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.