Well on the way!

I have just heard from the crew that they are moored up on the Tring summit ready to start the long descent into the Thames valley down the Marsworth flight.

Back in Banbury we are getting ready to go to the Cavalcade. We need to sort out the boat decoration. I took the christmas lights off our flat balcony yesterday to take with us. Some flashing lights will jolly the rigging and will make it look fun. We have entered the illuminated parade. Whether we parade or not is in the balance. We would have to devise a way of getting the rigging demountable to get under the bridges of Little Venice and we haven't time to work on it. Also we have had the bad news that the head has come off our broom. The broom is an integral part of our normal rig, supporting the bunting at the aft end! Hopefully the stick is still intact.

Also needing prep is a song to perform during the boaters entertainment on Saturday Evening. I have a song written but it needs working on.


I am expecting to have fun whatever happens.

Off and Away

I am sorry that I haven't blogged for a while. There needs to be something to blog about and quite honestly there has been little that caught my imagination.

Since we came back from Tooley's we have only poodled about the Banbury area between Cropredy and Nell Bridge. Everything on the boat was working well enough and we found the new calorifier system was great at getting hot water without gas, a luxury we haven't had before. So all is set for the summer.

After the final pit stop on Monday to fill the diesel tanks, take on water and empty the toilet tank the boat was ready to go.

On Tuesday I cruised with friends to Cropredy and left SONFLOWER in their good hands to take her up the Oxford and down the GUC to London for the IWA Cavalcade. So, once more, if you see SONFLOWER with a clean shaven man and a slim woman aboard it isn't her usual crew!

Today she is between Napton and Braunston. The sun is shining and our prayer and hope is that our friends will be enjoying the holiday they deserve. Give them your best smile and wave to help them on their way. They have rarely had a boat on their own so we hope that they team up with good and friendly partners through the wide GU locks.

Jus' Perfick

Thank you to my sister. She is not somebody who will accept less than the best so when the carpet was laid in her new conservatory she could not live with the lightening toward the centre. The weaving defect had to go!

And so the carpet that she rejected is now in the saloon of Sonflower. And it does look nice. The fitting isn't perfect but we will live with it.

Thank you, Sis!

Gastro Nautical

We are on a mission. We have entered a new arena.

The Best mate and I are now gastronauts after a wonderful seven course seafood dinner (what else could it be) at Rick Stein's Seafood restaurant in Padstow.

We can only say that everything was superb. We have never eaten Sea Urchin before. Exciting stuff.

The room in the hotel is also wonderful. With a bath and a shower big enough for two! and probably more but not quite a whole rugby team. A far cry from what we are used to on the boat with a shower not quite big enough for one!

Today we have to struggle through breakfast and lunch before our mission is complete.

And a trip round the bay: we must get on a boat!

Many thanks thank you to my children who gave us this trip as a birthday present.

While keeping warm

While they are in South Africa escaping the frost, here is Auriga in the draining dock before it gets the blacking treatment. We will be folowing her in on Thursday.

moving, brrrr

This morning I was pleased to see nb Heron's Rest on the water and breaking the ice on the way to town. They have the second longest stay with Tooley's in the last year as they struggled to fix a diesel stove that would not light. All sorted now though. They were not returning to the yard but were heading for Oxford. I was pleased because I do not like ice-breaking. I had to wind this morning which, with ice floes either side is interesting. Then off to town again.

This visit is for re-blacking. There has been a lot of diesel on the surface of the canal this winter and it has taken the blacking off at the water line. As this is the most important area to protect, I felt it was important to get it re-done before the cruising season starts in earnest.

It gives an opportunity to do the snags as well and re-torque the engine cylinder head while it is there.

Cruising again.

We picked up the keys to SONFLOWER from Tooley's on Monday. Unfortunately, other non-boating contacts let us down a bit by being four hours late to the Best Mate's extreme annoyance so we did not get away for a 'shake down' cruise until Tuesday morning.

It was a lovely day. Cold bit clear and with a good amount of blue sky in the morning. We were heading north. That was the way we were pointing so why turn when we didn't need to. The cruise to Cropredy was very gentle and we stopped near Slat Mill lock for a fried breakfast. It was good to be back on the boat after such a long time. The birds were flocking in the hedges and all was fine and dandy except that the water temperature never budged the gauge!

We had missed the Red Lion's Monday half price offers so we lunched on the boat and then I got about preparing a pheasant stew on the stove. Unfortunately, when I bought the pheasant I di d not know that the Best mate didn't like it! I bought her a quarter of chicken. By the time stew eating time came, the bottle of red wine that it was cooked in did not compensate for the fact that the pheasant was pleasantly tender but the chicken, in the Best Mate's opinion, was cooked to devastation- almost to a purée! Not a happy meal!

We turned on the gas heater for our hot water supplies.

Then there was the pump put debate. We were getting fuller and fuller. Fenny Compton was the nearest facility in this direction. That was too far to realistically achieve and get back to Banbury for an appointment on Thursday. So we stayed in Cropredy.

On Tuesday morning I went to knock up Auriga's crew and begged to borrow a pump out kit. We have never used this hand pumping arrangement. Then it rained. We left it until after 10.30 before we made a start to the facility point and got the equipment set up. I sheltered under my late father's yellow oilskin cycling cape. After an initial good start that blew the discharge tube out of the disposal point, despite a heavy angle iron bar and a tyred wheel on top of it, with a resultant blue spillage to clear up, we then hit a problem that the pump appeared to pump and suck alternately with no resultant discharge. Priming and re-priming didn't seem to help. A phone call to our friend resulted in no solution as the fault I was describing had not happened to him. The Best Mate came out and helped. She pumped like mad and soon effluent was flowing like swallow falls. A woman's touch was obviously what was needed. The rain stopped and I took off my glasses to remove the cape, pulled the cape over my head and caught the glasses spilling them to the deck. I emerged from the cape to see a varifocal lens disappearing into the canal!

Our friend appeared and agreed that we were now doing fine. We washed out the equipment, had a cup of coffee and then returned the equipment to his boat.

We were then on our way back again. The engine still stayed cool.

The birds were now flocking together and seeking warmth. I thought that maybe the fieldfares were congregating to make their way back to Scandinavia because Spring was coming. I was wrong! Snow was in the air!

Today we cruised nowhere until the snow had stopped! I reported the few faults found to Tooley's who will fix them shortly while we are on our mooring. Which is where we are now.

We are back at Home Mooring but still waiting for the hot shower!

the ha'peth of tar syndrome

I have told you about the rev counter (tachometer) that needed recalibrating. Well, the updated position is that it would cost more to re-calibrate it than get a new one! Apparently, it costs so much to open up a twenty-five year old instrument to fiddle with its insides and to make it compatible with modern electronics in the alternator that the labour charge (UK) makes a new one (from China) a snip. And while we are about it, a new panel with modern gauges and switches and panel lights that work and a horn (an electric one to replace the reliable mouth blown stadium horn) and a bilge pump float switch override (because the hole is already there and marked 'bilge pump') all seems so reasonable.

And (just in case the old one doesn't fit) would I like a new wiring loom as well? No, that is going a bit too far!

I care

The name of the boat says it all. nb Past Caring is moored between the no mooring posts at a winding hole. Being on a boat handling course with other students who wanted to learn to turn a narrowboat boat correctly and efficiently, having this idiot moored in the way was a little less than convenient!

Nearly There

SONFLOWER was running her engine all day today. There are still some ice flows on the canal so it s not really appropriate to go any where but she is having her proving run.


I took a photo of the instrument panel which shows her doing 2750rpm! The engine never goes that fast and this highlights another problem. The Tachometer is not calibrated to the new alternator. The temperature gauge showed a temperature of 90 deg C. which is a tad high as well. Oil pressure is a steady 3 bar and the voltage is 13v. They are OK. The interesting one for me is the water temperature as before this overhaul we could never get the needle to show on the gauge. The engine never warmed up. Because of that it smoked and spluttered. Now it should be running much more efficiently.

Tommorrow the filters will be changed and the running in oil will be changed for the good stuff.

After that, a few snags to fix, like the tachometer before Tooley's hand me the keys.

After the fast

I had to see the doctor today. A good check up and tidying up some details after the gastric disorder. Blood Pressure checked out at 122/76. The doctor said it was a perfect result so I celebrated with a full english breakfast. Here it is!



The thing about a full english is not just the eating. It is the bubbling, spitting, crackling of the cooking, the release of the greatest aromas ever to get up the nostrils and then, oh what a flavour hit as a whole yolk is consumed in a mouthfull.

There is nothing like it.


I have to check back for the cholesterol test results later inthe week.

Retired!

I got the caretaker at the school to take the picture to prove that we don't do nothing! I was at the school to meet the head about a couple of very wintery issues. This is me keeping warm and helping out with the snow clearance from the car park.

The snow plough from Cherwell District Council did not appear. The salt and grit in was never put into the boxes by the highway department. In fact, there is a world shortage of salt. We will be passing the salt mines of cheshire in the summer. I might put a couple of ton on board for next year!

's n'ICE problem

Here is the reason my friend's narrowboat stopped driving. He was following the lead of another boat in attempting to get to the water point. Forward and back to crush and split the ice when he lost drive. The coupling had failed in a big way. Fortunately, our wonderful alladin's cave of a chandlery at Tooley's had the appropriate coupling. Here is the replacement.

Of course, the price tag was not his only problem. I gave him the good news that fitting the key was a skilled job. The key steel has to be the correct size and a beautiful slide fit (+0.000" to +0.002" fit) in order to transmit the toorque from the engine to the propeller. It is not just a case of wanging up the nuts and tightening up a grub screw!
"Surely you knew that!" came a voice from the next bar table.
My friend, I hope is now looking for a marine engineer to fit the coupling correctly. One thing he did know was that the nyloc nuts are not re-useable. He has a nice colection of sixteen previously owned nuts to confirm previous sorry attempts at making the coupling couple.

Trying to be an ice breaker is turning out to be an expensive occupation

New Electrics/looming great

Here are the old switch panels. The wiring of the boat is in pretty good condition but the switch panels were very outdated.

Now modernised, with sensitive Circuit breakers, the electic system is now very good.



Also needed was replacement of the engine loom because of age related insulation brittleness.

Narrow Boat

It is cold enough to read the wonderful chapter in Narrowboat concerning the coming to Banbury of the icebreakers. We anticipate that we will be iced in for about three weeks this winter.

Here is SONFLOWER

Chapel on "Oxford Canal"

Here is an interesting article. The beeb are not usually lax about facts and stuff though.

The chapel, according to the article was 70 ft long and 14 ft wide. It wasn't on the Oxford Canal then, was it! However, It was quite a feat to get 150 people on board. At 70 Kg per person that is a 10,500kg payload. With a bit of happy clappy worship and dancing they must have got the boat a-rockin' even for a widebeam!

The BCF are off to see Britain's only current floating Church. It is a converted dutch grain barge in West India Dock, serving Docklands and Canary Wharf etc. More about it next week

Forlorne

Just a couple of shots from my moibile as I passed SONFLOWER moored under the Museum bridge at Tooley's. The snow cannot reach her to make her look beautiful and the street lighting is not quite good enough to show her glistening reflection in the ice.

She stands forlorn and 'abandonned'.

But, believe me, she is most loved of vessels and if I were fitter and better I would be seeing more of her in the daylight. How the days are too short and the sunshine not strong enough to light her up as she deserved.

Done and Dusted

I had a phone call from Tooley's today. Matt rang to tell me that the boat work is now complete and that they are ready to start the 50hour proving run!

The boat has a heater aboard to keep it from freezing in the current cold snap and the engine will now start its re-commissioning trial. Because of the icy static conditions of the canal, the prop will need to be engaged to give the engine a good work out against a mooring rope. We hope to give her a good trial shake down!

I hope that I can get down to the yard to see it tomorrow.

"Another small problem. . . " Matt said down the 'phone. "The money hasn't reached our bank account yet." On checking the internet banking site I found that the money left our account on 31 December 2009 destined for 'Tooleys' but then returned to our account on 7th January 2010 from 'Tooleys' with no record of a payment being made in the "Transfers and Payments" list. Curiouser and Curiouser, me thinks. I added "Tooleys" to the list of recipients again and made another payment. This time ASAP. I do hope that they get their money. Tooley's bank with a nationalised high street bank and so do I. The money has been in the either for a week. I haven't been getting interest. Tooley's haven't been getting interest. Who gets the money when this sort of thing happens? The government must have wondered where its extra cash came from over last weekend! I hope I haven't upset their year end figures!

WInter Cruising

what wonderful weather for winter cruising.

But I have been viewing it from flat on my back, with my hooves in the air, through the sticks of the roof between trots out to pasture to dispose of fluid through every orifice of the body except the ears!

Eeyore has had a gloomy time with gastric flu.

Piglet has suffered from a less severe case but The Best Mate has had to be very busy keeping up with the laundry and the moaning.

I started on Sunday. We planned to do things this week:

50 HOUR 'SHAKEDOWN" CRUISE maybe as far as Thrupp and back--POSTPONED

48 HOURS sleep on board to check out electrics and new water heating: POSTPONED

JUST BEING SOMEWHERE SURROUNDED BY ICE out of the FIREWORK CRACKIN CELBRATION CULTURE: HOPEFULLY NEXT YEAR

I have managed to view the lovely full moon through the holes in the roof and thought about Andrew of Granny Buttons who must have been out there taking the most beautiful frost sparkling moonlit photographs.

I have missed it.



A HAPPPY NIEWEE YEEEAR TO ALL MY READERS


Eeyore

Today could be the Day

Here is the engine, looking very green in CB marine house colours. They have painted everything!

The news from the boatyard is that it could be running today. We will then need to give it a fifty hour running in cruise to shake it down, as they say, and then come back for an oil change.

It will be good to hear the heart of the boat throbbing again.