Hello, thank you very much for watching.
I'm sorry it feels like I've vanished off the face of the earth this past couple of
months, but I've been so, so busy.
I haven't sold Alice and moved to the Netherlands, like one viewer asked me!
I've still got her.
Traveling along the waterways and still loving every minute of it.
The last two months have been super, super busy.
In the middle of December, I flew over to Romania for a week.
That was for Victron to film the fit out of a VW van.
That was really, really good fun and you can see the first two episodes of that, I've included
links in the description below.
There's about another two episodes to go with that series.
Then obviously there was Christmas and then when I came back from Christmas and right
up to the sort of middle of January, I've been busy on another project but that's all
finished and completed and now I'm free to travel around the system again.
This is the lovely Oxford Canal and I'm travelling south.
I was up on the Coventry Canal.
Inside the boat is starting to look very different as well.
I've got some friends on board helping me.
The oak sheets of wood that I had horizontal above the gunnel - the more I put on of those,
unfortunately, the darker Alice got inside and to be completely honest, it looked a bit
like a sauna!
So that's all come off.
The sheets of wood have been cut and they are going vertical below the gunnel and I'm
much, much happy with it.
Also, another key change inside is the cable tray down the centre of the ceiling.
While sitting there and once you've put something in a place, and you sit and look at it for
a while you feel very different about it and I felt different about it so I've removed
that.
It felt like the ceiling was too cluttered and it felt like the ceiling was a lot lower
thank it actually was.
So that was removed and I've gone for a more traditional style
of cable trays either side of the ceiling
and damp-proof MDF sheeting that almost a bit, looks a bit like fake tongue and groove,
that style will be bent over the ceiling throughout the entire boat and it looks a lot neater.
The foil came off and luckily, I had a number of rolls extra so I've just refoiled bits and
pieces.
Another great thing that's gone into Alice that's been made during the month of December
and bit of January is a brand-new oak, solid oak TV cabinet.
The Carpenter has been busy making it from scratch.
That will be featured in another episode coming up because I've gone into quite some detail
of how he's done it and what he's done and why I wanted things in certain places.
So that's gone in under the gunnel.
I've got a brand new television and that works fantastically and obviously lots and lots
of content coming up.
Some of it will be the Oxford Canal some of it will be fitting out the boat inside but
in this episode I am starting the Oxford Canal up at Hawkesbury Junction and also preparing
a new mast for the new television.
[Music]
Back in June last year, you may remember, I featured the type of mobile broadband I
was using.
It has worked really well since then but when Alice was in the tunnel in November I trod
on the cables and they pulled out of the aerial, oops!
So, along with new cables, it’s time to install a new television aerial and a longer
and stronger mast.
The pole is a standard scaffolding pole but it's aluminium, which is far lighter.
The pole will be fitted into two brackets.
One hole bracket that will support the mast and the lower is a cup bracket.
Both have tightening hex key bolts, to stop it banging in the wind.
I used one of the holes already at the stern that was used for the previous mount and drilled
a 12mm hole.
The holes steel edges were painted with primer to avoid rust and when dry the brackets were
mounted.
I stuck some window tape behind each bracket mount to avoid water sitting there and rusting the
wall.
Instead of having a directional tv aerial I purchased a new dome omni directional version.
This means I can just put the pole up when moored and not fuss about aligning it.
The aerial is fitted to the top of the pole using three screws and has an amplifier inside,
which is powered via the tv lead and f-connector.
I received a number of helpful comments in the previous video about how to make a water
tight connection with the cables.
This time I am using heat shrink that is lined with glue.
forming a watertight seal.
On the N-type connectors on the bottom of the WiFi aerial I fitted two N-Type to female
BNC adaptors.
I purchased two 5 metre leads with pre fitted BNC connectors on their ends and they simply
screwed onto the adaptors.
As the heat shrinks diameter needed to be big enough to go right around the aerials
N-connectors, whilst it was still hot I added a cable tie to the end of the heat shrink
which brought it together nicely against the cable.
It was then time to raise the mast. I’ll detail the tv end of the install in a future
episode that also includes my new tv cabinet.
I’ll also show you how the cabinet was made and where I plan to put it inside the narrowboat.
We are really cracking on with lining Alice out and I’ve been busy filming all of it.
[Music]
I’d like to give a big shout out to the following Patreon supporters.
Tom Barber Benjamin Lembree
Andy Copsey Talenin
And a mega thank you to Charlie Balke.
Thank you to all of you for all your support.
If you’ve not already subscribed, please do, it doesn’t cost you anything and by
clicking the bell icon you’ll be notified about future releases.
Until next time, see ya later.