The Biggest Hobo

(Sorry this post has taken so long to put up, we're having endless nightmares with the internet. Normal service will hopefully be resumed shortly...)


"There's a voice, that keeps on calling me. Down the river, is where i'll always be..."

So, we did it! We finally moved from our temporary home up the Thames near Staines to our long hoped for dream location jut downstream from Tower Bridge. Ever since we bought the boat, nearly a year ago, we’ve been waiting for a spot here, and so when it finally came up we couldn’t wait to cast off the lines and set sail.

First of all there were preparations to be made. We tidied the wheelhouse and engine room up, which easily become dumping grounds for clutter.

Filled up the diesel tank and tested the engine


And prepared some tire fenders, putting lengths of hose through the holes drilled in tires so that the steel mesh inside didn’t shred the ropes.

Then, surprisingly soon, it was time to go. It was strange to leave our berth, from which we hadn’t moved since last year, but great to be moving, to feel the ‘boatiness’ of our home which had sometimes felt just like a flat, so calm was the water where we were.


The first hurdle, and the thing we had been warned about with grisly relish by several people, was Chertsey Bridge. It is tricky to get through with a large barge as you have to exit the lock just upstream and then quickly cut across the current in order to line up with the low and narrow arch of the bridge, without getting pushed over sideways by the current and ending up pinned sideways against the bridge.



It was a nerve wracking few minutes, but Stefan our skipper handled it with ease and soon we were through and making stately progress down the Thames.

Our friend Steve had come down for the ride and did a great job on tea and biscuits duty

And we made our way through several locks and round the winding bends of the river as the sun slowly set behind us.







Eventually, just as darkness fell, we got to Hampton Court and moored up, and Steve and Stefan went home for the night

but Lorna arrived, having been at work all day and missed the adventure. In order to save the batteries we lit dozens of candles and had a fun night camping out, ready for the second leg the next day.

In the morning I had a new shipmate, Matt, who got up unfeasibly early in order to join us at 7am, and Lorna abandoned ship once again, to go to work.


With Matt aboard we set off down towards the tidal Thames, which is everything below Teddington lock.


Driving the boat through central London was great fun,



and in no time we were down past Tower Bridge and in sight of our new home.


We had to moor up in a temporary spot on the edge of the mooring and wait for high tide in order to get onto our spot, so with some nifty manouvering in windy conditions Stefan brought us in and we moored up.



Once high tide came we then came round to the downstream end of the mooring and with lots of effort, ropes, shouted instructions and no time to take pictures we shouldered our way into a space between two other boats, dropped lots of fenders down, took a deep breath, and relaxed.

So, we are now in our new, VERY central spot, with Tower Bridge in front of us,

and Canary Wharf behind,

and the boat snug between one of the collar barges that form the mooring, and a huge Spitz very similar to the one we were moored next to on our old mooring.

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re very happy to be here.

clearing the decks

All this work, particularly on the roof, has generated a spectacular amount of rubbish on deck,

and eventually the time came to take it all to the recycling centre. Lorna was undaunted by the mammoth task,

and loaded up the car while i concentrated on the important job of generating more rubbish by continuing to rip up the roof.

A couple of trips to the tip and the decks are looking a lot more like a boat and less like a council tip.

Glorious (galvanic) isolation

Inspired by the good folks on Hendrik we have bought a Galvanic Isolator which prevents galvanic corrosion due to the tiny electrical charge in the hull from the electrical systems on board. We haven't actually installed it yet, not wanting to die by touching the wrong wire, but it will soon be up and running and there'll be one less reason for me to lie awake at night imagining the hull just fizzing away like a giant soluble aspirin.

Once you've eliminated the impossible...

...whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

No, we dont have a squid living under the boat, this is the result of two of the finest minds on the boat (vortex sat this one out) trying to work out where the outlet was for the sink in the captain's cabin. We would drain the sink, but despite there being a likely outlet on the outside of the hull no water ever came out, and it wasn't pouring out inside the boat either. By the careful application of black ink, we discovered that there is indeed an outlet just under the water line, and this is the evidence.

Case solved, the company put on it's hats and went out.

slapping it on

One of the things that Lorna has been doing to relax after all the wanton destruction of ripping the roof apart and messing around with fibreglass is to keep gradually working on the anchor winch. The other day she painted the rims of the big handles black, which looks great.


While she had the black hammerite out she painted the front bollards too, as bitumen paint just rubs off stright away.


I've been doing a bit of painting too. One of the things we really wanted to do before we moved was to get the mast/crane mended and up. Unfortunately, due to the welder being on holiday until just after we move, that isn't going to happen, but i've made a start by beginning to prepare the big horizontal spar which had been languishing down the side of the roof and which was in dire need of some tlc.

This was a great chance for me to have a good go with my new favourite toy, the grinding disc on the nagle grinder, so i set to work and started getting it nice and shiny.


before giving it a good coat of white.


We've also been doing some painting inside, getting the hull wall of the end bedroom nicely rust busted and covered with a good coat of hammerite so that we can stick a load of insulation in there, seal it up, and not think about it for several years.


We've also been doing some thinking and experimenting to determine the feasibility of building a built in cupboard into the underhang of the hull wall...