So Sad but this lovely boat is up for sale - not mine I hasten to add

I don't know how to do 'here' links so....

http://nb-windsong.blogspot.co.uk/


Beacon Boats do a lovely fit out and this is no exception.

End of 2015 boating season

has come early this year.  One month early to be precise.

On Saturday I biked to the boat from home on my lovely new proper electric bicycle.  N'elli.

39.78 miles (mostly downhill from home and the few uphills were no problem with the electric assistance) Still had two bars showing on the dial and 17 miles estimated further available cycling if I wanted !

Took 3 hours 50 minutes actual cycling.  5 hours including stops to read the map, take on food and water etc.  Very pleased with myself as not too knackered and the sun came out as I arrived back on the boat.  Glad it didn't come out any earlier or it would have been too hot with all my layers.

The charger on the boat doesn't work.  So luckily dearly beloved came and fetched me yesterday from the winter mooring in the van.

Sunday was a fabulous sunny day for the last hurrah and I barely left tickover all the way as I didn't want to get there too soon.  When I did get there it was almost impossible to moor.  At the second spot I at least managed to get both ends attached even if my back end was miles out.  After watching the horse whisperer at 7pm I went out again to try and get a little bit closer in.

Monday I put everything that was coming off ready at the front of the boat.  Switched off the water, removed the shower diverter and opened all the taps.  At 11am I went out and with each passing boat adjusted (heaved on) the ropes and got nearer to the side such that I could finally just take a large step (leap of faith) off the back.  The front being perfectly in.  When dearly beloved hove into view with the van I was pretty exhausted and a fellow moorer had said I might have better luck further up.  We loaded the van with bicycle etc before untying and moving further up.  Aargh worse than before ...

But the fellow off the boat we were trying to moor behind came out and with his knowledge and knowhow and muscle we edged the boat ever closer.  We tied the bows firmly and I had to use reverse and forwards gear to good effect.  Dearly beloved skimming the resultant silt build up away to the front of the boat with a shovel each time I neared the side. With each backwards and forwards manoeuvre we inched our way ever closer.  The boater also put his boat in reverse gear so that his boat was sucking the silt away from my location as well.  A bit of local knowledge is an amazing thing.  Took us exactly an hour to get the boat in but as he says the silt will now set like concrete under the boat so there will be no movement when other boats go past.

He said a previous boat was brought in fairly quickly by use of a landrover and winch.  The build up of silt from between the boat and side completely flooded the area.  CRT don't seem to want to dredge this location at Spode House even though they did the section at Fradley recently.  Maybe soon?

Over and Out for Another Year.

New puppies on the roof

So this weekend we were entertaining folk from across the water.

Day one at home
Day two on the boat.

And they both sat on the roof on the puppy pad as we moved the boat through two locks.

They were slightly better behaved than the Patterdales.

After being shown the ropes they have set off on their own hiring from Norbury Junction for the week on the Shroppie and so far not hit anyone nor crashed.  Which is always a good thing to hear.

I am exhausted

 But to be fair I think they are too!

My pedometer is off the scale and

their legs are getting shorter.

They might be pleased when their owners come back from holiday

Or they might miss having three to four walks a day.

Overstaying

So for the last month nearly my engine has looked like this

 

Last year I had the python drive sorted (new universal joint) which stopped most of the engine juddering but not all.  But it was a huge improvement on before.  So I bravely set off for the Thames and beyond.  As the juddering only happened in tickover the Thames and rivers generally were lovely.  Back on the Oxford and the long lines of moored boats were an annoyance.  So I resolved to have it looked at again.

 

For some reason on leaving Kings Bromley in February it wasn't doing it and so when it was removed from the water to check the propeller rudder etc at Shobnall Marina it was a mystery.

 

However the juddering came back in March and I returned the boat to Gareth in May and he still couldn't work out was wrong.

 

I brought it back to Dave Freeman who did the work last year and we decided that perhaps the original problem with the Python Drive had travelled further forwards and affected the gearbos and/or the drive plate.

 

When they removed the gearbox it was clear the drive plate was a little wobbly and probably on the way out.

 

It then turns out that I do not have a 'normal' drive plate.  Beta told him that that particular set up was for one specific client only.  I presumably got lumbered with it because I bought my engine at Crick at show prices. 

There is always a catch to a 'sale'! 

Beta searched the back room and found another one in a dusty recess somewhere and offered it up for the princely sum of £300 plus vat.  Dave said it was cheaper for RD (?) to make a replacement.

However cheaper still for him to remachine my engine to accept off the peg drive plates from Midland Chandlers at £90 plus vat a pop!

So he has future proofed my set up and on Saturday all was back together.

 

Yesterday I was a little concerned to come back to the boat and find these

 

 

I know when you take something apart and put it back together there is always some little piece left over but .....

 

 

I was fairly happy that I knew what the six bolts and washers were from

(new drive plate needed longer ones)

 

But the five washers and 1 spring washer I found right under the engine was a worry.

 

Turns out when he went to fix the oil lift pump back on there was a large gap. 

He used a large nut -

clearly in it's previous incarnation those washers had done the same job.

 

Well I am hoping that is indeed the case.

In the olden days

It was blue for a girl and pink/red for a boy.  

Something to do with scarlet uniforms I believe.

Anyway in Cannock Chase I am glad I opted to stay on the Blue for a Girl Route

If that is what happens when you take the Red for a Boy Route!!!

For Bones

Pod in the raw - made from ply I had lying around the house and the legs were 4 metre lengths of square wood and basically I just screwed the ply onto these lengths.  No time to make a frame as such.

Then I had to make cut outs so the stove when in travelling mode would fit in!!!

In the end the middle shelf held food and we left the COBB at home.

And then he made me chop the legs off because he said it was too tall for the van which meant we had to find somewhere else to store the water!  Humph

Me washing up.  See the saucepan.  The hook was set so that the saucepan was actually resting on the floor so it wouldn't rattle.  Then judicious use of paper towels stopped the implements from rattling.

Hope this helps.  If your van is taller than ours you are lucky.  As although the IKEA unit was the right height for the fridge to go under etc it was too tall for us to use the bed as a sofa.  You can buy legs of various heights in B&Q so you just need the piece of Marine ply cut to size by the nice people at B&Q and bolt several legs (ideally the 12inch ones) (don't screw them on) such that you can slide storage boxes under neath.

My friend Fran now lives in a van too!  With a name like that clearly it was her destiny.

Loving the solar panels

Since I arrived here near Stone last Thursday I haven't run the engine at all.

The fridge has stayed on all night and while they have been down to 74% in the morning today they have climbed back up to 98% by 6.30pm.

That does include charging my laptop and phone etc as I have been working in the mornings.
And yesterday I also had to have the inverter on to run the printer so yesterday it only climbed to 86% before the sun set.  Plus I had run the Mikuni to get hot water.

BRILL.

I am one happy bunny.

Well sort of

The Rev counter has joined the engine hours lcd display on some sort of strike.  It happened on my way here on Thursday.

 'Luckily' ...

I can tell when I have reached my normal cruising revs by seeing when the engine stops wobbling!'  I do have to be careful not to fall or drop anything down onto the engine what with the engine boards being slightly open so that I can actually see the engine!

Being ever so slightly OCD or quite far up the aspergers (sp) scale I keep a log of engine hours time started stopped etc so every time the lcd occasionally deigns to work I have been able check it.  So far so good, but the fact the rev counter is also now playing silly b*******s means I will have it properly looked at.

Beta's suggestion that I take the lcd display home and put it in the airing cupboard has been studiously ignored!

We are so posh

 So it would appear part of the problem with the lead acid replacement batteries was that the solar panels were no longer working.

I removed them myself

This is what I found.  

This is the dreaded combination of silicon thinners used by my first boat painter Liz Portas in error

 (she was unaware that silicon is an absolute no no.)

 and water getting under the stick on panels.  

I should have let the second boat painter (Rob Bryan - Ashby Canal)  remove the panels and deal with the underside at the same time as he did the rest of the boat.  Hey ho.

and then Gareth from Shobnall Marina very kindly sorted out the mess and painted a rectangle of black - we felt trying to match the cream would have been impossible.

He found some interesting things under the paint.  Mainly a curious set of four semi circles.  I looked at them and immediately knew what they were.  Clearly Mel Davis had intended putting my centre line there and realised it was in the wrong place!  He filled in the gouges and did the first coat of primer so no one was any the wiser until now.

So here is the new black rectangle

now covered with the new solar panels from Tim at onboard solar

I spent the rest of the day obsessed with the readouts.  I got a lot of exercise up and down like a yo yo within an hour of fitting they had got the batteries from 94% to 96%.  By evening they peaked at 99% before the sun went down and the fridge did it's level best to take it all out again.  At 10pm it was 85% and I bottled it and turned the fridge off.  No idea what happened overnight but by the time I switched the engine on to move at 9.20am it was up to 87%

And today I met back up with the little chimney company and had my new chimney fitted.  It is in two halves and the bottom half at 8 inches should go through tunnels okay but it can still be removed if necessary.  It weirdly looks taller than the old chimney but I can assure you that it is an optical illusion.

Regarding the batteries I will give them the rest of the summer to improve before returning to gel ones I think.  One must be duff - but which one and by now it has probably ruined the others.  

Off to check the levels again.

 

France and Spain by vw

Our first Aire (no WC but one nearby in the village) Here we finished putting the interior panels back in the van - as we had seriously run out of time before the ferry deadline.

Besancon to meet friends and a trip on a boat.  See that entrance under the citadel?  That is a tunnel with a lock in it.  The River Doane (I think) does a grand loop in Besancon and tunnels under the citadel.  It was a holiday and everyone was lining the river in the sunshine but only us three on the top deck and a family of 4 or 5 downstairs.  A lad playing his trumpet at my shouted request for an encore played La Vie on Rose just for me!!!

No holiday is complete without icecream - and just look at the size of that Sorbet!  I did have to share it though.

Pleasant little seaside resort.  

Inside the Sagreda Familia

The flat we stayed in in Barcelona was behind a door from the street that looked from the outside as if it went into an apartment foyer.  But what you got on the other side was this little secret oasis.  The alley formed a T and our flat was the far right hand side one.  Very private and it had it's own roof terrace.  Were the apartments built around the original houses or were they infill?  Who knows.  AND it was right by the Sagreda Familia

On the way home again we just fitted into the last slot at this Aire and look I had an en-suite toilet.

  Fabulous.  

In the morning various camper vans used the Elsan and dumped their grey water etc and there was no smell whatsoever.  

Lucky.

Last Patisserie stop before the Ferry and yet another interesting village.

Natures/Air Head - improvement

I just thought I would share this massive improvement I have made to my Natures Head (identical to the Air Head)

I have removed the churning element completely and stuffed this flexible bucket into the box.  It just fits nicely 14 litres.  I imagine the 12 litre one might fit better as the 14 litre one is a tad 'snug' with the handles.

So with this shoved in the box suitably lined with a bin liner and with a modicum of sawdust/cocoa shells or whatever at the bottom to soak up any errant liquid all is sunny and bright as far as I am concerned.

Change over day takes 5 mins , no mixing, no smell, no worries.

Hope this is of use to others of the third way.

The offending article

What I caught my nose on in the lock.

How to ... How you shouldn't ... and copying another's idea

How to remove a very heavy battery from an awkward position when you are a weak and feeble woman.

Tie straps to the handles so when you lose your grip it doesn't fall into the bilges and knock the expansion tank etc etc

wrap the end of the positive cable (and same at the other end) so that you don't have to actually remove the cable at all which is firmly fixed in place!

Join the long negative cable to the short negative cable on the starter battery together with a bolt and cover with rubber (inner tube).  Job done

Oh and place errant battery in the battery box with the other 4

How one shouldn't do Swarkstone Lock.

I clearly caught my nose on the metal cover for the bottom gate paddles.

I was on the boat and other people were operating the lock for me. I took my eye off the ball whilst chatting.  Just goes to show even with a rounded nose you can still get caught.

I thought the 'Willows' idea was a brilliant one so I copied it.

Here is my lovely tin trunk.

It slides under the end of my sofa bed and lifts up sufficiently to sneak an arm in and get at the logs.

I did have to move the right hand legs over to accommodate.  Benefit of a home made sofabed!

And you can still - just - get the ash pan out.

Windows 7 home premium logon failure

Long shot but anyone know how to access a laptop that won't let you log on to your user profile any more?

You get the welcome screen but when you put your password in and press enter it gets you all excited because it briefly says

Welcome

Then it says

The User Profile Service service failed the logon

User Profile cannot be loaded.

Any ideas how to get in to Safe Mode?  I have tried all the F keys

Here's hoping.

Thanks

Now then tell me

is it normal to cross over someone else's boat to reach the towpath.  Or is it just plain bad manners?

the reason I ask is that I observed people off the boat behind me do this twice.

The first time he crossed via an occupied moored boat near the lock landing at Barton Turns.  The lock landing was vacant as I was already in the lock.  He seemed a nice fella and we had a chat whilst operating the lock so I didn't think much of it.

But then at the next lock SHE crossed the front of my boat from the back of theirs so basically they had overtaken my boat.  This was at Tatenhill Lock which those of you who are familiar with has the lock landing away from the lock itself.  There is an oval shaped pound with a narrow entrance complete with an historic boat moored by the lock cottage in between the lock landing and the lock.

As I walked back to my boat having set the lock in my favour I commented (in jest) I hope you aren't queue jumping.  Well she went off on one ... we don't do that blah blah.  I pointed out that her boat was now blocking the entrance to the pound.  Oh he will reverse etc ...

I told him that I might have upset his wife with my comment.

He then bizarrely proceeded into the pound and breasted up to the moored boat.  If they had gone to the left hand side and left me a straight run at the lock it would have been okay, but no ...

They were adamant that they were not going to queue jump so I had to zig zag into the pound, he then reversed and I managed to get into the lock.  I was still trying to be polite so as I came up to the woman I said you can't beat a bit of fun and games of an evening and she responded with well you made a bit of a meal of it you could have gotten a broad beam through there.

IS IT ME???

So am I making too much of it?    I have been simmering for days now.  I spoke to another boater and he said if anyone stands on your boat uninvited you are within your rights to throw them in the water because of piracy?  Perhaps a bit drastic.  I know that if I was moored up minding my own business and someone casually crossed my boat rather than use the lock landing I would be furious.   But then I feel guilty stepping across a CaRT boat left moored on a lock landing so perhaps I am a little sensitive.  I suppose it is the equivalent of crossing someone's garden as a short cut to the street behind.  What if Rob had been in bed with a migraine?  Often happens and someone stepping across the front deck?  boom boom boom

And don't get me started on going to the front of the queue in a bank and making the people standing in the queue supposedly in front of you manoeuvre their way past you

Let me tell you if I meet up with this pair again I will not be polite.  I know who you are 515xxx.

And what if there had been a boat waiting to come up after I had vacated the lock?  Hmmm that would have been fun.

And then yesterday ...

I turned off the Trent and Mersay onto the Coventry and the towpath changed sides.  Phew.  What timing the gas bottle finally ran out at lunchtime.

You have to remember that on my boat the gas bottles are in the side of the boat not at the front or back like normal peoples.

So I went out with my special spanner etc and took the empty one out and put it on the front deck.  Went back and connected up the other bottle at which point I was joined by another boater and we got chatting.  I clearly got distracted so that when I went inside to turn the gas back on I realised I hadn't actually opened the valve.

With hind sight probably a good thing as on going back and doing so I heard an ominous hiss which wouldn't go away even when I re did the connection.  So no gas.

This morning because the batteries were so low I had to run the engine in order to boil the electric kettle!!!

Luckily I was just outside a Marina and I called in to buy my replacement bottle and they very kindly agreed to swop the faulty bottle for me.  So I do at least have two usable full bottles.

Batteries again

Well I finally girded my loins and checked the levels in the 'new' lead acid batteries.  I had been told in no uncertain terms that I should have checked them every month!  Ooops.

The four easily accessible ones were okay to deal with.  However the one under the electric cupboard on the swim not so much fun.

I had to undo the engine surround, lie on the battery box, squeeze under the wooden beam surrounding the engine that the floor panels rest on, then hover in the unsupported yoga snake position whilst undoing the 6 caps using a 20p piece gripped with mole grips in left hand and right hand holding it in the slot.  Then placing a small funnel in the holes and pouring using a small china milk jug!  All in all I used about 4 litres of distilled water over the five batteries.

I am pretty sure that the problem I have been having is down to the battery on the swim as I think the first cell was very very low.  I will only know for sure when I can actually check the level in it.  I bought some drinking straws on the way home for this purpose but on returning to the boat I left them in the car and Rob has taken them home again.  Snarpip!!!

Blue Buzzard who told me to check the levels in the first place says I now have to do it every week!  On account of the amount of water I had to replace and the potential damage I have already done to these batteries.  Frankly I don't care if they die a tragic early death -  I want gel ones again!  Stamps her foot in annoyance.

Summer cruising 2015

starts here.

It can only get warmer . . .

At least I hope it does.  Getting the boat up to a decent temperature from a standing start is proving not so successful.  :)

My new batteries are nowhere near as good as the old (gel) ones and I suspect one of the three bought in August might be faulty as adding a further two at the end of October doesn't appear to have helped much.  Running the central heating for 1.5 hours on the first day reduced the batteries from 100% to 84% and an hour this morning reduced them from 83% to 74%.

This is the first time I have run with the five lead acid type so it might take a few charges etc before they settle down.

so to run the central heating this afternoon I will also be running the engine (the water should be piping hot!)

Happy New Cruising Year.