Starry Reflections?

Pictures are arriving almost daily, thanks to Jon. Remember the mirror in the box? It is now where it should be, over the dressing table in the bedroom. I am not sure yet how bright the lights will be – I may blind myself in the mornings! Overhead cupboards in the bedroom again add to the storage space, off centre, because the port porthole is forward from the bed. The reasons for this being the type of fold up bed – it would have blocked a center porthole, and so that the externally the asymmetric portholes looked right.

The shower tiles and silver wavy trim tiles will echo the chrome theme in the bathroom and give lots of reflected light, together with other tiled areas.

The finished sign writing on the stern panels looks as good as we hoped, at least we think it does, and it is our boat! The bows echo the colours and repeat the star. Any comments about “following the star” and wise men can be kept to yourself!

Signs of the Times

First sight of the quality of sign writing is on these mooring boards, which we will use to mark Epiphany’s moorings, possibly not in the marina but if ever we have line moorings or other appropriate moorings. It also gave the sign writer a chance to practice and us to correct the size of star we want!

The paintwork by Alan at Bath Narrowboats is of a very high standard and Epiphany certainly has a glossy look! However once on the cut we expect scratches and wear and tear and so will try to look after the paintwork. Having said that we are not boaters who are “precious” about the paintwork and will not continually fuss about the appearance of our boat! We will not be following the “Braunston law” – see Steve Haywood’s very funny article in Novembers Canal Boat.

The galley is still developing, we will be able to cook and wash up, and the hob will complete the set with the work surface fitted on the port side too.

Black slate was our choice for the stove surround, we have it at home on the hearth and it looks great. I have to say though that to keep it looking good it needs to be washed down occasionally. Some boats we have seen have tiles – the grouting/cracks can be hard to keep clean – we had them on Twelfth Night and ash and cinders were trapped there. Each to his own though!

Once again our thanks must go to Jon Langley for keeping us up to date with photos of progress. We have a trip up again soon and then …….. The next time will probably be launch day – not long to go now, this clock is ticking!

To Our Readers

A sub theme seems to be developing.

Here is another boat, well ship actually, yet another way of travelling on the water! Not one we have travelled on though! This is one of the cruise ships that come and go into our local port, Falmouth. As you will see from this web site, we have "problem boaters" in Cornwall too!

However this post is, in good author style, to say a "thank you" to all our readers! Some of you have posted comments and compliments. It is great to get the feedback. In the jargon of the day, our "users" seem satisfied! I have posted replies to queries on the blog.

Some of you are friends who share our enthusiasm for all things water, particularly canal orientated. Others of you are enthusiasts who scour the ether for like minded people and some of you know BJ through the canal forums. Those of you who "lurk" - I think that is the correct term - and I am sure hundreds(!) of you do, we would be happy to hear from you. You can also contact us from the index page, just click on the cat on the letterbox.

We hope that our website provides lots of information about the building of a narrowboat, in our case a truly bespoke boat. We set it up to be a pictorial record for us and hope to continue the saga once Epiphany is in the water. So in the future there may be other pages, journey logs and photos, and other bits and pieces that we feel might be interesting. So we hope you enjoy the site enough to stay with us!

To the Galley and Beyond

Yesterday was my turn to visit Bath Narrowboats on my own! On my way back from “up country” – a Cornish expression for any place north of the River Tamar. Eyes up, this is the road bridge over the Tamar that keeps Cornwall attached to the mainland– I called in to see the latest progress on Epiphany. Of course I had the camera with strict instructions to photograph everything, move over David Bailey – not! Some of them may be repeats, but it is better to make sure.

As you can see Epiphany was in shrouds. Only to mask the coachwork whilst the rails are painted fire red.

Internally the galley is progressing now. The cupboard and drawer carcasses are in with spaces for sink, hob, oven and tray/tea towel slot. The work surface, sink and sink mixer tap were delivered just as I was leaving. The larder fridge and freezer are in place. The microwave hole is still there! The houdini hatch in the galley is fitted.

Moving to the saloon our “computer cupboard” is in, complete with a clever drawer for A4 paper using otherwise wasted space. The hole for the chimney of the multi fuel stove was cut whilst I was there and I am looking forward to seeing the Morso squirrel stove in situ with the slate plinth and surround. The port shelving has begun and watch this space for the design of these progressing to incorporate a small table to port, and TV to starboard.

Moving to the stern, we tried the height of the swan neck and tiller arm, crucial for me at 5 foot 6 inches and BJ at 6 foot five inches – we both need to be able to steer comfortably as we share this, and the locks too!