Trip Blog Title

I have given lots of thought to the name of our new blog to chronicle our travels on the mainland European waterways.

In the end I decided on simply WB Avalon WB standing for WideBeam. Simples! In our case WB relates to the style of boat.  Essentially Avalon is a traditional Narrowboat style and layout but double the width.  It's full know designation is WBNB (WideBeamNarrowBoat).  I know it's one of the best Oxymorons but it is what it is.

Become a follower and join us on our adventure.  This blog will be less of a technical boat blog and more a travel and lifestyle blog.  I will be co-authoring it with my wife Debbie and occasional input from our Airedale Terriers Teddy and Herbie.

Navigation Lights

We are off in under 2 weeks eek!

Final preparations now for the continent include extra navigation lights.  Since the boat was built it has always had port and starboard lights (red & green)

Mine are like these

but the continentals are a bit more picky about navigation lights.  I did however in preparation put in the roof a socket to add a masthead light.

This is how a boat of Avalons size should be lit at night or poor visibility

Because we don't expect to move much at night or in poor visibility the use of these lights will be limited, so I decided to make them easily removable.  They are attached with powerful magnetic mounts. 

 Masthead magmount

 Masthead light

 360 anchor light

Stern light (bolted down)

I have replacement LED bulbs on order for these new lights.

And the final prep is extra pins.  I could buy them but making them is far more me.  

I suggestion from my friend Graham (Contented Souls) about extra strong hold mooring pins, I have made these.

I have made a pair of these. These will act as 3 pins in one and each can have additional cross pins through the eyes. Of course in deployment they will be banged into the loop. 800mm each

Why?  Because there are some very big and fast commercial barges on the continental waterways of Europe.

Like this and bigger

Extra Names

I have heard, but can't be sure, that boats on the continent need to display their name on the bow.  So to be sure I've added some.

That should do it.