Well, moved the last of my things onto IRIS at the end of September and then disappeared off to New Zealand for three weeks holiday. It was my brothers 40th and was great to see him and all my friends out there. My house still seems to be in good shape and my cat appears to remember me - bonus.

Back to the UK on the 22nd and onto IRIS, so this week has mainly been a rapid adjustment to full time life on board. Been testing out various things such as the oil stove (nice and toasty), the shower (not bad, but glass will be better than a shower curtain in the small space) and the oven (seems to work, no plans to use it yet ;-). Also been tinkering with putting up various small shelves and fittings. Have made enquiries about getting a new toilet installed, as I think that's going to be be the biggest improvement I can make to start with.

The T-Mobile 3G card is working well with the external ariel, even with all the doors shut. Mobile phone reception is flakier, but I've found that with Orange where I used to live, so no worse off really.

No real new pictures of the boat (its now just full of more stuff than before...) so here are some locals I spotted out of the front door this morning ;-)

Well, been a busy couple of weeks, what with working in Sweden, getting ready to go to NZ and getting ready to move onto IRIS. I’ve been taking advantage of a week working at home to do some more painting that I originally planned, recoating most of the inside in ‘eggshell’ white. Fresh paint smells nice anyway.

I solved a problem with the engine room filling up with water – turns out one of the automatic bilge pumps wasn’t working, so it was gradually re-filling. With a bit of luck this will also explain the water that was found under the floor in the kitchen and bathroom areas.

The Sterling batter charger was replaced under warranty and apart from one scary moment when it tripped out under the load of the discharged cabin batteries, seems to be working fine.

As part of moving on board I’ve been getting rid of a lot of stuff, I didn’t think I have that much to start with, but local charity shops are now bursting at the seams with things that won’t really fit on a boat.

The under deck area still needs trim, but I’m going to see how I like sleeping under there first. My previous plans were lengthways down the boat, but the mattress seems to fit well into the space crossways. Even seems to work well with my height being close to the width of the boat.

Here is another shot, looking from the under deck area.

I’ve installed fenders on the bow and stern, I got these from http://www.fendermakerltd.co.uk, very quick service and no VAT!

This enabled me to turn the boat round and moor stern to the dock. This allows me to access the engine room, and then get into the main cabin via the side door.

For me the real benefit is that instead of the front doors opening out onto the dock, I now have a bit of ‘space’ as show by this picture taken early this morning.

I managed to back IRIS out and turn round on my own, which was fun, Dave from the boat next door helped with the lines from the dock in between working on his boat.. These things basically don’t steer in reverse, so occasional bursts of forward are required to swing the stern round..

Another productive weekend, with lots of different things done. Mat helped me out both Saturday and Sunday and we managed to get rid of the water under the bilges, build some shelves, finish the wall at the front of the boat, remove the carpet and have a general cleanout. On Sunday we were joined by Caoilfhionn, Mat’s girlfriend, and we went on a little trip up to Sonning so we could paint the side decks. While we were doing this, Caoilfhionn gave the under deck area a coat of primer. There is still lots to do, but at least its getting close to the stage where I can move on before I head off to NZ at the end of the month. Made a real difference having some help as its easier to stay motivated when so much is getting done.

This picture shows Mat and Caoilfhionn looking keen before work on Sunday.

These two shots were taken up near Sonning while we worked on the boat (and read a Sunday supplement article about ‘what makes women happy’ – boats didn’t feature for some reason….....)

Here is Caoilfhionn painting under the deck

This shot show the interior at the end of the weekend, surprising how different it looks without carpet.

Oh, and as a bonus the fridge started working as we went up the Thames. I can only guess that the battery voltage had run a little low or something – who knows.

We also got rid of the biggest spider that I've ever seen in the UK. It appeared on the roof of the boat as we were leaving the marina. If it had come towards me I would have abandoned ship. Mat put it in a spare tupperware container we had and we let it out at Sonning. Pretty sure it was a black widow. Hope there are no more of that size on board.....

Not a great deal to report this weekend, sent the battery charger off to be repaired or replaced, hopefully for low/no cost.

I finished the ceiling under the deck and gave it a coat of oil. While that was drying I started framing the back (front) wall and threw in a little extra ballast while I was there. The front door lock could only be opened from the inside which was irritating, so I took that apart and fixed it.

That seemed to take most of Sunday, amazing really. Also discovered that gravel has been used as ballast under the kitchen, so looks like another mine-laying trip down the Thames is on the cards.

Well, this is what I did over the bank holiday weekend. I wanted to try and fix up the under deck area at the front. In my minds eye, this was going to involve a bit of work on saturday, followed by a cruise to Henley on sunday with Pimms on the Thames on sunday.

The reality was somewhat different....once I started looking into it in detail, there was nothing of the original under deck fittings that I could keep. It seemed to have been lashed together from MFI drawers and bits of old table. I took it all out, along with the last of the gravel. The hull didn't look too bad after all the dust had settled, just a bit of surface rust.

I splashed Waxoyl liberally around to kill the existing rust and to prevent any new outbursts. I had to cut a new section of flooring, luckily I was able to use the plywood from the partition that Mat and I had previously removed.

Once that was done, I installed some new ballast (courtesy of Travis-Perkins) restoring the trim.

Roof battens and side frames needed to be constructed, I used a variety of timber for this, working on the dymanic planning approach of carpentry. All the wood was given a coat of Waxoyl, to seal it from moisture and because it smelt nice in the confined space.

Insulation was put in between the wooden bits, 50mm for the sides and 25mm for the roof. Cutting this stuff up combined with a mild breeze made the inside of Iris look and feel like a sno-globe. I lined the sides with 9mm ply and will be using 8mm tongue and groove for the ceiling. I put a couple of bits up just to make it look like I was achieving something.

It was at this point I noticed that the water pump was leaking, so there was no point in constructing the front wall until this was fixed (I dismantled the pump on sunday, cleaned it out and used a bit of Loctite sealant and it seems ok now).

To have a break from the under deck project, I added a bit of variety by dismantling the original bed, which was made up from a wide variety or wood and assorted cabinets. I made two trips to the tip to get rid of stuff, suprisingly cathartic. I had a rental car this weekend for removing rubbish and bringing in supplies, wouldn't have been easy with my car (away getting an MoT and emptying my bank account).

Had a few visitors on sunday, Kim and Harv, friends from NZ who were staying with me. they wanted to see where I kept 'popping out to' for 11-12 hours per day.

Kev and Sophia came across from Hertfordshire to see me too. Sophia looks particually happy in this picture as Kev has just anounced they can go. They brought lunch which was much appreciated.

We did encounter the 'black swan of death', a frightening creature with glowing red eyes. I was afraid it was going to launch itself out of the water and take someones face off like a Great White. Maybe we shouldn't have fed it some crisps.

So at the end of the weekend some progress has been made, but there is still lots to do.

A special thanks to Brian for the 'loan' of his digital camera. Bet he's regretting me having a set of keys to his house now....