soon.

Some time later.

I had an experimental go with a scratchy pad thingy on the angle grinder (never really used one before) and it looks like its easy to get rid of rust and flaky paint with it. I was back to bare metal in seconds.  Gertie didn't like it though.  Next job is to try an experimental go at putting filler in a sort section of the handrail to see how smooth I can get it. One step at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day (but probably quicker than HS2 ).

Dry January Wet January

This is supposed to be a blog about our boating but that doesn't seem very possible lately  (see below) but  it's also a diary for me so here is what you might call a note of the times.

Only three more days left of dry January and a nice bottle of Bordeaux Superior waits patiently until Saturday to accompany our once a month treat of a steak dinner. Outside however it is Wet Wet Wet (a popular beat combo m'lud).

Our so called lawn is like a field left after the battle of the Somme. We try to keep off it in the wet but the bird feeders have to be topped up and the washing has to be hung up on the rare occasions it's not actually raining.  In all my 78 years (Yes, I know! Shocking isn't it) I can't remember a wetter winter.  Not only that but the gales have brought down a ton of dead branches and twigs from our mighty lime tree and they all lay there on the so called grass.  Going out there to clear them will only make for more mud so they'll have to wait. Just like Herbie is having to wait for us to get going.

Going boating is hardly an option. Towpaths are a quagmire down the Oxford and some locks (notably Banbury) are impassable in an unpredictable fashion. If we went down there we might not be able to get back. As to our marina at Cropredy, the residents are up in arms about the state of the access roads and the car park. Cropredy lies at the bottom of a steep sided valley and the water table is quite high. On a number of occasions this winter, the facilities have been flooded and the roadway is full of wet potholes.  I think they are organising a working party this week to fill the worst potholes but a more permanent solution is needed.  Aquavista claim to be considering what to do.  We shall see.

Meanwhile we do have the first signs of spring. In the graveyard behind our house the first wild crocuses are emerging 

In a couple of weeks' time they'll be like they were in February last year.

If and when we get back to Herbie you can be sure I'll have something more to say.

In the meantime keep yer feet dry.  Toodle Pip.

A Herbie Christmas Message

Merry Christmas dear readers.  My, haven't I been neglecting you lately! Sorry about that, and sorry not to have got round to the usual Herbie Awards this year.  The only (feeble) excuse I have is that it's hard to type when a cat is sitting on your keyboard.

The only stay we had on Herbie recently was something of an adventure because it was during storm Darragh. Unsurprisingly we didn't leave our moorings. Well we did a bit, because the wind was blowing us off our pontoon as far as our mooring ropes would allow and the boat was rocking as if we were out at sea.  being on a pontoon at the end of a row means that we have open water on one side and it so happened that the wind direction was pushing us away.  Gertie the ship's cat was somewhat disturbed as were Kath and I. Here she is looking out of the window at the storm while hanging on for dear life.

I had to get up in the middle of the night to tie up the swan neck because the rudder was baning against its stops as the waves crashed into it. 

You probably can't make it out from the photo but one of the boats in tha backgrounsd is called Tranquil Waters.  Ha!!

I'd made a mock up of Herbie's name to try out on the side of the boat and stuck it on with little magnets.  In that wind it was not a trivial task so it's somewhat (ok, rather more than somewhat) skew whiff, but it gave me a better idea of the dimensions to aim for. 

I think it might be a bit too chunky. It's scaled up from Bookman Old Style font, but I think it was from the bold version. I might try it again without the bold.

The reason we were staying on the boat was that the  Marina had scheduled a moorers Christmas bash with mince pies, mulled wine, carol singing and boats decorated with fairy lights.  In event, no one was surprised (but many were relieved) when the  do was postponed because of the weather.

I popped back to Herbie yesterday to fit a safer way of tying up whilst allowing the boa=t to rise and fall in flood conditions.  The week before we were there the water had risen by over a foot and staff had to rush round loosening everyone's ropes.  That sounds like something worthy of a Herbie Award. For some reason the mooring ring on our pontoon seems to be positioned for a 40 foot boat even though the pontoon is about 56ft long.  Herbie is 50 ft. So here is my solution for now.  Not ideal but it should hold.

And so dear reader, we look forward trepidatiously to 2025.  This has to be the year when we get Herbie's exterior paint work back up to scratch (mm that's an inappropriate choice of word, but you know what I mean.) Another non trivial task but I've been assembling the right tools and have a plan of sorts.  Let's hope the weather allows it to go ahead.

In the meantime have a lovely Christmas and New Year and we'll see you on the other side.

Neil & Kath & Gertie

A new design for Herbie's name

 Following my signwriting course I've not only been practising brushwork at home but also thinking about repainting Herbie's name on the side of the boat.  From all the hundreds of typefaces /styles/fonts (call them what you will) available which one should I choose?  Well I haven't decided but over the winter I'll experiment with a few, drawing them up more or less full size.  The one below use three sheets of A3.  The first one of these uses Bookman Old Style font . I might have a go actually painting a couple of letters, maybe E and R, from it to see how hard it is. I'm still not all that good with brush control and this time I'm not using masking tape except maybe for top and bottom edges. 

Apologies for my shadow there and that it's a bit faint - it's just pencil. Perhaps I'll go over it with a black felt tip pen.   Here's a closer look at a part of it.

I quite like its chunkiness compared with what is on Herbie at the moment. I just noticed that I had omitted the blocking on the outside top half of the R. Doh!  

I was never happy with the letters E on the current one. Notice on the pencil one I have the 'blocking' on the right whereas on the boat I did it on the left. I think I prefer the right. The 'new' one also has deeper blocking.  

On the course, Joby Carter told us we'll never look at letters the same way again.  He was dead right; everywhere I go I'm looking at the detail of lettering.

As I try other styles I'll post them here in case anyone has an opinion to share.

A bit too much afloat

 Major problems at Cropredy Marina yesterday thanks to storm Bert.  The moorers' facebook group was showing alarming pictures of flooding all round the marina and in the village too. I don't think I can show them here because they are not my pictures. 

 The staff have been out slackening everyone's ropes to prevent the boats from being pulled over as the water rose so high. Now I read that there have been a lot of electrical problems because of shore line plugs being submerged.  I dare say that applies to ours.  There's not much we can do as we are at home where we've had some rain but not a lot.  We have to be so grateful to the marina staff who have worked through the night with the help of some resident moorers to attend to the safety of some 300 boats.  However they've found the time to keep us updated by regular emails.  We'll be going back to the boat in a couple of weeks so we'll see then if Herbie has been affected in any way.

On top of the boat issues the flooding has hit the facilities buildings and various bits are out of action and of course the car park has been under water.  The access road to the marina looked like a river.

I really can't understand why so many people deny the climate change science.  I would have thought it would be obvious by now that it's really happening.  I know there have always been floods, but not at the frequency they are coming nowadays.  I sue to have a dream of having a house by the river. I don't think I'd want one now.

Job's a Good'un

 The restoration of Herbie's hinged aft hatch lid is complete, no thanks to me. All the thanks go to my mate Rick who has lovingly and skilfully turned this

into this

Not a simple job because he had to cut away the old rotten plywood without damaging the 1mm thin fibreglass exterior wrapping and replace it with good solid hardwood, butting the new wood accurately against the remaining good old stuff. See where the old white bits meet thenew  brown bits at the side edges.

Tricky when working up against the outer skin.  I could never have done it so well. It'll see me out now, that's for sure. Future owners will appreciate the work wonder who RCB is

The hatch cover was originally made by Herbie's prevoius owner Roy, whose wife Val found the usual sliding type of hatch difficult so he came up with the hinged ideaI with built in props to hold it open, rather like the gas struts on a car boot. It's always been a good hatch cover, solid, (actually surprisingly heavy), secure and rainproof, but plywood always de-laminates eventually. The hatch has now had a good exterior repaint too so to do it justice I really have to work hard next spring when Kath and I are going to do a lot of Herbie's exterior paintwork which if you recall, we started earlier this year.

Thanks again Rick, you're a star!

Signwriting course - final two days

 On Thursday, we were all thinking about our final pieces to take home. Much planning and practising going on with Joby giving advice about letter spacing. I opted to stick with my TEA sign, hoping that I could get my straight lines straighter.  More arty people were dreaming up words with fancy fonts.

This time I got better with the pounce pad and managed to transfer my pattern in clearer dusty dots onto the board. It seems you have to rub rather than bash with the pad.  Joby did a lesson on how to draw shadows from your '3D' block letters.  This is not a simple thing to get right, and he showed us many examples of how professional signwriters have got it wrong.  As Joby usually does, he has worked out a simple method to get it right.  Sadly, simple though it is, you really need to see it, so don't expect me to duplicate it here. Sorry about that.

I did manage to get my lines straighter after another hour or so of practicing  boxes and by Friday morning I had my basic letters done and was ready to do the blocking. I decided to do this in two shades of green with the darker shades being where the light would not fall.  Here I am with the lighter shade on the sides

Then after waiting for that to dry, the underneath bits.

Its hard to put one colour accurately positioned against another so little gaps are visible on mine.  Partly it's just nervousness about making a mistake.  Something that can only be overcome with practice, which I why I bought enough stuff to take home and practice over the winter.

At the last minute on Friday afternoon I decided to put some little embellishments on the letters.  Little dots and lines on the pink bits.  Again being super cautious they are barely visible in the final photo - another example of needing to develop confidence in brush strokes.

So am I now a good signwriter?  Goodness gracious no!  This course is fascinating and thorough and you do by the end understand how to do it, but actually doing well it is a skill you have to develop over a lot of practice.  Everybody on the course learned loads of stuff and I think we'll all go on to develop better skills.  I would think about 70 percent of those attending want to go on to be able to earn money by writing signs or to do signs for their own businesses.  Others like me just wanted to learn and perhaps do some stuff for their own personal use.

So how would I sum up the course?  Is it enjoyable?  Yes. Is it thorough? Yes. Joby is a true master of his craft and he happily gives away all his trade secrets and tricks and tips, so I wouldn't think anyone teaches it better. And as he says, you will never look at lettering the same way again.  It's true, you do notice all sorts of detail you didn't see before.  You will by the end have a good understanding of letters, techniques, materials etc. It's not an easy (or cheap)  course and the days are long and quite tiring.  

Would anyone who completed the course be able to paint the name on their narrowboat?  Some would. If you want it to look reasonably professional you have all the information and tricks you need to do it.  With that knowledge, it's all about how good you are at handling a brush which is not as easy as you might think.. For the rest of us, with a bit more practice I don't see why not, as long as you don't expect to be anything like as good as the top guys like Phil Speight or Dave Moore etc.

Signwriting course days 2 & 3

 Day 3 was a bit depressing.  It started off well enough with me drawing out the name HERBIE in a font called Clarendon.

This I managed to do pretty well, while some others on the course struggled with scaling up their words.

Next we were asked to prick round the lines of our work and 'pounce' them onto our paint boards. Pouncing is a method whereby you used a powder filled pad to dab and wipe over your pricked holes which leaves a join the dots pattern on the board behind.  I found the result somewhat faint which didn't help at all when it came to painting on the board. My results were depressingly poor.

Not at all helped by the fact that Valentin sitting next to me did a fantastic job on his piece.

Valentin has come all the way from Brazil to do the course! As you can see, he's good!

We decided my main problem was using too large a brush for the size of the letters, and not pouncing strongly enough so I couldn't see where I was going.

So today I decided to choose a shorter word with larger scale letters - still in Clarendon and reverted to my TEA from earlier.  First of all though Joby showed us how to 'block' the letters with some neat tricks to get quick and accurate results.  He asked us to practice on the letters I A O and V to experience different shapes and angles.  Using Joby's tips and tricks I was able to knock this up quite quickly, although I'm not too sure about the O.

So then I set about blocking out and pricking TEA, then pouncing it onto the board ready for painting.

Joby suggested just painting the blocking first as an experiment, so using a smaller brush this time and having clearer pouncing I managed to produce this, which I rather like.

Then I did the letters without block, again not perfect but I'm improving every time.

You can just make out the block pouncing there.  It all gets a bit grubby but it all wipes clean quite easily. Far from perfect but quite an improvement from my earlier efforts.  Remember the actual painting is entirely freehand - no rulers or masking tape.

Tomorrow is the final day and the plan is to repaint the word (or words in some people's cases) with blocking and possibly shadows, which Joby will teach in the morning.  Some people are doing signs with smaller letters and different fonts.  I'm concentrating on larger chunkier lettes such as you m ight see on the side of a narrowboat.

Then we'll have a finished article to take away at the end, along with a copy of Joby's excellent and comprehensive signwriting book and three signwriting brushes (included in the cost of the course) - plus any signwriting materials and equipment we choose to buy.  I think most of us will be buying quite a few items to continue practicing at home.

Signwriting with Joby Carter

Today was day two of my introduction to proper sign writing, a course taught by Job Carter of the well known but now sadly defunct Carter's Steam Fair.  

The course is over five consecutive days and Joby teaches 15 students on each course. I think he said he will have done ten of these this year.

The workshop where the course is held has a lot of inspiration round the walls.

It's hard - very hard.  The first day was OK.  We had to study some different type faces then draw them up at three times the scale on the page.  This meant accurately measuring each part of the letters.  The idea is to get you to really look at the letters in fine detail.  At the end of the day I had produced this.

On day two we started to learn to paint -first how to look after brushes, how to manage paint viscosity, how to hold a palette and mahl stick, then how to paint a straight line and a circle. No masking tape, just chinagraph pencil lines to follow. Everybody was finding it surprisingly difficult, especially to get a square edge at the top and bottom of the vertical lines. We spent hours doing it and were somewhat better at the end but far from perfect.  Actually circles were not so hard as straight lines, which was unexpected. Here I am practicing (actually I should have been holding my palette at the time but another student asked me to pose and I forgot the palette.)

Those lines look deceptively OK from here, but believe me they are far from it. When we get to the end of the board, we wipe it clean and start again.

For a break from our struggles, Joby gave us a tour of the yard where what remains of the fairground stuff is stored, along with more art work.

This stair panel was painted by Job's mum.  What can you say other than Wow!

and how's this for a nice bit of coach painting?

Later in the day, we were asked to choose a short word and draw it out to help understand correct spacing between letters.  Here's what I did.

I think tomorrow will be more of the same.  We are promised that by the time we leave on Friday afternoon we will each have produced a creditable hand painted sign to take away.  Hard to imagine right now!!

After some months more practice I may tackle repainting Herbie's name panel.  That's the hope.

Stay tuned for further reports.