Today the sun came out.
This has become something of a rarity of late, so I took the advantage and painted the rest of my port/starboard (delete where applicable) handrail.
Then I spray painted a section of the roof. There are twenty-two sections to the roof. The huge and expensive spray can of Hammerite covered just one of those sections.
And it was blotchy.
I’ll probably paint the rest with a brush.
I also managed to test out my ‘hanging tables’ idea. It met with some success, although just how successful it’ll be when fully laden is another kettle of fish. I’m glad I took out the three million quid’s worth of public liability insurance now.
The Ghostly Floating Table of the Wendy Elizabeth
In other narrowboat related news, I topped up the diesel, emptied the bilges and Gorilla-glued the side hatch back together. (A piece of it had fallen off. Don’t ask me how. It has a habit of doing this.)
Then I took a photograph of my dining table, complete with wine bottle, spectacles and ragdoll mice, for no particular reason.
Shown actual size.
Oh yes, and a very nice lady at the cafe at Bridge House Marina is now selling my mouse prints and cards on a commission basis. As I left the cafe, a bloke followed me out holding one of said cards and looking quite pleased…so at least I’ve sold one.
And now my fire’s gone out, so I’d best chuck another log on it.
The Mouse Boat 
Well, that’s exciting…your first sale! š
On another note…be careful with your floating table… In summer months, when boats start moving…you could find your boat rocking if there are any boats that don’t slow down.
Last thing you want to happen, is have the table joggled and all your merchandise end up in the canal.
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She sold another one yesterday. And today I sold four prints and six cards – not bad considering we weren’t even open. Then my inverter blew up, and the world righted itself.
I’m going to invest in a saw. The tables have fold-down legs, the back ones of which I’m going to shorten so they fit on the ledge that runs round the boat…and then reposition the front legs so that they form a sort of diagonal crossbeam for additional support.
That’s the plan anyway. I’m going to have to sort out the inverter again first though. My fault for thinking I could get away with using the toaster.
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That table might not work too well when the boat moves on its mooring ropes (unless you put wheels on the legs that sit on the bank)…boats move quite a bit on disturbed water. Or am I not picturing your design properly?
Oh dear, good luck with the inverter… When ours blew up, we had to purchase a new one as the damn thing had just gone out of warranty…rather annoying!
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I’ll have to make sure the boat’s tied up as tight as I can make it. The legs won’t be standing on the bank though. I’m not allowed to put anything on the bank/towpath other than a sandwich board. The front legs I’m going to bend backwards at an angle, probably, and screw them into the back legs which’ll be standing on the gunwale. (See…I said I’d use the correct nautical term from now on.)
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Ah…I see. The boat will still move when a boat goes by too fast. If it is tied up too tight, it may scratch your paint or a least grind on the bank. Or the mooring pins could get pulled out. May I suggest a ledge around the table top.
I have also seen people display in a sort of pocket system of shelves…I’ll see if I can find any examples. The table top looks heavy, but I see now how it works.š
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http://canallist.co.uk/floating-shops-in-the-uk/
https://www.rcta.org.uk/directory/#!directory
You might find some ideas on these links… š
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Ta. I’ll check ’em out shortest.
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That’s a good idea is that. I’ll have to brush up my carpentry skills and see what I can produce.
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May I ask how big the prints are?
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Of course you may, Colette. They’re 17.2 cm by 12.2 cm, although with the mount they’re closer to A4 size. Not huge, but finely detailed and signed personally by myself.
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Ta, I’m going to ask my Niece if she likes them… Possible gift š
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She does like them, so I’ll be ordering soon š
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Excellent.
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PS.. The ledge around the boat is called the ‘gunwale’ – pronounced ‘gunnel.’ It is a left over term from the days of canons which poked out over the gun wales of sailing ships…
š
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I didn’t know that. From now on, I’ll say ‘gunwale’ instead. I’m still trying to work out what the ‘painter’ is.
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He’s the ‘Skipper.’
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And Port and Starboard are easy to remember… If you remember the old sailing adage of travellers going from Southampton to India…the POSH people always wanted to be on the shady side of the ship… Port Out, Starboard Home (P-O-S-H)
As you stand on the tiller, your left side is Port and has the red light (like port wine). The right side is your Starboard and has a green light.
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I haven’t figured out how to turn the port and starboard lights on yet. Or the headlight come to that. Or even how to get the horn working. I managed to parp the horn once, but I’ve no idea how I did it. It sort of made a very loud, mangled squeaking noise.
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ššš Ours are easy switches…can’t help you with that one! š
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