Anomallies!

After two full trickle charges and drop tests, and a further full charge the batteries have been given a clean bill of health.

A connecting cable between two of the leisure batteries and the third was found to be of inadequate cross-section and replaced.

The battery selector/isolator switch was found to be incorrectly wired and not isolating anything!

All systems have been checked and SONFLOWER has been returned to her mooring for the remainder of the winter.

Thank you again John and  Tooley's Boatyard

Flat and Rescued

I went to the boat yesterday.

CRT have not given me permission to stay on the mooring for March. I have won the auction for the mooring but the contract does not start until April 1st.  So I went to move to another mooring for 14 days to then move to another mooring for 14 days and then into Tooley's dock for the whole of April!

But the gremlins had got under my engine covers and flatted the batteries. My small pv array did not keep up with the cold!

So I called RCR out this morning (that's what I pay them for) and Paul from Pershore jump started the engine and advised me to ditch it because spares are getting impossible to get and a new Kibota 44hp would only cost me £3500. I like my BMC 1500! He said the batteries were charging ok when he left.

Anyway, I boated into town and left the boat with Tooley's to test all the batteries and give me some good advice.

                                                                                          1/2 mile, 18 hours

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.

Missing Things

I haven't been blogging recently because I've been laid up. I have had a minor knee operation, called an arthroscopic menicuectomy. I think I have spelt it properly. Basically, keyhole surgery to cut away a bit of torn cartledge in my knee. I didn't realise it would be quite as painful as it was and it has meant that I have had to rest a lot. One would think this would make terrific blogging time. However, as I really wanted to concentrate this blog on the canal and the boat, the fact that I haven't been able to get out of my chair even to view the boats going by hasn't encouraged me. I'm missing out on the towpath gossip.

I did struggle to the club for lunch one day this past week and had a chat to a disabled boater on Castle Quay who sympathised with my struggle on crutches. He had a wonderful display of boat brass plates, which we display to show the world where we have been. Surprisingly they hadn't been on the Thames but had been just about everywhere north of it on flat water. We were interupted by a gongoozler who wondered how he'd grown such lovely lettuces in his roof box. He pointed out that the rain falls on them as well on the canal as anywhere on the land.

Lunching in the club I met good friends who have their mooring in Cropredy. It was really great to be able to converse once more about engines batteries and toilets. It is surprising how one misses these wonderful conversation pieces when one is isolated for a little while. There is always enough in these subjects to keep us busy for a pint or two. I had missed them.

If the conversation slacks then we relax into the interminable subject of the weather: summer has left us for a while and the autumn rains are upon us.

Father's day tomorrow. My father didn't really like it because it is an American invention to make money out of another card and stamp. Mothering Sunday is very British and that was alright as Mothers Day. But fathers day didn't have the same history behind it. Still, I will miss him because it is the first year that he hasn't been able to moan about it with his "you shouldn't have bothered, really you shouldn't"

It's funny what you miss isn't it?