Cats on boats

How small is a narrowboat inside - it is so small our cats have to find interesting places to sleep.






How do you keep cats on boats? This seems to puzzle people, how cats can be quite happy on narrowboats. Most people think they will get lost, and although it does happen sometimes, the cats know the smell of home it is just the garden that changes. In fact the cats seem much happier now that they have worked out that every few days they get a new dominion of mice and shrews to terrorise and eat. One word of warning, do not let cats out if you are on a deadline for travelling as they will come back when they want - and will climb a tree if you try to hurry them along. Here are some pictures of Mabel and Shelly enjoying the life.  And if you do get fed up with the cats -  see www.webuyanycat.com.

The story so far -vintage engines

This is the first posting and once I have got the hang of it, hopefully, there will be more to follow on a more frequent basis.

The great narrowboat adventure properly started from Stanstead Abbots in June when we collected our second boat Jarrett. This boat has a 1930s vintage Gardner engine and we quickly learned that a vintage engine introduces you to a whole new world. Our Colecraft boat has a nice new Beta Marine engine that (touchwood) has had no problems. The Gardner had been  lacking in TLC so Adrian had to quickly learn how to strip down a governor, clean and rebuild the fuel systems. Fortunately a 4 cylinder 4LK is a big engine so it was like a Fisher Price my first engine. After lots of advice (many thanks Richard and Tony) the over-running has now been fixed although we will treat the engine to a full service sometime soon.

The other new world that the new boat has opened up to us, is the select club of vintage engine owners. At first I was somewhat annoyed to find perfect strangers peering into the boat, but I now realise everyone wants to look at what kind of engine you have and we have now started staring through engine hatches ourselves. In addition, going through locks, already a slow process, has now slowed down even more while men get to stare at engines.

Still it is all great fun and so far the vintage engine is proving great.