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Albert is a bog standard English steel narrow boat,
14.95 metres long,
about 2 metres wide,
with a “semi-traditional” cockpit.
The name was chosen to commemorate the horse that - in The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Graham - pulled the washerwoman's canal boat, from which the dear lady so cruelly threw Mr. Toad into the
canal when she discovered he was no washerwoman.
Albert's predecessors (a plastic canal cruiser, and a 45 ft narrowboat) were, of course, named Moley,
and Ratty respectively
We bought Albert new in 1997 and spent that wet English winter doing all the changes to make him/her feel like our own. Albert was commissioned in 1998 onto the English waterways system.
Albert was transported to France on a low loader and ferry.
This picture is not really
appropriate - a bemused skipper still in steering mode after Albert has been slipped - but will hope to get a better one shortly - maybe my passport
photo?
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The log started off written and "uploaded" to keep us, friends and family in touch, while toes were dipped in continental waterways boating, and in IT,
so please live with the cock-ups, the nonsences, the inaccuracies, the bad spelling and grammar, the late rendition, the links that don't,
any perceived bad
boatmanship, and the general air of amateurism.
Boating
life has been the most colossal fun over the last 12 years, and I hope a few readers can share that fun with us, and, you never know, pick up the odd useful fact or tip.
The story is. hopefully, continuous. At the end of each season Albert is fully stocked up with diesel, oil, wine, gin, tonic, tea,
long life milk, canned curry, canned vegetables, loo paper, and everything necessary for a prompt start to the season next year.
Come Easter, a solemn ceremony takes place on Eurostar as the train travels southwards under the English Channel /la Manche. Boat keys replace house keys on belt, Euros replace £.s.d in trouser pockets, and boater type floppy hat replaces gents natty tweed cap on head, in preparation for the return of Albert's skipper to "normal" life.
Latterly, when describing personal events, 1st person plural has, sadly, become 1st person singular.
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Some
of
the
things
we
have
fitted
or
done
to
Albert
over
the
months
and
years |
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A 240 volt blue caravan/marina type socket for receiving shore side mains electricity and feeding it to ring mains installed in cabin and engine space via a circuit breaker box, and
RCD.
A 15 amp battery charger powered from the
a.c. ring main described above supplying 12-14 volts DC back to the batteries.
(It
might
be
30
amp
-
cannot
remember1)
An inverter supplying 240 volts alternating current from the boat's batteries and feeding into the
RCD.
The Standard English Narrow Boat
holding tank pump-out system was changed so we have a more or less standard "sea
toilet".
An electric
(230 ac) washing machine was installed.
An anchor - the biggest we were physically able to lift and cast forth. (wretched thing - ever tried to pack an anchor away neatly and out of the way?)
A cockpit bimini. (Collapsible canvas roof on a frame over steerer position)
A Brompton folding bicycle.
A bicycle trailer that attaches to a hitch on the Brompton for supermarket bulk loads such as diesel in jerricans, boxed wine, beer, milk, loo paper etc
A
flashing yellow hazard light mounted on the forward end of the coach roof
to encourage péniche skippers and river lock keepers to notice
us
Masses of spares, general chandlery, engine, plumbing, electrical,
masking tape, 16 gge baling wire, packets of elastic bands, Tic-Tac, pop rivets, and a myriad of other odds and
ends
(junk?) bought and stashed away to alleviate my advanced "siege complex"
syndrome .
English/French dictionaries - well used and much battered.
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As from now - spring 2009 -
I am presenting in the new format, and coping - I hope - with the snags as I
go along. Links go properly from
those square buttons along the top of the "banner" pictures to the proper menus, and,
of course back, and the menus themselves appear to work, but so far the
style of the actual week's log is
changing almost daily, so do
"refresh"
each time you visit us and download.
 New
weeks - or rather half months - are appearing for 2009, and I think
I
am
settling
down
to
a
lay-out
-
possibly
not
the
best,
but
the
template
has
to
be
easily
written
up
after
a
day's
or
week's
boating,
in
a
confined
space,
and
transmitted
over
a
slow
GPRS
link.
PLEASE do not hesitate to use the
"Contact Albert" button and tell me what you think.
I
love graphics, but basically my artistic and colour choice instincts are
markedly similar to those of a dyslexic cow, I suspect my English is a
bit "different" at times, and I frequently disagree with this
thing's "spell checker".
As time goes on the logs are being presented completely in the new format,
kindly prepared and donated by our "sponsors" I-Marketing Asia.
If you find nothing there, or the links don't link - sorry - I haven't got it sussed, or I have been idle.
Anyway, the form is - use the square link buttons at the top of the
page, and I cannot emphasise enough - REFRESH as you go.
(An Excuse. Youngsters charging around the world's oceans single handed in sailing boats have sponsors, so why not elderly blokes bumbling about the waterways single handed in Narrow Boats?
Anyway, promise no wriggling adverts
(unless someone comes with an un-refusable offer))
Albert's log up to 2008 can be found by clicking on button "old site" above the banner
picture.
The
site
www.albertagg.dial.pipex.com,
no
longer
exists.
Do not hesitate to use the
"Contact Albert" button, above the picture, and send me an
e-mail.........
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Last
Attacked
on
29 March 2010
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