Made it to Cromwell!

6 hrs of fighting the Trent, against the flow has left me needing beer, fortunately The Muskham Ferry has moorings :-).

Some cool old vans and trucks

Made it to Torksley lock!

Well we got to torksley!

Keadby Lock

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Keadby to ?

We're off again at 11 today, out through Keadby lock and onto the tidal trent. Pics to follow!

On the way...

Well the engine problems have been resolved and we are now on our way :-)
I can't express my relief enough! We have
Some long days ahead to try to get As close to Welford as we can. I'll be navigating single handed at the weekend, so another steep learning curve to come!
Aquanomad.

Still broken!

Well, we're still stuck, but now in Thorn, got an engineer looking at it tomorrow. Gonna warm my bank manager...
Oh, the pic is of fine vessel we say along the way :-)

Humber River

The Trent

Didn't get too many pic's of the Trent as I spent most of the time fighting the tiller, i've got a few more to upload when i've got the laptop charged and hopefully get more tomorrow if we get going.
I hope we do as i'd like to get going!
Aquanomad.

Baptism of fire!

Well, it's been the steepest learning curve i've ever attempted. 7 miles of the humber in a flat bottomed boat is not for the faint hearted. Our engine died 2 mins into the trip because it had a water leak and over heated, we managed to get to Keadby, twinned with roysten vasey btw, and have been promised a tow to the next boat yard so we can get her looked at. Despite the problems, i'm having the most amazing time. that's all I can be arsed to write now, more tomorrow! Aquanomad.

Bullseye!

Hmmmmm...

Ready to go!

Well i'm packed and ready to go, just a few hours sleep and a train journey left between me and my new life as a river hobo.

No fixed abode as an address might affect my (rather good) credit rating, but hey, no more rent and no more council tax might offset the need to borrow money.

Next i'd like to find a four legged security system, might have a boxer cross pup, but that was an offer in passing a few months ago, but if the pups anything like the mum, i'd love one, so i guess i should chase it up.

Right bedtime, keep it mexico...

AquaNomad

48hrs

As well as being one of Mr Murphy's' finest movies, it's also the amount of time before i set off to pick up Jasmine.

It's been a long couple of weeks, I've bought weird bits of metal that allegedly stop my boat from floating down river, fluorescent things that stop me sinking if Jasmine kicks me off, over £100 on locks and been ripped off on eBay. Twice.

But, you know, I really hope I'll have enough fun in the next 10 days to take the sting away from being ripped off, keep the fluorescent things dry, make the bits of metal less weird and If some Chav wants to test my locks, I'll hit them with my baseball bat. Twice.

Oh yeah, i bought a baseball bat too.

Packing my stuff!

Been busy packing my stuff, well the stuff i can take on the boat, the rest I'm selling.

I've actually got less crap than i thought. Result!

Damn!

Been looking for a canoe for a bit of river fun/exercise and they seem to be about £300+

if anyone has one for sale at a reasonable price, give me a shout!

Went to see my mates band (Austin, he's the one on the left).

They were rather good!

Amazing!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197416/The-river-heavens-The-canal-127ft-sky-thats-officially-wonder-world.html

Plans, plans, plans...

Well I've crewed the boat, and i think I've done rather well.

My adopted big sister Lisa will be joining me for the first leg and Tom, Claire and their daughter, Daisy will be joining me for the 2nd leg.

I'm definitely pleased with the crew, all members have unique skills, none of which apply to navigating a boat.

I've been looking at serious side of the 1st leg and the 6 mile run down the River Humber in particular, so life jackets have been bought and I'm looking into a VHF radio and GPS.

The point at which we'll join the Humber is about 2 miles wide so it's pretty much like the Pacific Ocean as far as I'm concerned.

I'm also trying to get a weekends worth of training in and do the helmsman's certificate before this first leg. If i was only going to be on canals i wouldn't bother, but tidal rivers and estuaries can be quite unforgiving.

Scary!!

Been looking at some maps and one thing i neglected to check was the route home with Jasmine.

Apparently I've about 6 miles of the River Humber to navigate.

A quick search on t'interweb showed me this picture...

...of narrowboats on the Humber

I think I need a bigger boat, bigger balls and, after seeing this, new underwear.

Here goes!

Well I did it, I bought a boat!

'Jasmine' is a 53 ft cruiser stern narrowboat, and my new home.

Here she is!

I bought her form a lovely man named Andy, his rather sad change in circumstances led him to sell the boat as it had too many memories attached to it, I won't go into it, but lets just say it left me a little misty eyed.

So now i need to get it from Scunthorpe to London and am taking applications for crew members now. As i have about 20 mins experience as a skipper i'd take any offers, if you've even only seen a narrowboat, you're in with a shot!

I'll have to stop acting like a 5yr old at xmas, who also needs the dentist (meaning I'm excited, scared and any other emotion you care to mention) to get through the next few weeks as i transform from living in the lovely Jewish community of Stamford Hill to being the AquaNomad.

Peace and fucking!

AquaNomad.

Saw this while out today, the most amazing little junction on the Grand Union. I guess with a bit of talent and a decent camera i might have captured this properly.

Decision made

Well this 70 foot monster will not be my boat, just too much needs doing :(
Shame because I really liked it, but repairs running into 5 figures left me feeling uneasy.

Plenty more boats on the cut ;)

It's a bloody big boat!

Brian likes the seating area at the bow (the pointy bit at the front).

Still not made a final decision yet...

Could this be my new boat?