Hail to the Hive!

So today we took Badger the Narrowboat to the Boatyard where we will be installing the brand new shiny shiny engine to replace the old heartbeat that once propelled the old girl down the cut.

This is the last voyage of the old engine. It is a little sad to be honest. I mean this engine must have been the heart and soul of Badger for many years. But, just like humans, if you need to prolong a lifespan, a heart transplant may be the only recourse. And so it has come to pass.

I start the morning turning Badger around 180 degrees. It’s not a difficult procedure as narrow she may be but long she is not. So as she lacks length it makes it easy to turn her about using only the ropes.

Just kick out the bow and pull the stern around. It takes no time at all and if I am honest, I love it if people are watching as they think its amazing.

But it’s an easy procedure as her momentum spins her around once she pivots.

As soon as she glides around you just step on board and off you go.

Now the boatyard here is our destination but there’s no slot available for us this afternoon so we just need to find a mooring opposite and then tomorrow we can slot in and get the engine whipped out.

Once the engine is out I will have my hands full cleaning out the engine bay and re painting it. Don’t want to put a nice new engine in a dirty hole.

The space opposite the boatyard looks fine. Feels a bit weird knowing our engine is being removed tomorrow.

But it’s exciting knowing we are going to be getting a new propulsion system put in. Badger will be 20 years younger.

And even though we are opposite a boatyard it’s still bloody nice. The farmers fields opposite and the general countryside is still so nice.

So glad about that as we may be here a week or so with no means of propulsion and we have @diveratt bringing beer up tomorrow so good job its a good setting. Imsuppose we can cope with this for a while…