Category: Uncategorized

Hello again,

I have that “I need to write a post!” feeling, which usually connects to Brain having thoughts that it needs to extract from the grey matter and put somewhere else. And then I ask Brain what I should be writing about and Brain goes :

Yep. Brain goes : nope, not giving a solid idea to write about.

There’s a few random real world stuff things at the moment that have caught the attention … Couple of those are in Australia at the moment ! Firstly, it was good to see a better result for England in the last cricket Test Match, although it was a bit more tense than it probably needed to be. England’s cricket is in a bit of a bother at the moment in all departments. It’ll definitely help if all of the various injury struggles sort themselves out. It would be great to see Jofra Archer being able to bowl again, he’s been out of the game for far too long with an elbow injury. Cricket puts either a huge amount of stress on the body for bowling or a high amount of risk of broken bones when they’re batting. Or you can be like me and combine both of those.

I mention Jofra Archer in particular there because he’s one where he’s just really unlucky that his elbow has reacted like this. In all other respects, he’s perfectly suited for the fast bowling that instills terror into everyone at the other end. He’s tall, properly shaped (not too thin, not too beefy, just right) and on the outside, has the perfect physique for it. Fast bowling is what he was born to do and he clearly enjoyed doing that a huge amount. It’s just sad that he’s being prevented from doing that by this long running injury.

There’s a parallel to me there too, I recovered initially from the dislocated shoulder and rotator cuff tear that stopped me bowling for a couple of years but had to give up bowling about 10 years later. Two reasons there, time away from the game (to get my head right, plus management change in the work team) led to the shoulder stiffening up more plus I think I got a secondary injury in my side from lifting a heavy old CRT telly on my own. The result was a hitch in my bowling action that wasn’t particularly painful (although i could feel it) but it was very dangerous to the person at the other end. I’ve talked about that too much in the past though.

That’s a thought about the current England team though. It feels like they aren’t enjoying the game very much at all at the moment and only part of that is down to coming a distant second to a thoroughly on top Australia. It’s not like seeing Trent Boult (New Zealand fast bowler) who gives me the impression of relishing the challenge of bowling at international players and thoroughly enjoys his work. There’s a certain confidence there too that’s completely gone from the English players. It doesn’t help that proper technique seems to have disappeared from being instilled into the batsmen. It is good to see Haseeb Hameed back in the side though, he looked thrilled to be a part of the England team again, hopefully he can make his place in the team stick this time.

But I wanted to talk about something else too …

Both pictures so far have come from Google, along the Pocket Dragon theme. The copyright for these resides with Real Musgrave, the creator of the Pocket Dragons. They retired from creating these gorgeous figurines many years ago but they’re still available second hand on places like Ebay.

Anyway – boats ! I’ve been greatly enjoying watching a fellow with a youtube channel called Aquaholic. He does short tours of boats and yachts which can be anything from under 10 minutes to over 30 depending on how much there is to look at. He covers big boats as well as small going from owner operator boats suitable for day trips and overnight trips up to palatial super yachts that are more full blown ship instead of yacht. And it’s got me thinking more about my own ambitions to up sticks from brick and mortar housing towards living on a barge as well as opening my mind to the possibilities, the realities and the opportunities that it could present.

The realities are things like the amount of space available on board. The facilities available are comparable to what you’d have in any house, although things like the plumbing take a bit more thought. I.e. houses have permanent connections going two ways for all things water related … boat connections are temporary, I’ll leave it to the reader to think of what that means. Power is easy, it either comes from shore supply at a marina or from on board generators. These don’t have to be particularly big either, this house is typically consuming well under 500W and that could be reduced if the computer wasn’t on all the time. I’m using more at the moment but that’s because the heater’s on. Internet could be Interesting Times … it would require something something mobile internet. Taking on supplies while away from a marina could be needing a bit of thought.

There I am looking at the realities … there’s some great opportunities though. Like if you’re not happy with where you are, there’s the option to up sticks to a different marina while keeping the same living space around you. Or (maybe one for retirement which is a long time away) steadily cruising around the UK or Europe if we’ll still be allowed over there. There is a limit there though, the type of barge I’d be looking at would have difficulty fitting down the canals around the centre of the UK because it would be too wide.

That’s a dutch barge, the most posh of the various options for canal and river cruising (and I now know why sea is not really an option for these boats). Barges are available in narrowbeam, which go up to 7 feet wide. Any wider and they don’t fit into all of the locks and tunnels. (Locks are water gate facilities that allow boats to go up and down in height). Widebeam barges go from 7 feet 1 inch up to whatever will fit into the locks, that’s around 14 feet for some locations. (7 feet = 2.13m, 14 feet = 4.26m) The other restriction is length, the maximum is 72feet (22.2m). Narrowboat and Widebeam barges tend to be pretty low as well, with the boats being steered from the stern instead of having the raised wheelhouse of the Dutch Barge style. Bigger boats have more space inside but also cost more.

What can I say, I like the wheel house style, I think it looks great and also provides that functional separate space to run the boat from. The internal space is also comparable to the amount of space in this house too. What would need a bit of thought though is things like working and living spaces. Cabling isn’t an issue these days with wireless becoming far more of a thing, although I would want to have part of the boat built around something that could be a movie theatre type style. So instead of the usual thing of a large TV that hides in a cupboard (or lowers itself away) when not in use, I see a projector in the ceiling with a drop down screen. Yep. I think that would work pretty nice although you’d want a low power consumption projector because …

I’d want to pack in more tech too … Like solar panels combined with sizeable batteries and hybrid electric drive. If not cruising, the idea would be that the solar panels would give the excess power for chilling out overnight. That theatre set up would need sound as well. It could be really really cool to have that built in to the boat though.

Oh – barges vs boats … Have a look at the picture again and especially the shape of the bow (front end). Apparently because it’s vertical, that means that this boat shouldn’t go to sea as the bow will pitch into the water with the effect of the waves and the boat sinks … unless you try the transit on especially calm days. That’s not an issue on canals because the only waves are from the motion of other boats. Sea going boats have their pointy end at an angle, which pushes the front end upwards all the time and if the boat’s going fast enough, it starts coming out of the water and planing for even more speed.

So yeah, watching more, learning more, getting more excited about the prospect of doing it although it might take a lottery win or similar. I’d definitely need to sort the house out (the house would part fund the boat).

Gosh – is it midnight ? I had a few more random thoughts but it seems to have been taken over by boats.

Things about dutch barge – I like the style with the wheel house. I like the flowing lines around the sides of the boat. I’m not so keen on the centre part though, which looks a bit like a box in the middle. I like the flowing curves. It’d be curious to see how those could be worked into the design, especially with solar panels coming in to the roof. And possibly even a navigation kit (radar and AIS) and VHF radio as well if sea travel was to be a thing.

Things about the yachts – so many of these are built around multiple decks on board … This gives them more available space but also means steps and stairs, which I’d want to avoid for reasons not for here. (Not to do with me, I’m still very ok with stairs 😀 ).

I mentioned “a couple of things in Australia” and then only talked cricket … The other is Tennis, I don’t think it’s really worth any more time than a brief mention but … I think he should have been deported, they’re setting a dangerous precedent for themselves by prioritising the show over their health rules and apparently it’s also walking into an impression where the government down there seem to have one rule for the rich people and much stricter rules for everyone else. That’s dangerous … and it’s also happening over here too.

And … I better hit post before I go too much into politics or other things like that.

Night all, stay safe be well.