Malanka

Oh and the new cooker too. M

She is going under their wet shed for a couple more weeks while the interior woodwork ( soft patch) and window replacement and a little varnishing is completed. Job front is progressing. Fingers still crossed I could be back in UK before Easter. If I am the nightmare of the tax men will be upon me.

Woo hoo Malanka is FLOATING.!!!!!!! She looks great too.

Northern European Pine Martens are common a over the UK. M

Are the garage sure it wasn’t pine Martens? They are notorious for eating cables and pipes and wires in cars. Way more than rats are. Rat traps won’t get a marten they are way too smart. M if you have a dog and it didn’t go wild near the car from the smell then it wasn’t rats. Ours go bonkers on acid when they find one. Boris accidentally ripped a hole in one of Bootsies ears when they were arguing over who gets to rip the rat to bits.

Don’t ruin it. You’re the first to notice .. M

He was unhappy it didn’t contain beer and sausages. M

Alongside active smokers living in houses working in pubs and bars etc. I imagine you'll be surprised. It surprised the bejesus out of me. M

Styx is an algal bloom at least until there are three sunny days in a row. But who cares it’s the man aboard who is the greatest part. M

Kids? And Boat? Both worth it!!! ❤️

There really isn’t any reason for speculation on the health effects of secondary smoking. One of the largest ever studies looked at hundreds of thousands of individuals and the evidence is clear and incontrovertible, just go look it up. ( there’s a teaser for you) Apart from the results of the study which may hopefully surprise a huge number if you check it out before posting . I don’t like the smell. That’s enough for me. M

In the summer months boaters churn up the silt which kills etc etc etc. Sorry but it’s the usual natural England green tree hug fest. I loved the bit about boats churning ( you know the ones that pay for the thing to be there in the first place) and then cut straight to a huge dredge and pump operation that must have been thousands of times worse for ( insert creature or flora of your choice) whatever, than the odd boat passing over in Hickling. Don't worry folks the agenda ( boats cause x and we are fixing it) was there in full measure. Scientifically illiterate claptrap I have come to expect from the BBC. M

OK folks I will be offline for a while as Weds sees me head off to the UK for two days of interviews. A couple of great British companies so I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone. OK back to to the boat stuff. The old lady is due to be floated in the straps at the end of this week, then transferred to Simpsons wetshed to continue with the interior work. Attached are the photos of the grab rails, toe rails, forward deck planking, and the new "temporary fix" for the cabin roof. I'm sure you will join me in saying that it's a pretty damn good temporary solution. There is also some final chine work going on and a picture of that too. I have to say I am really proud of the work done by the guys and we will definitely be buying them a present (usually liquid) as well as paying the bill. My favourite pictures are numbers two and three which show the old lady really rocking the polished and varnished look. I can't wait to see her and get out for Easter or as soon as I can depending on weather. I think the chine picture shows the quality of the work which doesn't make the bill a joy to pay but I can appreciate skill and craftsmanship when I see it. See you all soon folks Martin and Fiona

Hi Pauline, 17th is our youngests last exam for his IB. So I really don’t think we can make it this year as he and Fiona and the doggies will be in jolly Switzerland. However if I have a job by then ( 2 final shortlisted interviews in next ten days) I will be in blighty and may be able to come, either that or helping pack up the house. I escaped packing the house in Belgium by being in Switzerland. Not sure I can swing it twice without singing Soprano. I will let you know. M

Try driving in Germany where crossing ( on and off ramps using the same piece of road) is used almost exclusively. Makes you slow down and check that’s for certain. Add cars going past on the two lane autobahn at 160mph plus and lane discipline becomes paramount. The aggressive closing the space that I have witnessed in the uk is disgraceful. Add to that people reluctant to merge at a suitable speed I.e. too slow / fast for prevailing traffic and oops disaster awaits. Recent law changes to encourage legal prevailing speed driving are to be welcomed IMO, not everyone will share that view and that’s fine. in the uk I am more concerned with tailgating and always have been since I had children in the car. I now drive a two ton SUV hybrid as part protection as they are built like a tank. This saved us in 2016 when a van driver simply bounced off us and went through the lights on the wrong side on the Norwich road near the Asda. This was a merge and he decided to come through from behind but badly misjudged it. He had no documentation, for license or insurance or in fact anything. Police not interested. He also spoke very little English but did manage to tell me his license was at home in Portugal. Oh well... His insurer eventually paid our costs and sued him ( their by now former customer) for the money. We had to threaten them a bit first but won in the end. Robin try bad driving uk or uk dash cams on YouTube. Loads of examples of what you describe. M

To use a school physics explanation which technically isn’t true but works for illustrative purposes. think of a rainbow all the light wavelengths we can see spread out by raindrops. ROYGBIV. The frequencies go much higher and lower than this central range. The red end it doesn’t stop just cos we can’t see it, neither does it at the violet end , we can only see the bits in between. Digital Camera sensors can be set or designed to see whatever frequency you like. With less sophisticated ones just stick a filter on the front which removes everything but IR and fannies your Antie. Video cameras are good at this and are the reason they are banned in swimming pools as they see the IR radiation emitted by the body through the costume. Many people rightly arrested and prosecuted. IR emissivity is a great topic to discuss as the current fascination with carbon dioxide is predicated on it. M

Good topic. The number of times I have had to quickly go astern to avoid someone cutting the corners on the Ant too. Dangerous in many ways especially if the water level is low. Life is too short for stressing, issue is most folks forget their boat weighs 6 or more tons and has considerable forward momentum even at minimal speeds. Malanka is 11 and although nimble takes a wee while to anchor up if necessary. M

It’s been measured and graphed using pixilated shots it’s apparently ( gulp) 5 cm Im not that certain myself but have done 6’6” with 4 of 5 cm to spare and we are 6’6”. Was a leap of faith lol . Don’t miss the middle M

Hopefully not misappropriated. He he M

We always help those that ask or appear too embarrassed to ask. There are another group whom I am also for giving “slack “ to those with limited skill at the start of their boating experiences. However some evidence of self reflection or contrition, and an acknowledgement that sometimes the beginner doesn’t know what to do would go a hugely long way. I agree everyone was a beginner, I also agree that some folks have a greater talent for the helm and others should stick to deck washing and enjoying the view. Many many times folks say please help or thank you we are beginners, these people are angels and real people living in a real world. However: The arogant disregard which has accompanied our two worst thwack incidents bedore a word uttered by myself says it all. “ I’m not responsible mate it’s an accident” and “I’m a beginner it’s not my fault” was the latest one. The previous one was “ that’s what insurance is for dear”. This after being hit five times by the same numpty . The harpy responsible for the crashingly condescending insurance quote actually laid hands on me as well. This was after I had spent twenty drippy minutes in the peeing down rain holding their mooring lines whilst they messed about. It turns out there was a hugely experienced helm on hoard “done the round Britain race a few times old chap” who did nothing as he thought it good to give his guest some experience. Raining, wind over fast tide small mooring space!!! Really you can’t make this stuff up. So yes I agree that beginners should be given some slack. Those that can close their mouths and open their eyes and ears even more so. Those that have an appreciation of what private property is even more so. Those that use 100% throttle at all times then shout and scream the c word at my wife and daughter (15 at the time).Those that threaten physical violence upon my person, call me a rich privileged c word and so on I have zero sympathy for them, other than wondering what happened to turn them into such feral creatures. Surely nobody is born like that? What would you think if someone is screaming in your face calling your wife a c u next Tuesday and threatening to f Ing do you , you rich c? I walked away and spoke with broads beat and the boatyard. The bobbies were very interested the boatyard could have cared less. In my experience my tolerance is hugely proportional to the level of intoxication on display. The admittedly small in number described above are a very minor element in the broads family thank heaven for that. To suggest they don’t exist is not where I live. I wish they didn’t exist. Unfortunately for all they do. How much tolerance is in the tank do you think? I have been boating 44 years now and IMO its waaaay worse now than in the 70s and I agree entitlement, and all that goes along with it bears huge responsibility for our experiences. Maybe fearing the loss of the deposit may have absolutely nothing to do with it. Who knows ?? Not me felicitations to all M

Check out the blocking by the guys in green . Replays on big screen oops

Many thanks for all your best wishes. M

OK so we are coming to the end of the major stuff and only some minor internal bits and pieces of softy stuff left to do. OK that involves a replacement window but hey ho. When we bought Malanka we could not understand why the starboard side immediately post wheel house window was plastic with holes drilled in it. Phil was non the wiser either, so after 9 years the wood underneath this bodged heath Robinson fix is soft and the window leaks. Time for replacement with glass, correctly ventilated, and ideally able to be opened. That's what is coming before the galley gets dealt with. Before all of that is the major surgery stuff below the waterline. So here are the latest pictures of the stupendous work being done by Roger. He is supposed to be retired but he is staying on to do stuff like this. It's freezing cold, he is wearing knee pads and insulated jackets and he still is at it in all weathers. So here are the latest three pictures in total deference to Roger who has done all the woodwork in the latest batch. Many thanks Roger you're an amazing guy. A lesson to us all about doing what we love. thank you my friend. Still loving that super paint job, can't wait to get her out onto the water

Many thanks M

That's a must see project Charlie my friend. Can't wait to see what you do and how it looks I already know it will look amazing though.. M&F