Jan - March 2012

Brrrrrrr!!

 A combination of wintry weather, my useless knees and us both being busy with the Village production of Fawlty Towers - Liz producing and me playing Manuel - meant no boating, and not even being able to visit.
Over the winter, I had Debdale Marina do an engine service, and change the alternator belts, plus we had them top off the diesel tank to prevent condensation. I had already de-watered the boat in November, so all was well with Quo.

  

This will tell us when the pump-out is full

Butterflies

On our travels, we discovered a wonderful garden centre near Cotesbach, and bought one or two nick-nacks to beautify the boat

New doormats

Towards the end of March, I finally got round to fitting the Brass socket faces I'd bought last year on Ebay. As usual this was not as simple as I'd thought, because the original sockets had been crudely fitted without back-boxes, so I modified plasterboard boxes to do the trick.

Finally in March, we got Quo out for a quick up and downer to Bridge 61 ... Oh joy!!

Whilst moored, a Lady Driver came out of the lock too fast and "T" boned us, luckily no harm done. I should have known better than to moor there, as I've seen it happen before whilst lunching in the Inn.

 The Tiller Handle has degraded over the winter, along with the varnish dropping off the back rail, so I removed them and took them to work with me to sand and re-varnish.

 At the same time, I varnished a newall post and fitted it to the back step to hopefully add a little extra character.

 I will fit a short piece of bannister at a later date if I can
 source an off-cut with a suitable profile






















Also finally put a few coats on satin varnish on
our "totem pole" and it's fittings

I

I was quite pleased with my efforts at re-vitalising the back rail and the tiller handle.
I took the opportunity to round-off the inside edge to make it easier on my bottom.

After hours of sanding, and 5 coats of Epifanes it all looked nicely shiny.
Although now deleted from the Hempel paint range, I managed to source the original boat colours of True Blue and Post Box Red and changed the back brackets from dull blue to the new red !!!

Everything screwed back on, except that the coach-bolts I'd so lovingly painted red won't fit!!
The 1/4" holes to fit them have only been drilled through in the top of the metal rail, so my "serious" Bosch drill will be needed to finish the job off.

We got out again on a cold but bright Sunday and made our way down to the Saddington Reservoir feeder. After a bit of grunting and punting we got Quo reversed in and moored.

The weather was extremely nice for March, and while Liz de-rusted the water tank and painted it out with Vactan, I gave Quo a once over on her rusty patches with the self-same Vactan.
All rounded off with a picnic lunch.

 Thursday 29th, I was owed some time off work, so we cruised out of the marina heading for Foxton, then moored up in the shelter of the trees. Here, Liz put on the first coat of blacking in the water tank, whilst I put up the first of the brass curtain rails on the side-windows.

Lizzie rust-proofing the water tank

Quo moored in the reservoir feeder

Saddington Reservoir feeeder ... a beautiful spot.

Out of Order

This posting is out of order because I forgot to include the fact that I'm slowly replacing all the existing plastic curtain rails and wooden curtain retainers with brass fittings .. shiny huh?

We nipped over to Welford to see the state of the reservoirs .... still not good!

Preparing for a freeze

Just in time, we managed to get over to Quo and drain down the hot and cold water systems.

The engine cooling and central heating systems have anti-freeze in them, so are OK to leave over winter, but the hot and cold water pipes are vulnerable to freezing and have to be carefully drained.

It was this time last year that we took over Quo, but the weather was very different, it was the big freeze-up, and Whilton Marina had already winterised her so all the water tanks were empty.

I started the drain-down by just opening a hot and cold tap until the main cold water tank ran dry, then using my spare pump to drain every last drop from the tank, and an old towel to dry it out.

To my surprise, the hot water tank was still full of water ... hmmmmmm .... back to the drawing board. 

Luckily, my second attempt to drain it worked, I took the outlet off the boat's water pump and fitted it to the inlet of my spare pump, then opened the boat's hot taps and started the spare pump ... Bingo ... the tank dutifully emptied, and Quo is now ready to face whatever this winter brings.

We popped over to check on her on Christmas eve, ran the engine and mopped up a small quantity on water from the engine bilge ... I suspect a small leak from the gutter that drains around the engine cover ... I'll check it out when the weather is a bit warmer .... otherwise, she's in good order and we noted that the water level was up in the marina, boding well for a cruise in the near future.

It is the tuesday after Christmas, and we went for a walk along the towpath near Newton Harcourt, and noted that the water levels at Spinney Lock were fine, with water running down the spillways. 

Hopefully it won't be too long before we can get Quo out and about again.

Booze Crooze

I run a small guitar strumming session at the local pub on Monday nights, and we now have a hard core of 5 regulars, Paul, Mark, Bob, Dan and me.

We decided that what we needed was a long session with our guitars and a bottle or so of Jack Daniels to bring out the real music (a la Rolling Stones), my thinking was that a narrowboat would be an inspirational place to do this, so I set it up for last Saturday.

Liz was brilliant helping me to sort it all, and made a large pot of yummy stew and gorgeous cheese straws for our trip.

Come Saturday morning, knowing I had to stay sober(ish) anyway, I picked up the other lads in my car and off we set for Debdale, burdened additionally by guitars, beer and nibbles.

The weather was better than we could have hoped for, especially when compared to this time last year, and we cast off about 10.30am under clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine..... my only concern being the highish wind, as Quo does not handle well in crosswinds.

We cruised down to Foxton, and followed another boat through the first swing-bridge, then we (Paul & Mark) did the honours on the road swingbridge for them, featuring our first "key in the canal" incident, easily rectified, as I'd just fitted it with a cork float ... whew. We chugged out into the countryside past Foxton and moored-up.

The next several hours were spent sitting in glorious sunshine, eating, drinking, talking and making music ... it was absolutely brilliant! So carried away was I that it was 3.30 before I even thought about our return, and the sun was setting fast, so whilst the rest of the "crew" continued to make music I cast off and scooted down to the winding hole by the A6.

Turning was "interesting", with the wind doing it's best to run us aground.

Paul's punting expertise saved the day, but not my Aussie cowboy hat which blew off and stayed stubbornly dead centre of the canal and always moving faster than Quo could go in reverse, so I abandoned it to it's fate ... maybe next summer it will feature as a good base for a Moorhen's nest :o)

Running against the clock, and the wind, I pushed the engine harder that I've ever done before and it behaved immaculately, with just one brief incident when the prop choked with leaves, rectified by a blast of reverse.

Paul got us smoothly through both swing-bridges, and as I chugged slowly through the second one in the fast-fading daylight, I became transfixed by the lights of the Bridge 61 Pub directly ahead, drawn like a moth to a flame, so we moored-up outside. They had a roaring log fire, and the atmosphere was great, so we settled in with a jug or so of Adnam's finest for what seemed like hours.

It was proper dark when we re-emerged .... a clear star-strewn sky overhead and a half moon to the south.

We could have walked back to Debdale, but I decided to make my first attempt at night cruising so on went the tunnel lamp and off we set.

Unfortunately it was still quite windy, meaning I had to keep the revs up, otherwise I'd have gone all the way on tickover. Some of the guys were sitting out front playing guitars (the acoustics as we passed under bridges were wonderful I'm told) as I was treated to a shooting star and the ghostly sight of the local swans, floating mid-canal, illuminated suddenly by our light.

We made it cleanly back into the Marina, but the wind made a fool of me when trying to reverse on to our mooring, ending up with the stern in the right place, but the boat at 90 degrees to the mooring. Once again Paul's punting came to the rescue and in she slipped.

It was an absolutely brilliant day, and I can't wait to repeat it next spring, especially the night cruising!
Bob's photos

Naughty but Nice

Couldn't help myself, I could take the sight of this beautiful weather no more, so after a couple of hours on Friday, I shut up shop and Liz and I headed for Quo, packed to stop the night.
In absolutely fabulous weather, we cruised up towards Saddington Tunnel, seeing  our  first Kingfisher along the way!. We moored at the aqueduct for a late lunch of BLT's, then after a suitable rest, chugged up to the winding hole & turned. The temperature was now sky high, so as soon as we found a shady spot, we moored up again and just lazed until the temperature dropped.

A shady spot to sit out the heat

By 5pm it was just right, and we continued back past Debdale and on to Foxton Locks, mooring on the 48 hour moorings right by Rainbow Bridge.

The Inn was booked up solid, and Bridge 61 had sold out of food, so we just had a quiet drink and soaked up the wonderful atmosphere, then back to Quo for Plan B ... Liz's Stew, which went down a treat. We turned in early, and were serenaded by Tawny Owls ... magic!!

As usual on board, we woke early and I watched the sun come up whilst watching the France Tonga rugby match. We were on our second cup of tea by the time the England Scotland game was on, and having seen England progress, we walked up to Bridge 61 for a coffee and a Bacon Baguette ,,, yum yum.
As always, reality interrupts at some point, Jody was returning from a school trip to Strasbourg at 12.45, so we chugged slowly back to Debdale in brilliant sunshine to end another couple of absolutely fabulous narrowboating days.

Foxton Locks Festival

Having slept-over on Friday night, we had a pleasant Saturday at the Festival, good food, beer and music, then back to Quo.
The weather forecast for Sunday didn't look good, and we had to pick Jo up from work for 4.30, so Liz went off to sort Jody, whilst I cruised back to Debdale solo. We arrived at Debdale bridge simultaneously, and Liz just stepped back aboard for the short cruise onto our mooring ... very slick.
We really love our boat, after a few early problems, she has settled down to being absolutely perfect for our requirements..