Very quiet today

Its been a very quiet Tuesday here at Norbury, we have seen hardly anyone except for a delivery of paint and a delivery of new batteries, i have decided to start stocking 135 AH batteries, they have the same foot print as the 110's but are taller, needles to say that they are more powerful than the 110's and more expensive but i do think that people living on boats might just see the benefit of fitting them

Not to much to report today as i think that the ice has finally beaten us and we have now had to cancel a couple of surveys as we cannot get the boats in to the dock because the ice is just too thick, who said running a boat yard was fun!!

As promised yesterday i was out first thing this and have taken a couple of shots of the place, only a couple of shots as it was -11 at 8.30 this morning, enjoyUntil tomorrow Simon

Getting fed up now!

There is no let up in this weather and as much as the country side around us looks lovely covered in a blanket of snow and the trees have a most impressive frost on them, i am now really fed up with it! the canal freezes as soon as the ice is broken, the boats are that frozen that it doesn't look like they will ever defrost,the car doors wont open as they are frozen shut, the toilet waste pipes are now freezing and i cant feel my fingers! It is a real shame that we have had our camera stolen as i could get some cracking photos, if the freezing fog has lifted tomorrow i will take some on my phone and post them on the blog.

The place has been put back in order after the break in on Thursday night, we will have to have a new door though as the blighters have made a right mess of the old one.

The office and chandlery are 99% finished and in my absence over the weekend they have varnished my new desk, they do look after me! Just new carpet to go down now and that will be it.

I cant feel my fingers, my feet or any other extremities so I'm off home to sit in front of a roaring fire.

Simon

It's cold again...

I was wrong about the thaw! Here's a low resolution picture that I took this morning.


I have since broken all the ice with the day boat, but there are still huge icebergs floating around in the basin! Since then several boats off of the moorings have come down to use the services that we provide. There was a method in my madness, honest. I wasn't just doing it for the fun of it, but we needed to swap the boats in the wet dock and also get one out from down the arm. So Paul, Mick and Jamie are now battling with frozen ropes and slippery gunnels to move the boats around.

Lee has now finished the paintwork on the boat that he has had in the wetdock and Paul's put all of her accessories back on. There's still a few jobs left to do, but they can now be down outside.

Silhouette's on her way into the paint shop under her own power! There is a fair amount of paintwork required, including baremetalling the cabin top and regritting it - oh and I forgot changing the colour.

I think it's going to be another cold one tonight, so we will all have to batten down the hatches and keep in the warm!

Back over to Simon again tomorrow, so more from me next weekend!

David

Has the thaw begun?

The thaws begun, its even been raining today, but how long for? The forecast is for another freeze tonight. There's still plenty of snow about and thick ice on the canal.

One of our hire boats has set out on an adventure today, although they have only moved a hundred yards out of the basin and onto the visitor moorings in the hope that the ice will thin over the next 24 hours. Lets hope that they get to enjoy their winter break!

Other boats in the vicinity have started moving too, to top up with water, gas, diesel and coal and to empty their elsans and pump out tanks. That's keeping Fred occupied, although I did wish I had the camera earlier when I caught him sat inside a water tank on one of the shared owned boats. It hasn't got to the stage where he has to hide from me, he was actually busy painting it!

The engine in Silhoutte that Bernard has been fitting is nearly complete, Mick is just wiring it up and then we can hopefully run it tomorrow. She's then going into the wet dock for her painting work to be completed.

Paul's been fitting a gate valve in line between the diesel filler cap and the tank on one of our customers boats. The idea is that it will act as an anti theft device as access to the tank can only be gained when the valve is open. We've fitted a lot of these caps to boats that are kept in rural locations or are left unattended for long periods over the last 18 months. They've varied in design from the lockable filler caps kept on the shelf to a simple hinged arm that passes over the top of the cap and simply locks with a padlock.

Amanda's busy taking stock of everything we have got in the chandlery, making sure it's all in order and priced whilst Jay's busily painting.

The blog is looking a bit boring without any pictures so here's one of the last pictures that I took with the camera. That's Sue on Thea breaking the ice and passing under bridge 38 and entering the basin at Norbury last Sunday on her way back from the Anchor at High Offley.

Best regards,

David

Cold and busy day

Simon spoke too soon yesterday. "Not much happening", but it all happened here last night!

Mick opened his cabin doors this morning and heard our shop alarm going off. He came over to investigate, only to find that the shop had been broken into. Luckily the little rascals didn't get their hands on much, but they have still caused us a loss of about £3,000. That's made up with the stock and money that they took and the repairs that we have had to carry out.

Looking at the log on the alarm they made entry to the building at 2.22am this morning. It's unbelievable to think that they took such effort to get in, only to take so little. All I can presume is that they didn't expect our WWII air raid siren to start wailing! Anyway, they must of got cold while they were trying to make an entry as it was -13°C last night!

The biggest loss really is our new Sony digital camera that Simon and I used to take pictures to post on this blog and for advertising the brokerage boats. So unfortunately you won't be looking at any pictures for a few days, unless I take some with my mobile phone, but obviously the quality will not be as good.

Every one's been working hard to make the building secure again and to increase the security on all the areas around the yard. I think it's such a shame that you have to lock everything away even at this idyllic location, but I suppose you get rogues in all parts of the country, and especially at this time of year!

The police have luckily managed to get some foot prints and have taken most of the damaged items away as evidence. The silly sods even left their foot prints in the snow...

The ice had thickened on the canal this morning, but we broke it all as we've had a move around of boats in the basin and down the arm. It was about 5/6 inches thick down the arm and 3 inches in the basin. It's freezing hard again now, so it'll be even thicker tomorrow.

Lee's been busy painting boats in both docks, although the cold weather is slowing the job down. We've got sheets of ice in the dry dock, the size of table tops and 4 inches thick. I'll try and get some pictures for you tomorrow as it is most spectacular.

Let's hope it's a bit more peaceful tonight!!!

Until then...

David

Not much happening

Its been a quiet day, as you would expect seeing as there is snow and ice ever where! Only the usual suspects in today but we have been busy delivering coal, diesel and gas out to boaters that have got caught out in this weather, we do normally deliver coal within a ten mile radius so it is not that much different to our normal service except it isn't usually to boaters.

The lads have been busy as usual doing their jobs, some of which are running over slightly because of the weather, amazingly we have a couple of boats out this week and the cottage to get ready for the weekend so tomorrow it will be a bit busier, David has been catching up on paper work and i have been in the chandlery sorting out the stock and ordering more stock, i suspect that when the thaw happens we will be very busy.

I know that we keep saying it but the office is nearly finished and is looking superb! i cant take any photos today as the battery on the phone is dead and i only found out when i came to take some pictures this afternoon!

I'm off tomorrow for the weekend so David will keep you up to speed with the progress here at Norbury.

Simon

More snow

We have had more snow over night which has settled giving us about 4" Its was still snowing at 9.30 this morning, I love the place when its covered in snow, looks idilic but it is a night mare to work around! Some pictures from first thing this morning.