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

A very full Morning

This morning the sun shone and it looked as if we would have a great day.

A new neighbour with a brand new 70ft boat, "Willy Nilly", asked me to accompany her on the "water run". She picked me up off the boat at Tom Rolt Bridge No 164. The lift bridge 165 in town has challenges for the single hander but we negotiated it safely. On approach I was hailed by Kate Saffin, of Theatre in the Dock Fame, who wanted to return a book I had lent her. Pushing the boat over to Tooley's side of the canal to collect the volume put us a bit out of centre for going through the bridge narrows. But all was fine. We settled onto the water point and filled the boat, the kettle and had a cup of coffee. Taking on water is just something one has to do. And it takes as long as it takes.

A single hander came up the lock and shut the gate behind him. No problem really as my friend wanted to do all the work she would have to do on her own. I did help him through the lift bridge.

Entering the lock from the water point is an easy sweep. The lock at Banbury is at an angle to the main run of the canal and getting it wrong can mean a scrape down the concrete side, getting the cruiser stern stuck under the raking coping and other nightmares. It is best to keep well back and smoothly enter the lock. My friend did it perfectly:

We checked with the hire boaters at the water point that they were almost ready to go up the lock and left the gates open for them. A Canal and River Trust man walked down the tow-path opposite and told us we had left the gates open. We told him that the hire boat was going up but he closed the gates muttering something about saving water! He obviously has little knowledge of the canal as the water flowing over the top gates will spill through the leaking bottom gates anyway and the pound above the lock is fed by the Hanwell Brook. This brook is the cause of flooding rather than shortages with the recent rain! Ignorance is bliss. He must think he was doing his job. All he did was annoy me and inconvenience the hirers who had to open the gates again.

Thence to Bankside Winding hole to turn. My friend did very well here. Turning a 70 footer is quite a lot more difficult than my 57 ft boat. We passed "Dusty" on the way back and pulled over to the facilities to set the lock. It was full this time, the hire boat having worked up. "Dusty" came up and we allowed him to go first. "Working boats have priority" I said. "I wish everyone would think that" he replied. Just watching "Dusty" work the lock taught us a bit about single handling. Don't get too close to the gates when the lock is emptying, you'll be sucked against the gate and could break them; slow the boat with the gates if it is going into the lock too fast; watch the speed that you let the water in so that the boat doesn't crash against the top gate. etc. etc.

Our turn came and went well. Del and Al from Derwent 6 came up behind and were there to help with gates and paddles.

So through the lift bridge we went. Having let "Dusty" go first we now came to a halt. He was delivering to the boat yard and their collection of vessels meant that the way was entirely blocked. A boat was coming the other way too!

After the way cleared we returned to the mooring. I got off at Tom Rolt Bridge No 164 and let Willy Nilly return to her mooring. I started SONFLOWER's engine and backed her to Sovereign Wharf where I started to turn. In the middle of the turn the boat started to move sideways toward the lock. To my surprise a boat "Zenith" came round the bend and headed between my bow and the bank sucking SONFLOWER toward it as she approached. "Wait up a minute" the helmsman shouted. "Who is turning?" I replied, "Shouldn't you be waiting a minute?!"

Thence to the whaarf for a PUMP OUT. By all accounts they had had a very good Canal Day and the Punch and Judy had been very good. The lack of Punch whacking Judy round the head and the absence of the baby being thrown to the crowd during the performance was noted as a sign of the times.

Then back to home mooring to wait for Dusty and the coal delivery. Good things come to those who wait. 5 bags of Pureheat at £11.00 a 25kg bag. Half what the garages and garden centres would charge.

A busy and very full morning.