May - the month that never was

As I sit here writing this on May 31st, I have to wonder ..... Where did May go?

Apart from flying visits to Quo to asuage our temporary paranoia about water leaks, we have done nothing boaty at all this month. I have a feeling that the weather may have played a part here, as strong wind and Quo Vadis do not make for carefree narrowboating.

Tell a lie, last Sunday, we took in Crick boat show (by car!), but besides buying a barometer we were otherwise untempted by the displays of solar panels and cassette toilets etc etc. Methinks Crick show is for those fortunate enough to be having a boat built from scratch, in which case you could fill your boots.

Highlight of the show for me, and the only reason I got tickets in the first place was the music. Nancy Kerr (very pregnant*) and James Fagan were superb, and the Herron brothers were pretty good too.

* I couldn't help musing about Nancy's baby, even before it is born, it has been surrounded by beautiful music and will grow up steeped in a musical tradition, which I'm sure he or she will continue. As a 58 year old wannabe guitarist with little talent, I profess to a small amount of envy :o)

Hopefully June will see a drop in wind speed, as we are off on our first long cruise on the 25th, probably down or up the Oxford. Up until then, we'll just be honing the boat ready for the trip, finishing laying the new tiles & carpet, checking the engine, topping up the diesel and, if time and climate allow, sorting the water tank.

April cruising

With Quo now safely tucked up in the marina, water in her tank and mains electricity, we gave her a good spring clean and started on the myriad small jobs.

We were able to take advantage of the fabulous April sunshine, first sortie was a glorious Saturday cruise with the immediate family up to the winding hole by Saddington tunnel and back. The weather was glorious, and everyone really chilled ... all-in-all a fantastic day's cruising, with only one small setback, the water pump seemed to work when IT wanted, so I made a mental note to replace it.

Next day, Liz and I ventured off up the Harborough arm intending to leave Quo moored near Great Bowden Hall, but ( I should have reccied first) there is no armco up there, and I will not leave Quo unmanned on pins alone, so we turned on the winding hole and left her chained up back near Foxton swingbridge ..... confidence growing. The following Wednesday evening, Jody helped us to move back through the swing bridges to the marina, all with a lot less tension than the first time I'm glad to say.

The following Saturday, with the fear of freezing now gone, I completed the coupling of the new heated towel rail in the bathroom. The plastic plumbing (Speedfit) made this very simple, and once tested for leaks, I refitted the woodwork to box the pipes in. The radiator gives heat almost immediately the boiler fires up and it works really well ... very rewarding. I also fitted a new adjustable shower head and removed all the old tacky shower fittings and shelves.

Sunday featured a cruise with friends up to Saddington tunnel and back, what a glorious way to spend ones time, although once again the water pump disagreed!

On Tuesday, I bought Pizza and we bolted over to Quo to eat it. Afterwards, Jo did some school work and I rewired the water pump through a terminal block to make replacing it quicker and easier. I also cleaned up the joint on the prop bearing ready to seal the slight leak.

Friday saw me glueing sound insulation onto the underside of the engine cover, and generally readying the boat  for a big family cruise next day.

Saturday's cruise was very special. Liz's niece, with hubby and the kids, have recently returned from South Africa to try and make it in UK, and this was the first time we'd seen them all.

Eleven of us cruised down to Foxton Locks, moored-up, played the tourist game, then had lunch at the Inn. Afterwards we cruised up to the A6, winded and slowly chugged back to the marina. Boat handling was becoming  more instinctive with a corresponding reduction in the stress levels :o) ... although Martin's stint at the tiller saw him trying to rearrange some overhanging trees :o)

Once again though, the water pump tried to poop on our parade.

Sunday morning, I called in on North Kilworth Marine, who had just the pump I wanted, and it was soon fitted, giving a huge improvement in water flow, and stopping the occasional random pumpings of the old one.

I then stripped and cleaned the old one as a spare.

Monday was a bank holiday, so Liz, Jody and I took advantage of the glorious sunshine to chug up to Saddington tunnel, winding then mooring for lunch by the Saddington Reservoir feeder.

I really love this bit of canal. Return to the marina and mooring all went like clockwork, only slight query was that I noticed a drop water on the engine room floor when turning down the greaser. I quickly mopped it up, dropped the cover and thought no more about it.

Tuesday meant back to work, but in the evening, I felt a strange urge to go to the boat ... just as well. The three of us popped over, Jo and Liz killing time while I took photos of the new pump and it's installation as I intended to fit a filter to protect it. Came time to leave, I lifted the engine cover to kill the power (left on last time) only to find 7cm of water in the engine room ... EEEK!

With help from Liz & Jo I quickly rigged up the old water pump using the water hose, a broom handle and cable ties, and got pumping. Half an hour later I was just mopping the dregs, but I could see the water reappearing fairly quickly around the stern tube ..... worrying, but  by now it was dark and time to leave. To add insult to injury, I had left some of my highly expensive sound insulation on the floor, and it was soaking wet ... we put that in the shower to dry out.

Wednesday morning, I was at work for 5am to do a few vital things, then straight to the marina by about 6am. Lifted the cover to find 5cm of water, but this time, the pump refused to play ball, it ran but refused to pump. The bilge pump had been fitted to sit in a container under the prop shaft, and as such remained aloof from all the water that surrounded it ... I think it may have even been floating  ... so I bypassed it's float switch, cut a few cable ties and moved it into the flood. This got a lot of water shifted quickly, but it would not drain down lower that about 2cms, so I just resigned myself to mopping. Using the mirror from the bathroom cabinet and a torch, this is what I saw.

You can see the water snaking down to the left of the brown streaks. I resigned myself to water clearing duties until the marina workshop opened at 9 am. Amazingly, sitting there mopping, listening to the birds singing was actually very relaxing and the time soon passed.

At this point, any doubts I had about paying to moor in a marina disappeared. I asked Steve to take a look at 9 am, and by 10.50 am Quo was out of the water and safe ... what a relief ....         I was most impressed by their professionalism! After mopping out the last vestiges of water I left them to it, I knew how busy they were, so didn't expect to be a narrowboater again for some time.

The Marina rang on Friday morning ... amazingly, Quo was back in the water .... so off I shot.

Gordon, who had done the repair, told me that the weld that joined the prop tube to the hull had two holes in it, probably there from when the hull was made and caused by slag. This had been re-welded properly, and he had also re-sealed where the prop bearing screws into it as well as fitting a brass pipe to the greaser in place of the original plastic one which stuck up in the air and generally got in the way.

I must say I was really impressed by how well they all handled the whole thing ... well done guys!!!

 

After all this drama we got back to the scheduled improvements, fitting new carpet tiles in the lounge, a filter between the water tank and the new pump, and a filtered water tap on the kitchen sink, all without incident.

 








 

Next, I started glueing in the multi-layer engine room sound insulation, expensively bought from Oxford Acoustics.

 

 All progressed well, until I noticed a drop or water trickling from a small hole in the front engine-room bulkhead as the boat was rocked by my movements .... it suddenly dawned on me that, as this hole was about 7cm above the floor, there must be about 7cm of water the other side of the bulkhead ... the hunt began. I was about to start drilling holes in the bedroom floor when Liz discovered a hatch under the back steps ... we lifted it and peered in ... sure enough ... much water. This had obviously overflowed from the engine room via the small hole.

Once more the old water pump (now cleaned and working again) was called into service, getting all but the last 5mm or so out, the rest being mopped out over the next couple of days, and now thankfully bone dry.

At last, the canal is where it should be ... OUTSIDE the boat ... and the engine compartment is bone dry.

Confident of no more leaks, I finished insulating the engine room with great success ....  now all you can hear is the exhaust ... very pleasing.

 

My brother-in-law Geoff is a professsional aerial rigger, and kindly fitted one to Quo using an existing unused safety rail bracket above the gas locker, making it a simple job to lower it for cruising. The aerial is very small and neat, but gives a brilliant picture on our new 12v TV.... thanks Geoff!

Latest venture is draining and flushing the water tank (using THAT pump again) but we realise that despite it being painted out in December prior to us buying Quo, we are going to have to redo it properly.

Having extensively Googled, I've bought some Vactan to convert the rust in the tank rather than have to rub it all back to bare steel before repainting. I've applied some Vactan to one or two rusty bits on a trial basis and results so far look very promising. Even better, I'm too big to get into the tank to do what is a very grotty job so Liz is steeling herself to do it... bless her :o)

 If it doesn't work, my back-up plan is to fit a plastic liner (bag tank) ...  it will be pricey, but is made by a firm who also make hovercraft skirts, so they should know a thing or two about tough plastic.

Good ol' Ebay has come up with some nice Amtico floor tiles to replace the "period" vinyl flooring in the bathroom and kitchen and I can't wait to get them stuck down ..... then very little of the original boat decor will remain apart from the wood panels ... and I love them.

To pastures new

Welford Wharf one Cold January morning

The Welford Arm ... very serene

The BW mooring at Welford was valid until 31st March, thereafter, I had arranged a years mooring near Foxton.

Bosworth tunnel - with smoke!

As is usual for me, knowing that we must move from Welford, I started to get itchy feet, so we decided to take a slow 2 week trip to the new mooring. By now, Liz and I had a pretty good idea of what we were doing, so we lit the fire and set off. A brief grounding on the Welford arm was quickly rectified and on we went.
Cruising is much enhanced by confidence and knowledge, but Bosworth tunnel taught me a new rule, don't go into a tunnel with the fire burning ... cough cough.

Despite having done Blisworth both ways on a day-boat, and Crick south to north on Quo, I found Bosworth tunnel strangely unnerving, our own smoke didn't help, but I had some real spacial awareness issues, at one time thinking we were going backwards ... must drink more water with it, or get a more powerful light.

We moored for lunch in the middle of nowhere, cold but sunny .... it was wonderful.

After luch we chugged to where we had left Liz's car, by bridge 52 and moored-up at the foot of the beautiful Laughton Hills.
Here, over the following days, we were wowed by the magnificent view, the Buzzard, the Heron, the Moorhens, the Ducks and according to Mandy from the boat-next-door, we missed seeing an otter by about a minute.

I popped up to see the boat every day, which was now chained and padlocked to the Armco for security. One windy morning, I received an email from British Waterways asking me to ring them, which I duly did. Turns out, silly old me had left a front door unbolted, and it was flapping open in the wind! Mandy had noticed it and rung BW with the boat details ....bless her .... I rushed up there and secured it before anything worse could occur. It's nice to know that there are so many good people on the canal.

Our next move was just a short hop to the other side of the bridge for a change of view, and I made a start on polishing some of the brass fittings and vents.

At this time, I noticed that we were still getting a small amount of water on the engine room floor, but put it down to a split in the container that caught the drips from the stern gland, I had noticed a drip from where the prop bearing screwed into the stern tube, and bought some sealant to fix it sometime in the future .... nothing to worry about .. I just mopped out a pint or so of water every couple of days.
Next move was to bridge 56, again, just for a change of view ... still marvelous ...

Friday evening, assisted by Liz's niece Sairs, we moved to bridge 60 in readiness for Foxton Locks. A lovely little trouble-free cruise on a beautiful evening. Saturday dawned, and Liz and I set off early, left her car at the new mooring, then back to bridge 60 for the main event!

Just one boat waiting

It was a beautiful sunny morning , and we got to the top of Foxton Flight with just 1 boat ahead. After a mere 15 minute wait, we were off ....  Red before White, and you'll be all right :o)

What a sight!

I shall never forget when the top lock exit gates opened, it was like you were in mid-air ... magical.

Liz attracted a small band of young helpers as she worked paddles and opened gates, one young lad went all the way down with us, and his mum said he'd told her " I'll remember this for the rest of my life" ... we felt ten feet tall.

It took just 45 minutes, with just one squeaky moment coming out of the bottom lock trying to avoid ramming the trip boat Vagabond. We moored up by the water point beyond the bridge, and whilst filling the tank, passed the time with Jo and Keith Lodge on Hadar ... last seen in passing up at Welford. A very interesting couple, and a very nice working boat.

We lingered there for lunch aboard, then set off for the marina, stopping just short and mooring on the Armco, not wishing to spoil a wonderful day by blundering into the moored boats.

After our dodgem incident with Crystal's boat up at Welford, we made what I call a "Bonker", using an old mop, a chamois leather, a cable tie and gaffer tape. Effectively, it is a boxing glove on a stick, and we were hoping that this would help prevent embarassing banging sounds as we tried to take our place in the marina, third boat down the pontoon, with 20 cm clearance either side.

Quo safely in the marina

Sunday morning came, and we steeled ourselves to moor in the marina. To enable our mains electricity hookup to reach, I knew that we had to reverse in, and we had never been more that a couple of yards backwards before!

Suffice it to say, that with Liz on a pole at the front (not THAT kinda pole!) and me steering, we got her lined-up, then using subtlety (not one of my strong points), slowly chugged back into our slot, what a relief :o)

NB Quo Vadis

There is a first time for everything, and this is my first Blog.
I hope to use it to record the joys, trials and tribulations of our first narrowboat Quo Vadis.

Quo Vadis as first seen at Whilton Marina

Having had two wonderful hire-boat holidays in the 1970s, and some recent dayboat trips that re-kindled the love of canals, we decided to take the plunge and buy a narrowboat, whilst we could still enjoy it.

After much searching and some disappointments, we found and purchased Quo from Whilton Marina in early December 2010. Built in 2003, she had the cruiser stern that we wanted, and only 750 hours on the Beta engine. A new BSS, hull and water tank blacking and new anodes were in with the deal .... 
Then it froze ......  and froze ...... and froze. 

Frozen-out on the slipway at Whilton

Liz and I had bought all the requisite outdoor gear and were straining at the leash to get cruising, but the ice meant that Quo was either frozen in, or out of the water for 3 weeks.

Ice in the marina was 7cm thick

Eventually, Andy from Whilton rang and said she was back afloat, and the Marina was free of ice, so off we went. I had bought a winter mooring on the towpath at Welford, so that was our weekend goal. We parked Liz's car at Watford locks (our day 1 target), then headed for Whilton and loaded our stuff aboard. 
Toni gave us the two bob tour and, as it was VERY windy, chugged her out of the marina and onto the diesel pump for us, where we fitted a full gas bottle and filled up with £160 worth of fuel ....... gulp!

Toni and Liz exiting Whilton Marina

Now it was Liz and I, with Whilton bottom lock in front of us (set the wrong way) and a gale blowing up the stern. I was suffering a recurrence of my left knee ligament sprain, so Liz set off on foot to work the first lock and up we went. It was hard work for Liz as these locks are said to be some of the heaviest on the system, she had to use every ounce of her mighty eight and a half stones.
Second lock went relatively easily, but ominously, large lumps of ice were appearing and about 50 yards along, Quo hit a large sheet of 7cm thick ice and just rolled around the left side of it and into the shallows, accompanied by grinding, liquidising noises. I selected reverse and throttled up ..... no propulsion at all .... more revs ... still nothing. 
At this point I heard shouting from the bank ... it was Liz pointing out that smoke was coming from the engine cover ... ooer .... I killed the engine to find that the whole back cabin was full of smoke / fumes. Liz's cool head came into play, telling me to just punt the boat to the towpath, where we tied-up and took stock. The fumes soon cleared, and seemed to me to be diesel-scented steam, not smoke ..... I could see no problem with the engine, so restarted with the cover open ... all looked OK, dropped the cover and engaged the prop ....  nothing .. thoughts of burnt clutches came to mind. (I now suspect the prop was choked with crushed ice)

Whilton no.2 lock

It was getting late now, so with Quo just short of the railway bridge, we locked up and trudged back to the marina and home to think it all through.
Sunday saw us travelling hopefully back, once again we left Liz's car at Watford Locks and parked mine at Buckby Wharf .... walking down the towpath to Quo. First thing I checked was the weed hatch, we still had a prop, complete with nut and splitpin ... good start .... engine started first kick, engaged forward ... propwash .. hurray ... so we pulled the pins and off we set. The next four locks went according to plan apart from an escaped (drowned) lock key and we stopped for a well-earned lunch about 1/2 mile short of the top lock. Whilst Liz had a rest from lock wrangling, I limped back to Buckby Wharf and brought my car up to the New Inn.

Stranded above lock 6 with no ignition.

After a cuppa and a rest, we made to set off for Watford, switched on the ignition .... nothing .... fiddled with the kill switches etc. ... still nothing. A quick phonecall to Whilton and I realised I'd been running the engine with the ignition off, ie NOT charging the batteries ... now the spectre of ruined batteries and burnt-out alternators reared it's head. Nothing more to do than make secure and head for home .... once again, two steps forward, one step backwards.

The scenery made up for the problems

On Monday and Tuesday, I Googled everything I could find, and convinced myself that I should be able to jump start the engine, either from the leisure batteries or a car battery that I would take along, so on Wednesday, I set off armed with a charged battery and jump leads. Believe me, 1/2 mile down a muddy towpath carrying a car battery and sporting torn knee ligaments isn't my idea of fun, but it had to be done. Got to Quo eventually and set about my task .... coupled the battery .... nothing ... AAAAARGH!!! However, in mooching about the engine compartment, suddenly the ignition beeped back into life! My suspicion pointed to the wiring in the area of the kill switches, but it was now working, and no amount of wire-wiggling would make it cut out, so I started the engine and single-handedly moved the boat to just below the top lock.

Just short of the New Inn

With Quo securely moored I left feeling that at last something had gone right. Here I met Brian, who kindly showed me the benefits of owning a fid, gave me a brass pump to help with clearing water from the engine room and replaced a stolen mooring hook. He also showed me that knots are unneccessary when mooring. I hope he got his boat's chimney fixed.
Liz's full-time job precluded any midweek boating, so I called upon my pal Paul to join me on on the Friday with the very small ambition of just getting up the last lock, this we easily and quickly performed, despite a bit of on/off/on with the ignition. We rewarded ourselves with beer and cheesy chips at New Inn. 

James at the tiller

On the Saturday, Liz had a hairdo booked, but I was straining at the leash, so luckily good ol' James C kindly volunteered to help me along.
Together we soon scooted round Norton junction, past the marina and up Watford locks, but the wind was so strong at the top that I couldn't get into the towpath to tie up,  bizarrely, we moored under the M1 for lunch in the semi-darkness. Here, I first tried to use the 1200w microwave on the 1800w Sterling inverter, but all it achieved was to put all the lights out :o(  

Watford Locks

After hot soup - heated on the gas hob - and ham rolls, we chugged noisly through Crick tunnel ( singing Delilah very loudly) passing a couple of boats inside without drama, even being complimented on our singing by one :o)
However, a delayed start had us struggling against the clock (James had to get back to cook dinner).
We got as far as bridge 37, where Liz picked him up and whisked him home, whilst I secured the boat and the mooring. It was dark by the time Liz came back for me, and we still had to go back to the New Inn for my car, but I felt a good days cruising had been achieved, and the boat felt a little bit more familiar. I now knew that if the ignition didn't come on, wire wiggling in the engine area would always bring it on.
On Sunday morning, Liz dropped youngest son Jody and I off at bridge 37, then drove to Welford Wharf and started walking up the towpath.

On the Welford Arm at last

Cap'n Jody

Meanwhile, Jo and I quickly got under way and were soon turning up the Welford arm. Picking up Liz from Bosworth Mill Bridge on the way, we had our first family cruise up to and though the lock, mooring up under the oak trees, just round what I will always now think of as "Windy Corner"  .... we had made it at last, and only a week late :o)

Moored by Welford Marina

Windy Corner

We soon realised that, lovely as it was, this was impractical as a mooring for someone with only one good leg and no particular liking for pigeon droppings. 
So we move down to the Wharf, where we started to get to know the regulars, all very friendly and helpful. 



Over the next few weeks, by playing hookey from work, I arranged to get new curtains and upholstery covers made, and got to grips with the faults that had caused us so much grief on our first two days of boating.

Original hinged wooden cover

Solid Aluminium ..that's better

More water to mop out

Firstly, the wooden engine cover had a hinge across the middle, and I discovered that every time it rained, it leaked and directed water onto the exhaust insulation wrap ... hence the smoke/steam on day 1 .... I had what amounted to a huge aluminium manhole cover made by Frontline Engineering to replace this ..... problem solved.


Up until then, I presumed that mopping water out of the engine room on a regular basis was normal on a narrowboat ... you live and learn.
  

The troublesome connector ... grrrrrr

Secondly, I started seriously searching for the electrical fault, and soon discovered, under about a mile of insulation tape, that the main engine connector block had the live feed wire hanging half out due to a bent retaining barb. This was soon solved, as it is "right up my street" so to speak, but I'm amazed that someone had obviously looked at it, then wrapped about a yard of insulation tape around it without fixing it.
Now I felt that I could trust the boat, I took her down to the Wharf on my own, and part-filled the water tank. 

Quo on the water point

Turning round after this was comical to say the least, as my inexperience, and the strong wind saw me jammed across the end of the wharf, fearful of bumping a freshly painted boat moored in the winding hole.
By jamming the bow into the pilings, with the engine in slow ahead, I got off and bow hauled her around, exhausting work, but good to know that I could get out of a muddle. Now we could wash up and use the loo, but  I soon found that the Alde central heating boiler had a problem, the ignition was firing all the time but we had to leave it on to protect the plumbing from freezing.

The offending ignition switch

A quick call to Alde in Wellingborough and Jim of Jim's Mobile Marine came out to sort it. He had to change the switch and the spark generator and gave it a service at the same time ... now we could heat the boat without the fuss of lighting the fire although we soon realised that it was using a 13 kg gas bottle every 7 to 10 days, at £25 a time.

Ripped open in the middle

My next idea was to fit a heated towel rail in the bathroom, and whilst looking into the space behind the boiler (NOT, I stress needed to be looked at by Jim who only accessed the boiler front) I was horrified to discover that despite passing a BSS less than a month before, the boiler air inlet duct was ripped open in three places !!! 

Top of the duct torn away !

The dust and cobwebs showed that these were old wounds,
and meant that the boiler was drawing it's air for combustion from inside the boat instead of outside, potentially lethal. I repaired the duct with ..... DUCT TAPE .... fist time I've ever used it for that. 

My new heated towel rail

I then fitted and plumbed the towel rail (bought new on ebay for £34 including the valves!) all but the connections to the heating system, as I daren't have the heating out of operation whilst it was still freezing at night.


We now regularly popped up to the boat, lit the fire and just sat, soaking up the watery experience strumming my guitar and drinking tea, then eating at the Wharf House Inn. 

Warm feet and a guitar to strum ... Bliss

Toastie!

Charles and Jane off NB Casson introduced me to Farecla for restoring the jaded paintwork, and Bruce was usually on hand with a tongue-in-cheek tale. We often chatted to Brian and Shirley as they walked their aged Bull Terrier (we used to have one) and the resident swans mugged us for cake.

Our first proper cruise was up to the end of the arm and back, all without incident .... now we are getting the hang of it .... threw away the microwave oven after failing to get it to work on the inverter.
Our second attempt at a cruise taught me a real lesson. Despite it being very windy (and against Liz's better judgement), we set off for the junction, and I soon realised that I was really struggling to keep our stern off the moored boats, and sure enough, a huge gust on windy corner pushed me onto a moored boat ... BANG .... I immediately moored up and walked back to appologise to the owner, bearing a bottle as a peace offering .. it was Mick and Crystal (the ex lock keeper at Foxton) who were very good about it, and invited us to moor immediately behind them so they could keep an eye on Quo for us ... nice. 

Before

 Unfortunately, Quo was now a long walk from the car park, and my knee made getting up there a real trial, especially as I was toing and froing with the cushions, curtains and upholstery. Luckily, a week later, the weather improved, and we chugged up to the junction, turned and got back to our mooring at the Wharf.

After

The new curtains and covers were ready, and when fitted, really changed the look, Liz recons it's a bit "funeral parlour" but I like it. Although we are going to fit lighter, floral curtains at the front to break it up a bit.
I also had some oak fittings made to enable me to fit an oak pillaster in the kitchen and rounded the corners off the little table. Now it was becoming OUR boat.