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.