Silencers and stuff

 A boat needs to be kept in good condition. This goes without saying but there are soe things that we do not examine often enough. The engine exhaust just goes out the back and disappears into the ether. Until the pipework of indeterminate age, but over 17 years, breaks and the exhaust goes into the engine bay and blackens everything in carbon!

We allowed friend to take the boat out for a few days. Of course we had an obligatory "water cruise" before the main event to familiarise the skipper to be with Sonflower and her foibles. One thing that puzzled me before that cruise was why the water tank was completely empty and the leisure battery was almost completely empty too. We decided to fill the tank, run the engine for a few hours and charge up the battery. Our friend, who has crewed for us before, could skipper the whole way. So, through the lift bridge and mooring at the water point. Taking on water, navigating down the lock, through narrows, round a bend under a bridge, winding the boat, navigating up through the lock and lift bridge to moor back on home mooring.  A succesfull four hour cruise and all seemed ok.   They went to Cropredy without incident. But on the return trip, three locks from home we received a phone call to say that the engine tone had changed and there was smoke coming form the engine bay. All indications were normal but the water level in the Cropredy pund was very low. I thought the boat may be labouring in the shallow water so I told her to slowly cruise back to home mooring where I met her and discovered the broken exhaust.

Last Friday I took Sonflower down to Tooley's Botyard where John could work on her and fit a new exhaust system. Unfortunately her engine bay is too cramped to upgrade to a hospital silencer so we have a new system of conventional variety.

This Friday we took her away from Tooley's and on a little trip down to Nell Bridge and back. When we got on her and turned on the battery isolator switch the water pump started running. There were no taps open so I had visions of a bilge full of water. However the bilge was dry as a bone. The engine bay bilge pup started and doischarged clean water into the canal. I opened the engine bay to check the stern gland and the greaser and found that there was no undue leakage formt eh sdern gland but there was a discharge from the clorifier releif valve which discharges into the engine bay bilge. We had found the reason for the empty water tank anmd the low batteries! Unfortunately exercising the relief valve to clear grot from the seat did not reseat it so we turned the water pump off except when we needed to fill a bowl or the kettle and filled eight litres of empty coke bottles with water for our drinking needs.

Nell Bridge and back went fine and brought the battery voltage back to 12v. Our only "problem" was very heavy showers that soaked us to the skin on the way back at Kings Sutton lock where there was a queue of three boats. It rained. We left Sonflower in town under Tom Rolt Bridge because it was tipping it down and took her back to home mooring 36 hours later to wait for more attention to the calorifier relief valve. 

                              Since last blog post:

 Water Run    2 LB, 2 Locks, 2 miles; 

 Cropredy and back  9m, 6 locks,   

 Nell Bridge and back  10m,  6 locks 2 LB                                                          12 hours total

Bank Holiday Boating

What an 'orrible day!

But...... having complained in the past about BW and others overstaying on popular moorings we had to move today from the 48 hour moorings and return to our home mooring.

The wind was playing havoc with boats in the narrows of the town centre and things blew off the roof of the boat and into the canal.The moorer opposite had lost the coolie hat from the chimney and we have a chimney lid that is probably now in the cut. C'est la vie. As we talked I noticed that a footrest that I had reclaimed from the canal two years ago was again floating down the waterway, too far away to retrieve with a boat hook.

I pointed it out to the other boater. He recognised our boat name and introduced himself as our new next door neighbour. He was the other lucky winner in the recent auction of two moorings at our mooring site.

We had to move and so returned to the mooring about an hour after he arrived there.

The weather was awful. Everyone agreed but there were a lot of empty spaces. We were all out somewhere. Our other neighbour was bemoaning the fact that his plans to grind out rust on his roof had been scuppered. A chat with our new neighbour revealed that all was not rosy on his boat either as he had discovered an elusive plumbing leak by finding water in the bilges and an empty water tank (not the best way to discover it but at least he knew of it before it sank the boat!)

As we all passed the time chatting about our problems in the rain, two other boats returned from their Bank Holiday cruises. 50th birthday celebrations were spoiled by a gig that was cancelled and the rain that dampened the cruise home.

Why don't the Government instigate a variable Bank Holiday that moves to a time when the weather is good. Any party that promised that would surely get elected.