Having now moved Noel’s Ark up to the new pond at Calcutt marina in Oct 06 we settled down into a routine of spending  approximately 1-2  weekends per month  continuing the minor work to complete and enhance the boat.

In March 2007 saw us setting to repainting the gunwale sides repairing the scrapes sustained on the long trip for the K&A to Calcutt on the Grand Union, finishing the painting of the internal sides of the rear doors and the trading hatches and indeed a trip to the nearest canal side pub at Napton for a Sunday meal and to formally christen the boat with the ubiquitous bottle of bear over the bows.

I also undertook to spray foam the remaining exposed steel work in the engine room down to the swim plates this was to primarily reduce winter condensation forming and also help to reduce the ingress of the cold during the winter; I have to say this has worked a treat.

In July 07 we fitted a solid Oak glazed Cratch with integral folding table which we had commissioned from Mike Jordan (Mike advertises in Waterways World and I can fully recommend his craftsmanship).  Later that month we cruised down to Braunston to have the cover fitted by AJ Canopies; we had ordered the canopy at the Crick Show,  we unfortunately went on the wet day (yes I hear you say ‘when is it never wet or windy or some foul b*****Y’ weather at Crick show)  but on the bright side we did also get the chance to finally meet  Dave, Christine, Jonathon and Tim.  On completion of the fitting of the cover we cruised back to Calcutt very pleased with our new conservatory!

August saw me fitting a dual system battery charger to the battery bank, internal sapele separating shelves in the galley, applying additional painted panelling and sign writing to the external stern cabin sides. The highlight of the month saw us travelling up to Sheffield for the Yard open day and WNTBC evening bash where we met many new members and some of Jonathon’s team.  We thoroughly enjoyed the good food, wine and company, it did however rain! But as we were in the bottom shed we kept dry and were warmed by the very robust barbeque, obviously fabricated by Jonathon’s skilled hands and I might say skilfully operated (cooking) by Christine.

Now I hear you say what has all this to do with the title? Well I merely  set the scene to what was up to then  a successful year in the on-going  development of Noel’s Ark, little did we know how that was going to change some months later. Any way, back to the plot!  Having now completed all these enhancements I then focused my attention to a subject that had been bugging me for some months, the trim of the boat. I was not happy that she still sat bow high, so much so that when it rained the water pooled on the rear cabin roof rather than running off through the carefully fabricated gaps in the hand rails.  I calculated that I had to get the bow down by some 2 inches or so and do to this would require approximately a tonne of weight.  Further calculation done I ordered some 300 blue engineering bricks weighing 3.5Kg each, direct to Calcutt marina.

We travelled up to Calcutt hoping for good weather for the weekend and arriving at 2100hrs.  We quickly searched around the marina and found our pallet of bricks up by the workshops which for us were about as far away from the boat as they could have been dropped.  We then had to move these in the back of our estate car to the boat and then eventually onto the boat so in reality we shifted 3 tonnes of B*****Y engineering bricks, a point that Carolyn very eloquently pointed out to me on more than one occasion.

 We had already folded back the carpet to amidships and stacked the leather chairs in the space of the dinette.  Carolyn squeezed into the front locker below the foredeck where the water tank is and proceeded to stack the bricks at each side until there was no more space available.  Following this we then proceeded to infill between the front floor bearers back to the dinette area through the floors access hatches which I had prepared.  As there was no ballast there originally I carefully laid out roofing felt on to the baseplate before placing the bricks in place.  This process took most of the day by the time we had fitted the hatches back, sealed them and relayed the carpet, placed the furniture back in place and cleaned up.  Some final trimming with the remaining bricks resulted in the boat riding much better with a nice big green beard now above the water line to the stern.  Some judicially chucking of buckets of water saw the water careering of the roof properly.  We went home that weekend well pleased with our efforts.

With Christmas looming Carolyn enquired of my hopes I said I would really like a large brass lamp and horn to replace the original simple ones that were now inside the Cratch cover!! I had not moved them yet. I set about locating a matched pair on brass pole from the Chandlery at Hillmorton locks (I had noticed them during our summer cruise) I rang the chandlery booked them and said we would collect them on the Saturday.  We decided it would be a pleasant trip on the boat so we would cruise down from Calcutt to the flight of locks at Hillmorton pick up the goodies wind round and cruise back.  I was also keen to see how the boat handled after we had trimmed her.  We set off; it was an uneventful trip arriving late afternoon just as the sun was going down and proceed to tie up.  When I stepped of I noticed that the beard which had risen after our ballasting had disappeared below the water line; this is strange I thought and proceeded to check the bow, it was most definitely up!!! Obviously something was not right I rushed inside the cabin, I could hear the water pump running and a strange gurgling and bubbling!!  Now I know it sounds stupid but the first thing that came to mind was we had sprung a leak!!!!   Clearly this was not the case but there was something very wrong.   I ran forward and shut of the tank valve and returned aft to isolate the water pump at the fuse switch board. It was then that I noticed the strange spongy feeling beneath my feet!!! Looking down, water was jut above the rear carpet some I foot forward of the rear steps into the cabin from the engine room.  I then let out every profanity that I knew and could muster; a. wondering what the hell has happened? And b. knowing that what ever it was is expensive and will require a lot of work to put right.  The gurgling sound had come from under the bed, where the calorifier was located (you are ahead of me now I bet?)  so I quickly I investigated this area to find that it was soaking; I knew immediately what had happened the calorifier had obviously failed, the pressure had dropped in the system and the pump had cut in and promptly during some time of our cruise pumped the entire contents of the bow tank to the stern and into the cabin bilge!!!

Club Members can find out what happened next by going to the WTNBC Members Section