Mary has also written part 26 of her views here. A cynical observer might suggest that Mary had in fact written these some time ago, and that I'm simply drip feeding them into the website at a rate that doesn't overshadow my own fascinating writing. That would be a very cynical thing to think indeed. :)

We've always intended to install a solid fuel stove, as well as a boiler system, and we had found a model that we quite liked. However, in doing some internet research, I found that there are some new British standards about to be created to do with the installation of solid fuel stoves into boats (there are currently no official standards. I contacted the Boat Safety Scheme head office and had a very useful chat with one of their advisors. He said that until the new standards are out, a common sense approach would be fine. He also made the comment that many people install a bigger stove than they need (which our choice probably was...).

With this in mind, and with the half term week approaching, I made a sideways leap and bought a small stove from canvas and cast. The reasoning behind this choice was this: the stove is designed to be used in tents so can be assembled and disassembled without too much trouble. It will also operate quite happily with a flue length of about 2m - most domestic solid fuel stoves need about 4m. And its cute, very cute.

It was installed temporarily at half term and proved quite a success, Mary loved it. However, the wall behind it was plywood, and as these models have no firebricks it did get quite warm, so we only had it on when we were there working.

I've since installed it a bit more permanently. First of all the plywood wall was replaced with cement board (the grey bit in the middle).

Then I fastened some copper sheet to the surface of this for looks and heat reflection. This was more work than I thought and involved drilling many small holes for the tiny nails I used. With the stove installed it looks quite good though, so it was worth it.

You can see from the bucket in the picture above how small the stove is, thats a standard 600x600mm paving slab used as a hearth. When its lit, it does put out the heat and with a door fitted it actually got quite snug in the main area of the boat. We're still experimenting with fuel, I need to find a coal that doesn't produce so much ash, as being small it gets full after a day. We also burnt some bits of wood from an old pallet, but this clogged up the spark arrestor in the chimney.

In addition to the stove, I also installed a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector. Sensible to the last.

You can see that the flue doesn't stick up that much, that's 2m from the back of the stove.

I know the deck fitting doesn't quite fit. I should also know by now that nothing is ever as straightforward as I'd like. :)

We were visited by my sister, brother in law Steve and nephews William and Tom one day. I soon had William and Tom on ballast shifting duty. They managed 1.5 tons between them, and Tom was the only casualty with a lacerated finger. Steve and I basked in the glow of watching a new generation doing thankless manual labour.

I spent a lot of the week preparing the front cabin for the two 900 litre water tanks. Steve and I took turns at painting the inside with the solvent rich light grey anti-corrosive paint. Even with the hatch unbolted, we could only manage ten minutes at a time before the fumes overcame us.

The tanks were secured with rachet straps. After filling them the front of the boat came down a bit and the stern came up, so I'll need to put the last of the steel ballast back there (instead of the middle as planned).

 Mary meanwhile was painting, lots of painting. We had some help on friday from Guy, who did a great job of painting our bedroom.

The results look great, we should finish off the bulk of the inside painting this weekend.

I even managed to watch some local traffic going by, to Mary's amusment. Not quite the same as the big barges in Yorkshire, but interesting all the same (to me alone I must admit.....)

 Part 25 by Mary here too.

My mother took this nice picture when she and dad visited us the other day, as they dropped by to see progress. I did note that they made themselves scarce after lunch when the paintbrushes came out. Maybe I should offer food after work?

And working we have been.

One of the reasons that Misterton was towed to Staines was the fact that she is sitting too high out of the water for her propellor to get a decent 'bite'. This picture shows that it was only just below the surface.

When we first saw Misterton, she was about 8 inches lower in the water than this, due to a combination of the junk the previous owners had stored aboard, and also the general levels of dampness beacuse of the holes in the deck etc. Well, since clearing out and fixing all this, she's sitting too high, so we had to put something back in.

Various things have been used as ballast, from gravel, through to poured concrete. For various reasons I decided to use steel, as its compact and movable (should we ever need to). Several tons of 10Kg scrap bars duly arrived and luckly the delivery company was able to place them by the dock.

Most of this weekend was spent putting this into the space underneath the workshop floor, I did about 4000Kgs on saturday, Mary helped with the last 2000kgs on sunday. We still have a couple of tons to go further up the boat.

I forgot to take a picture, but the propellor is about 3-4 inches lower, which should help. We may need to add more, but we'll get more of the interior done first and see where things end up.

Tired? Oh yes.

For a while it was pretty rough out there, I wondered if I'd feel sick, but I didn't. I was also worried about Mary, but she was smiling away as she sat in the corner of the tug' wheelhouse. Turned out she wasn't really sure about the conditions, but thought she'd just smile anyway. I knew my worries about being ill were unfounded when I managed to wolf down a fry up in the cabin below while we bounced around.

We got to see all the London landmark sights from the water, Dartford Bridge and the Barrier, both of which Mary's dad had worked on. Tower Bridge was good, friends Piran and Loretta were there and took these photographs.

Almost as big as HMS Belfast ;-)

We made it to Teddington by about 4:00pm and I think we all thought we only had a couple of hours to go. Alan phoned his wife to get her to come and pick him up from Staines, reckoning we'd be there in about 2 hours. Well, it took a bit longer than that, there were 5 locks in all, and the lockeepers went off duty at 5:00pm, so we had to do the last three ourselves or with other boaters. At one lock we met a gloomy chap who told us it would take 5 more hours to get to Staines (in fact, it took about 2) which was worrying Alan as his wife was already there waiting for us. Luckily, Claire, our landlady, found her and made her a cup of tea, so all was well.

Finally at about 7:30pm we tied up Misterton with the tug Nipashore alongside and we were home.

Its been a long time coming, and I feel very excited about getting her to London and a little sad at leaving Goole. We never intended to spend so much time there, but we've met a lot of lovely people and its the place we've spent countless days over the past 18 months.

I also realised for all her life, Misterton has been based within about 20-30 miles of where she was built in Beverly in 1923.

I'm struck by how great she looks compared to a year ago, we've come a long way.

Changes all round then - as Vinnie Jones said 'it's been emotional'.

I'm off for another beer before I start singing sea shanties...... :)

It was a good weekend, we didn't get too much done as there were so many people around to chat to, it was all very social. I did some more preperation work on the engine and associated systems in anticipation of the trip up the Thames, which I hope we'll be doing in the next few weeks. Mary painted the back deck and generally tidied up. The interior is almost complete in terms of walls and roof lining, as these pictures show.

This is the least cluttered the interior has been since we've owned her, even the old Stanley Range has gone.

Alan had finished the back door, its looking good and can be split stable door style. That may have been Mary's idea, I'm not entirely sure.

There were quite a few interesting boats around, this one A40 is a nicely convertered Leeds and Liverpool shortboat.

We were moored behind the amazing Southcliffe, which Chris has done an incredible job of restoring. She sailed for the first time in many decades this summer.

Finally a couple of shots of Misterton, one taken from the front deck of Wheldale - after seeing her go by on her trips round the harbour for the past year, we thought we should actually go on one!