Well, it's that time of the month again.
Friday night, high tide Scott moved Vita Nova. Unfortunately when she landed it was on the pile of stones Scott was trying to avoid so we tipped over (bit of a deja vu feeling here - didn't this happen last month?) Saturday lunch time tide we didn't manage to get her straight so we spent 24 hours at an angle until last night (early hours of this morning). I thought painting at an angle wasn't fun, living at an angle isn't either. Had to cook dinner without falling into the oven, hold onto everything that could possibly slide and untangle Saff out of a fold up chair when it fell over and collapsed with her in it.
So Saturday night (early hours of Sunday Morning) we moved! Vita Nova is out of her hole! I can't even get into one photo where she was and where she is now! The stern now faces towards the causeway, and we're on the other side of our moorings. Scott has ruined my modern art photos of the chain in a pile by pulling it tight again.
We seem to have moved into some kind of Bermuda Triangle though, everything that worked perfectly previously has stopped working. Took me about 20 minutes to connect to the internet and Scott can't get the TV to work at all. The wind generator was on overdrive last night, Scott had to dump the excess power into a heater, today you practically get blown over board and the wind generator is laughing in the face of the wind and not moving - maybe it's exhausted after last night!
Sunday, 28 October 2007
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Fun and Games - and work
First day working at gamestation today. Definitely need to go to work more often because Scott's got loads done.
He's done the deck round to the wheelhouse on one side, chipped off rust and painted up with red oxide.
He's moved a fishing pulley out of the engine room, haven't tried lifting it but it looks very heavy so how he managed to do that alone is beyond me
He's done more investigating of the flue, and sometime in between all this he washed up, cooked dinner, brushed the carpet and looked after Saff.
Just to finish the day nicely Scott's just spent 20 minutes investigating why we're going through petrol so quickly and fixing a hole in the fuel pipe of the generator
He's just shown me a load of pics he took on route today, will get those published tomorrow
He's done the deck round to the wheelhouse on one side, chipped off rust and painted up with red oxide.
He's moved a fishing pulley out of the engine room, haven't tried lifting it but it looks very heavy so how he managed to do that alone is beyond me
He's done more investigating of the flue, and sometime in between all this he washed up, cooked dinner, brushed the carpet and looked after Saff.
Just to finish the day nicely Scott's just spent 20 minutes investigating why we're going through petrol so quickly and fixing a hole in the fuel pipe of the generator
He's just shown me a load of pics he took on route today, will get those published tomorrow
Sunday, 21 October 2007
New Website - New Blog!
Getting good at all this website stuff now so we thought we'd have a new blog to go with the new website.
You can read previous posts from our old blog here
If you found this blog on google, or anywhere else for that matter make sure you visit our website
You can read previous posts from our old blog here
If you found this blog on google, or anywhere else for that matter make sure you visit our website
From previous blog October..........
Sunday, October 21st, 2007
Today we went to the Abbey FM (our local radio) first birthday party, Scott was trying to push me in front of a man with a microphone so we could get on radio but he ran away.On the way there we met another local chap, whose name we didn’t get (good at this name business aren’t we) who said he’s got 5 gallons of international paint if we want it. We really must improve on this introducing ourselves, and we’ll be along to collect the paint, thank you.We do have wind at the moment but Scott has to keep popping onto the roof to give the wind generator a nudge in the right direction. It’s not turning itself into the wind, so he needs to have a closer look.
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
Today Scott investigated the flue for our downstairs fire, we can only light it when the wind’s in the right direction or we fill up with smoke. He discovered a load of fibre glass insulation which has caused some of the flue to rust away.He also did some more work on the decks but Myrna walked through the paint just after he’d finished.
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Had a visitor this morning. Suddenly heard banging and before I even managed to get up, footsteps along the deck and a man standing at the door. he brought us an advert from Morrisons, someone is selling an engine and he saw it and thought of us because he’s been talking to Phil at The Concle. Sorry we didn’t get your name but thank you for thinking of us! Scott says the engine would be useful to get the winches going - only thing is we could do with the winches going to get the engine on the boat if we buy it! Scott also said we should get a door bell if we’re going to get visitors and not to worry we can get one that you don’t need an electrician to fit.Scott put the name signs up today, he did it as the tide was coming in in the hopes that I wouldn’t photograph him, but I risked wet feet and hotfooted down to the beach to get the pics.Scott also went down into the fish hold to take some photos which you can now see in our photo album
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Very windy again today - good for the wind generator but not much else. Re the lovely comments from Bryan and Lillian in the guest book. The fine vessel Vita Nova is in Cumbria, moored (or rather stranded) near the little known island of Roa. We haven’t managed to sink her yet, however we do manage quite a dramatic lean if we land wrongly after a high tide! We could really do with some crew member so you are welcome anytime - Scott’s having a little trouble tuning into The World Service, so any tips from Captain Fullastern would be much appreciated
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
I was woken up at 6 o’ clock this morning by torrential rain and rushed around in the dark finding towels and buckets to mop up and collect the water as it came into the bunk room, what I didn’t realise at the time was that as well as the leak I could see it was also going into Scott’s bunk. Scott has spent most of the day blocking up leaks, he’s now pleased he chose to sleep on an airbed instead of a mattress because when he woke up this morning he was floating! (Yes my parents did tell me a million times not to exaggerate).We got a message at lunch time from a chap driving past that there was some mail waiting for us at the pub (The Concle), so me and Saff rushed down there for 2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps (Ok Saff’s just informed me she had a coke and I had half a cider) The mail in question was a “letter” we sent to ourselves just to see if it would get here. It was addressed to Scott, Vita Nova (Fishing Trawler) The Causeway, Barrow in Furness. Well at least we know the postman has made the connection between us and the pub now. Forgot to mention swimming yesterday, Saff swam a whole width of the swimming pool without stopping. She’s really proud of herself and we’re proud of her too. She’s still got armbands at the moment but we take a bit of air out each week.Hey, anyway are you impressed? Two Daily Blog entries in two days!
DON’T FORGET IF YOU’VE COME HERE THROUGH vitanovaweb, VISIT OUR NEW SITE www.vitanova.me.uk
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Daily?! Blog?! The two words don’t fit together in my vocabulary! It’s a bit like Garlic?! Bread?!I do have a good excuse this time though - our webhost wasn’t doing what I wanted it to so as a result we’ve now got a new website which is in essence the same as the last one but better . So vitanovaweb will no longer be updated but it’ll still be there for a while, the website to visit now is vitanova.me.uk. The weather has taken a bit of a turn for the worse at the moment, which is delaying the outside work somewhat - however every cloud has a silver lining, and the wind generator is wizzing around merrily day and night at the moment. Solar power isn’t up to much - bought some solar lamps to go round the deck for if we arrive home late or need to go outside at night - be better off eating carrots!Got a parttime job at gamestation - knew my hours playing Sims weren’t wasted!Anyway, enjoy the new, improved website - tried to put a link from the old one but it’s not working properly again - and now that the new website is up and running you never know I might put some time into this blog!
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Ok daily blog is not strictly true - sorry didn’t think you’d really want a description of us going to the laundrette yesterday.Today I’ve painted the other name sign for the boat. Scott worked on the hatch which leads down into the bunkroom, putting new portholes in, his bunk’s at that side and it leaks when it rains.
Sunday, October 7th, 2007
Car Boot sale this morning. Got a bit delayed, thought the tide wasn’t going to reach us when we looked out at 9 o’ clock, wrong! 5 minutes later we were surrounded by water and didn’t end up getting off the boat until 11. Nothing really exciting there anyway -maybe we missed all the bargains.Scott did more work on the outside of the wheelhouse, more sunny weather, photos to follow on website when I can edit it again - still not fixed! Expecting bad weather from tomorrow, thanks dad, can’t possibly be nice for dad’s holiday.Saff is beginning to take a real interest in cooking, helped me make a stew today and said it smelt nice. She wouldn’t even consider eating it though as anyone who knows her would know.That’s all folks!
Saturday, October 6th, 2007
Absolutely glorious here today which was great for Scott getting more rust off the Wheelhouse and painting it up with red oxide but not much good for our green energy source.Me and Saff went into town to buy some fire cement, searched all round a major high street DIY shop which shall remain nameless, paid particular attention to the aisle with fires down it, eventually gave up and went to ask. Where was it? Down the plumbing aisle! Well obviously, people often light fires in their sinks and toilets!Whilst we were out Scott also cleared a blockage in the chimney in preparation for getting the fire going, it’s now glowing away merrily.After shopping me and Saff went and played on the beach for a couple of hours, in short sleeves - that’s how nice the weather was.Tomorrow Car Boot Sale - let you know what bargains were to be had.
Friday, October 5th, 2007
Went out looking for a job today, must say Gamestation have the best application form I’ve ever seen! Two pages, name address, phone number usual stuff then how many hours a week do you spend gaming, what games do you like to play - relevant to the job - not like some others I won’t mention by name eight pages and what qualifications did you get 20 years ago at school. For God’s sake I’m only applying for a temporary Christmas job not head of MI5. Scott did some work on the outside of the wheelhouse, it’s been a glorious sunny day today so outside work. Then we got a phone call about 6.30 to say our fire had arrived at the pub, The Concle Inn - great pub if you’re ever in the area pay a visit. Scott went down to pick it up. Cast iron multi fuel stove, ready for the winter. Scott’s just told me Phil, the landlord at The Concle offered to come and help get it aboard but Scott replied he’d just use me as a counterbalance! Not friendly, he gets me to sleep and sit on particular sides of the boat to act as ballast. Anyway it’s only a little stove but it was quite heavy. I pulled on a rope and Scott pushed whilst walking up the ladder calling “no sudden movements” All accompanied by Saff shining a torch towards us informing us “it’s too heavy and you’ll never get it up” Refusing to be defeated we did in fact get the stove to the top of the ladder and then down into the bunkroom, the chimney is already in place going up through the engine room and out the top of the wheelhouse so all we need now is some fire cement to seal it all up and Bob’s your uncle. Not that we’ve got any uncles called Bob that we know of.
Thursday, October 4th, 2007
Scott stayed up half the night again fathering the wind generator. We are now reconsidering solar power, the wind disappeared for about 24 hours after the installation of the wind generator but then started again and has charged the batteries. So, install solar power 24 hours of dull weather and then eternal sunlight?!I have painted one of the name signs for Vita Nova - with the assistance of Saff - so when it’s dry we’ll get it up and get a photo for the website. Scott has made a wardrobe downstairs by cutting a bit out of one of the bunks and filling it with boxes of clothes. Well it’s a step forward from living out of binliners.So another exciting day for the crew of Vita Nova draws to a close……..
Sunday, October 21st, 2007
Today we went to the Abbey FM (our local radio) first birthday party, Scott was trying to push me in front of a man with a microphone so we could get on radio but he ran away.On the way there we met another local chap, whose name we didn’t get (good at this name business aren’t we) who said he’s got 5 gallons of international paint if we want it. We really must improve on this introducing ourselves, and we’ll be along to collect the paint, thank you.We do have wind at the moment but Scott has to keep popping onto the roof to give the wind generator a nudge in the right direction. It’s not turning itself into the wind, so he needs to have a closer look.
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
Today Scott investigated the flue for our downstairs fire, we can only light it when the wind’s in the right direction or we fill up with smoke. He discovered a load of fibre glass insulation which has caused some of the flue to rust away.He also did some more work on the decks but Myrna walked through the paint just after he’d finished.
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Had a visitor this morning. Suddenly heard banging and before I even managed to get up, footsteps along the deck and a man standing at the door. he brought us an advert from Morrisons, someone is selling an engine and he saw it and thought of us because he’s been talking to Phil at The Concle. Sorry we didn’t get your name but thank you for thinking of us! Scott says the engine would be useful to get the winches going - only thing is we could do with the winches going to get the engine on the boat if we buy it! Scott also said we should get a door bell if we’re going to get visitors and not to worry we can get one that you don’t need an electrician to fit.Scott put the name signs up today, he did it as the tide was coming in in the hopes that I wouldn’t photograph him, but I risked wet feet and hotfooted down to the beach to get the pics.Scott also went down into the fish hold to take some photos which you can now see in our photo album
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Very windy again today - good for the wind generator but not much else. Re the lovely comments from Bryan and Lillian in the guest book. The fine vessel Vita Nova is in Cumbria, moored (or rather stranded) near the little known island of Roa. We haven’t managed to sink her yet, however we do manage quite a dramatic lean if we land wrongly after a high tide! We could really do with some crew member so you are welcome anytime - Scott’s having a little trouble tuning into The World Service, so any tips from Captain Fullastern would be much appreciated
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
I was woken up at 6 o’ clock this morning by torrential rain and rushed around in the dark finding towels and buckets to mop up and collect the water as it came into the bunk room, what I didn’t realise at the time was that as well as the leak I could see it was also going into Scott’s bunk. Scott has spent most of the day blocking up leaks, he’s now pleased he chose to sleep on an airbed instead of a mattress because when he woke up this morning he was floating! (Yes my parents did tell me a million times not to exaggerate).We got a message at lunch time from a chap driving past that there was some mail waiting for us at the pub (The Concle), so me and Saff rushed down there for 2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps (Ok Saff’s just informed me she had a coke and I had half a cider) The mail in question was a “letter” we sent to ourselves just to see if it would get here. It was addressed to Scott, Vita Nova (Fishing Trawler) The Causeway, Barrow in Furness. Well at least we know the postman has made the connection between us and the pub now. Forgot to mention swimming yesterday, Saff swam a whole width of the swimming pool without stopping. She’s really proud of herself and we’re proud of her too. She’s still got armbands at the moment but we take a bit of air out each week.Hey, anyway are you impressed? Two Daily Blog entries in two days!
DON’T FORGET IF YOU’VE COME HERE THROUGH vitanovaweb, VISIT OUR NEW SITE www.vitanova.me.uk
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Daily?! Blog?! The two words don’t fit together in my vocabulary! It’s a bit like Garlic?! Bread?!I do have a good excuse this time though - our webhost wasn’t doing what I wanted it to so as a result we’ve now got a new website which is in essence the same as the last one but better . So vitanovaweb will no longer be updated but it’ll still be there for a while, the website to visit now is vitanova.me.uk. The weather has taken a bit of a turn for the worse at the moment, which is delaying the outside work somewhat - however every cloud has a silver lining, and the wind generator is wizzing around merrily day and night at the moment. Solar power isn’t up to much - bought some solar lamps to go round the deck for if we arrive home late or need to go outside at night - be better off eating carrots!Got a parttime job at gamestation - knew my hours playing Sims weren’t wasted!Anyway, enjoy the new, improved website - tried to put a link from the old one but it’s not working properly again - and now that the new website is up and running you never know I might put some time into this blog!
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Ok daily blog is not strictly true - sorry didn’t think you’d really want a description of us going to the laundrette yesterday.Today I’ve painted the other name sign for the boat. Scott worked on the hatch which leads down into the bunkroom, putting new portholes in, his bunk’s at that side and it leaks when it rains.
Sunday, October 7th, 2007
Car Boot sale this morning. Got a bit delayed, thought the tide wasn’t going to reach us when we looked out at 9 o’ clock, wrong! 5 minutes later we were surrounded by water and didn’t end up getting off the boat until 11. Nothing really exciting there anyway -maybe we missed all the bargains.Scott did more work on the outside of the wheelhouse, more sunny weather, photos to follow on website when I can edit it again - still not fixed! Expecting bad weather from tomorrow, thanks dad, can’t possibly be nice for dad’s holiday.Saff is beginning to take a real interest in cooking, helped me make a stew today and said it smelt nice. She wouldn’t even consider eating it though as anyone who knows her would know.That’s all folks!
Saturday, October 6th, 2007
Absolutely glorious here today which was great for Scott getting more rust off the Wheelhouse and painting it up with red oxide but not much good for our green energy source.Me and Saff went into town to buy some fire cement, searched all round a major high street DIY shop which shall remain nameless, paid particular attention to the aisle with fires down it, eventually gave up and went to ask. Where was it? Down the plumbing aisle! Well obviously, people often light fires in their sinks and toilets!Whilst we were out Scott also cleared a blockage in the chimney in preparation for getting the fire going, it’s now glowing away merrily.After shopping me and Saff went and played on the beach for a couple of hours, in short sleeves - that’s how nice the weather was.Tomorrow Car Boot Sale - let you know what bargains were to be had.
Friday, October 5th, 2007
Went out looking for a job today, must say Gamestation have the best application form I’ve ever seen! Two pages, name address, phone number usual stuff then how many hours a week do you spend gaming, what games do you like to play - relevant to the job - not like some others I won’t mention by name eight pages and what qualifications did you get 20 years ago at school. For God’s sake I’m only applying for a temporary Christmas job not head of MI5. Scott did some work on the outside of the wheelhouse, it’s been a glorious sunny day today so outside work. Then we got a phone call about 6.30 to say our fire had arrived at the pub, The Concle Inn - great pub if you’re ever in the area pay a visit. Scott went down to pick it up. Cast iron multi fuel stove, ready for the winter. Scott’s just told me Phil, the landlord at The Concle offered to come and help get it aboard but Scott replied he’d just use me as a counterbalance! Not friendly, he gets me to sleep and sit on particular sides of the boat to act as ballast. Anyway it’s only a little stove but it was quite heavy. I pulled on a rope and Scott pushed whilst walking up the ladder calling “no sudden movements” All accompanied by Saff shining a torch towards us informing us “it’s too heavy and you’ll never get it up” Refusing to be defeated we did in fact get the stove to the top of the ladder and then down into the bunkroom, the chimney is already in place going up through the engine room and out the top of the wheelhouse so all we need now is some fire cement to seal it all up and Bob’s your uncle. Not that we’ve got any uncles called Bob that we know of.
Thursday, October 4th, 2007
Scott stayed up half the night again fathering the wind generator. We are now reconsidering solar power, the wind disappeared for about 24 hours after the installation of the wind generator but then started again and has charged the batteries. So, install solar power 24 hours of dull weather and then eternal sunlight?!I have painted one of the name signs for Vita Nova - with the assistance of Saff - so when it’s dry we’ll get it up and get a photo for the website. Scott has made a wardrobe downstairs by cutting a bit out of one of the bunks and filling it with boxes of clothes. Well it’s a step forward from living out of binliners.So another exciting day for the crew of Vita Nova draws to a close……..
From previous Blog.......
Sunday, September 30th, 2007
Ok think I’ve got the hang of this blog malarky now!I admit it’s not the most professional link to a blog I’ve ever seen but hey it does the job. Having sought “professional advice” the problems with our website are numerous - “no meta tags in the head of the document, theres no alt tags on the images, you’ve no text based links for the image links on the left and the text that you have on the home page - while cute - isn’t descriptive enough for the search engines” - thanks Richard!So anyway it’s a week since I put anything on here and no one was able to read it any way because I couldn’t link it to the website so here we go - a potted week in the life of Vita Nova.
New generator arrived Monday - how we ever existed before Ebay is quite beyond me. Unfortunately the generator had been damaged in transit and had a hole in the petrol tank - it never rains but it pours so they say, and that’s exactly what the petrol did straight out of the bottom. Scott temporarily fixed it and we’re now waiting for a new petrol tank.On Tuesday our wind generator arrived and is now fastened on to the wheelhouse roof - no cables for it yet though.
The rest of the week passed in a bit of a blur waiting for this weekends high tides.The intention was to pull Vita Nova out of her hole and a bit further towards Roa Island, however things did not go entirely according to plan……..Friday night (early hours of Saturday morning), Scott managed to turn the bow (front landlubbers) quite a few feet round to the port side (left landlubbers) but the stern (back landlubbers - ok getting bored of this now look the words up - check out interesting links on vitanovaweb) just didn’t move. The result of all this was we ended up leaning towards starboard at quite an angle as the tide went out and of course couldn’t do anything about it till the lunch time high tide the next day. We blamed Scott the next morning when Saffi’s drink fell over! So Saturday lunchtime Scott straightened her up only to tip her the other way Saturday night. Maybe he thinks we won’t have to buy me so many bottles of wine if he puts my whole life on an angle!So here we are Sunday - last night was spent straightening her out again, so we’ve moved a bit but are now straight again. We were wondering the last two nights how on earth we came aboard and did the work we did when she was on an angle originally - it’s really hard to deal with having got straight
Monday, September 24th, 2007
The day dawned bright and sunny. Scott’s task for the day was to work on the electrics, he’s trying to work out where all the wiring goes from the engine room, not easy when it’s all marked up in Dutch. So 20 minutes on babelfish translator later and still no wiser he was making it up as he went along - no change there then!The day took a turn for the worse when the generator decided to go pop. What really upset Scott was he’d spent half of Saturday servicing the generator to try and get enough voltage out of it.Every down has an up according to Scott and the upside of all of this is we’ve actually got around to ordering the wind generator we’ve been talking about. Unfortunately we also had to order a new petrol generator in case it’s needed to top up our batteries on non windy days
Sunday, September 30th, 2007
Ok think I’ve got the hang of this blog malarky now!I admit it’s not the most professional link to a blog I’ve ever seen but hey it does the job. Having sought “professional advice” the problems with our website are numerous - “no meta tags in the head of the document, theres no alt tags on the images, you’ve no text based links for the image links on the left and the text that you have on the home page - while cute - isn’t descriptive enough for the search engines” - thanks Richard!So anyway it’s a week since I put anything on here and no one was able to read it any way because I couldn’t link it to the website so here we go - a potted week in the life of Vita Nova.
New generator arrived Monday - how we ever existed before Ebay is quite beyond me. Unfortunately the generator had been damaged in transit and had a hole in the petrol tank - it never rains but it pours so they say, and that’s exactly what the petrol did straight out of the bottom. Scott temporarily fixed it and we’re now waiting for a new petrol tank.On Tuesday our wind generator arrived and is now fastened on to the wheelhouse roof - no cables for it yet though.
The rest of the week passed in a bit of a blur waiting for this weekends high tides.The intention was to pull Vita Nova out of her hole and a bit further towards Roa Island, however things did not go entirely according to plan……..Friday night (early hours of Saturday morning), Scott managed to turn the bow (front landlubbers) quite a few feet round to the port side (left landlubbers) but the stern (back landlubbers - ok getting bored of this now look the words up - check out interesting links on vitanovaweb) just didn’t move. The result of all this was we ended up leaning towards starboard at quite an angle as the tide went out and of course couldn’t do anything about it till the lunch time high tide the next day. We blamed Scott the next morning when Saffi’s drink fell over! So Saturday lunchtime Scott straightened her up only to tip her the other way Saturday night. Maybe he thinks we won’t have to buy me so many bottles of wine if he puts my whole life on an angle!So here we are Sunday - last night was spent straightening her out again, so we’ve moved a bit but are now straight again. We were wondering the last two nights how on earth we came aboard and did the work we did when she was on an angle originally - it’s really hard to deal with having got straight
Monday, September 24th, 2007
The day dawned bright and sunny. Scott’s task for the day was to work on the electrics, he’s trying to work out where all the wiring goes from the engine room, not easy when it’s all marked up in Dutch. So 20 minutes on babelfish translator later and still no wiser he was making it up as he went along - no change there then!The day took a turn for the worse when the generator decided to go pop. What really upset Scott was he’d spent half of Saturday servicing the generator to try and get enough voltage out of it.Every down has an up according to Scott and the upside of all of this is we’ve actually got around to ordering the wind generator we’ve been talking about. Unfortunately we also had to order a new petrol generator in case it’s needed to top up our batteries on non windy days
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