Even more frustration: The conclusion

We have a new water pump that seems to be working correctly now. It is a ShurFlo Junior with a shut off setting of 2bar. Hopefully all will be well for the full three years of the warranty.

We have received refunds for the mis-sold pressure switch assembly and the malfunctioning ShurFlo 3.0 pump.

Even better!

Glenmorangie Single Malt

A Winner

I had a terribly difficult hour on the phone to Lloyds TSB. All I wanted to do was report a lost chequebook. By the end of it I was frazzled and unrecognised by the automatic voice recognition system and the operator who asked for details of a payment into my account that morning and then could not understand that Electricité de France was EdF. Failing to provide an accurate amount of the cost of four theatre tickets purchased by debit card five days previously froze up the system for security reasons. Representation to a supervisor bore no fruit and they had the cheek to send me a request to appear before a bank employee in person with my passport in hand to prove who I was. After being a customer for 27 years!

The letter I sent them resulted in the bottle of whisky that arrived this morning. The card says "We want to say sorry".

Well, that's all right then.

Wintery Thoughts

I sent a day on the boat this week. I sat in front of a warming stove and read some of The Famished Road, Booker Prize winning fiction, (but found it hard going) as I waited for 'Dusty' our trusty coal diesel and gas boatman to arive. Having been just south of Banbury the evening before it didn't take him too long to work his way up to the moorings on the north side of town to fill my empty tank with diesel and put some coal aboard. I paid cash. 'Dusty' likes cash. (He says he takes cash or cheques and if either fail he introduces 'PayPal", a pick axe handle with the words 'Pay Pall!' inscribed on the blunt end.)

By lunch time all our business was complete and we had 'put the world to rights'. It was time for me to check the boat over and shut it up. The gas water heater is drained, the new water pump switched off and the the taps left open to reduce damage if the temperature gets to low this winter. Then empty the veg bin and the fridge and leave SONFLOWER on her own.

I left the novel on the boat.

The frost on the ground reminded me that it is indeed December and wintery now after the second warmest November in the last 100 years.

Just the winter engine service to complete and we are ready to roll for the New Year.

Even more frustration part 2

I tried to fit the new pressure switch. I carefuly followed the instructions which said "do not remove the presure switch screws" but found that the pressure switch housing on the pump masked one of the screws that I had to remove so I had to remove the pressure switch screws to remove the switch to remove the body screws. Are you following me?

The instructions also said that if I was careful I wouldn't need to disturb the internals. I was very careful and removed the top body. Then came the surprise!


The internal sealing housing containing a rubber seal was sort of triangular in the new pump and circular in the old design (seen on the right). Those crafty Mexicans had made it so that you couldn't fit a yank pressure switch to a Mexican pump!

I now have issues with two supliers. One on winter holiday who supplied the pump that doesn't work and one a 40 minute drive away who supplied the part that doesn't fit.

I have put it all back together as it was except that I had cut the power cable from the switch to the motor!

Now I am seriously considering Tony's remote pressure switch idea.

Even more frustration

The water pump saga is not over!

The pump is not shutting off again and I am losing water through the relief valve at 3 bar pressure. To make sure that I had adjusted the pressure switch to minimum I removed the adjusting screw! Two turns back should have done the trick but not in this case.

The supplier of the pump is now on a winter break until March. So I rang up Tony, the fount of all knowledge on all things technical in a narrowboat. He loves to talk about these little problems and had a solution: ditch the pump pressure switch and get an independant switch from a reputable chandler. It should cost about £20. He recommended a Square D switch.

So I went to Midland Chandlers at Braunston. It is about a 40 minute drive from home mooring. I told the man what I wanted and he said that they had these switches for about £50 and I would need a fitting kit and tee piece in addition. He could not locate one on the shelves, however, (they are enlarging and re-arranging their store) but he did have what he felt was the real solution to my problem.

He told me that Midland Chandlers have about 150 Shurflo pumps ready to be returned to the manufacturer because of defective pressure switches! Since switching manufacture to Mexico the quality of the pumps has dropped remarkably and there is a whole batch of pressure switches that just do not work. My pump supplier had said that his wholesaler was Midland Chandlers! Could it be that he had part of this batch? I was told that they could not help me with my pump and were sympathetic but legally I had to go through my supplier. On the shelf were genuine Shurflo pressure switches from the previous incarnation of pumps, made in USA, and fully compatible with the pump I had installed. Cost £28.


This seemed the logical solution to get me through the winter. I can return the pump to my supplier, still under warranty, in the Spring.

Watch out for further instalments.

Up we go!

Here is a view out of Tooley's dock as it is filling to let SONFLOWER out.

The repairs to the rear rail and gates are complete and the gates shut more easily than they have ever done before.

I backed her up to Sovereign Wharf and turned her to return to home mooring.

Now all I have to do is pay the bill.

Unusual

This is a beautifully blacked and quite well preserved Springer from the early eighties judging by its registration number.

Nothing unusual about that then! Except that I am reliably informed it has been refitted with a state of the art Vetus power set up including a BOW THRUSTER!

Knowing how lightly Springers behave and how responsive they generally are to the tiller, I can only imagine that this one is going to be used in some sort of formation dance performance or something very aquabatic.

more Frustration

The pump saga is not over!

After an apparent success in re-fitting the Shurflo 3.0 water pump and returning a defective one (that would not work at all) to the supplier, the pump has now started to behave in the same way as ot doi when ot emptied my water tank into the canal. To remind you: it will not turn off because the 3 bar relief valve on the calorifier is lifting. I have tried re-setting the adjustable pressure switch. I am now assuming that the re-set pressure of the relief valve may be considerable less than 3 bar!

One reason why this is particularly frustrating is because getting to the pump is not exactly simple.

First one opens the under sink cupboard door fully and removes the vegetable rack:



Then move the storage box in the other cupboard to the left


Swivel it and take that out

revealing the trap door floor hatch

Which is removed to reveal the pump

and Finally

Sonflower is back in Tooley's dock.

She has been hydraulicaly straightened, ground apart and re-welded to re-align the starboard gate.
BEFORE AFTER



While out of the water she is having her stern gland re-packed. It has been doing more leaking than it should and taking more grease than it should this summer so it is getting a ten year service!


Hopefully she will re-float on Monday.

In the CaRT

So that is what all the signs and paperwork will look like from next April.

Not a bad effort for a logo. Will the acronym be CaRT, CART, or C&RT?

In and out

Many of you will have noticed SONFLOWER in the centre of Banbury. Maybe you saw her being pulled into the Tooley's dock last Wednesday. Maybe you saw her being pulled out on Monday. You would not have noticed any difference.

I am sorry to report that the welding work to straighten slight imperfections in the alignment of the rear taff rail that prevent the rear gates closing was delayed because of the sickness of the welder. (Get well soon). She will be docked again some time in the future.

Meanwhile, following on from my last post "Frustration" about a fault on the domestic water system. The calorifier relief valve was lifting discharging water into the canal, emptying the water tank and causing the water pump to run continuously. Talking about subjects like this with other boaters always seems to reveal that everyone else has had this fault and has a special way of curing the problem. Banbury Canal Day provided such a forum. Among other suggestions, a good friend, who is renowned for her DIY activity, emailed me with the details of a pressure reducing valve that was installed between pump and cauliflour to keep the pressure at the relief valve low. Looking at the specifications on the web I discovered that these valves are designed to operate at 16 bar (200psi) inlet pressure and the discharge from my pump is only supposed to be 2bar (30psi)!

A lot of dreamless nocturnal thought gave me the solution. Change the calorifier relief valve for one that works. I did it today: like for like. The pump shut off and the relief valve did not lift.

Untested by the rigours of boat life, however. For how long?

Frustration

Those who read Mortimer Bones' column in Canal Boat magazine will appreciate that not all things that seem simple on a narrowboat turn out that way.

This morning I went to take the boat to the town centre, a cruise of 1/4 mile. This weekend is a boating festival: The Banbury Canal Day. The town council put a lot of effort into making the assett of the The Oxford Canal work for the town and give the loacals a grand day out into the bargain. For the last eight years we have joined in the fun come rain or shine. This year, in contrast to the last two, it looks like we are in for a shining sunny day on Sunday.

So all seemed to bode well until I appraoched the boat to find her bow higher than I can remember seeing it before. The water tank was empty. Believing the saga of the "water in the bilge" to be over, I imediately raised the over over the water pumop to see whether water was engulfing it once more. No! But the pump was running dry!

I turned it off and investigated further. The little amount of water in the bilge that had run aft was cleared quickly. The taps were all closed and tight. The shower pan was dry. Where had all the water gone and why was the pump running?

We needed water. I cast off and boated into the town. First stop the water point which means navigating the lift bridge, no mean feat single handed! Thankfully a helpful waiting pedestrian lad took the windlass and lowered the bridge as I passed through to speed his crossing and help me.

Filling our tank takes about one and a half hours! The best mate came along from her art class at The Mill. She did not expect to see the boat at the water point. I explained the lack of water and we decided that she should go and buy a sushi lunch as we had plenty of time and the resources of the town were at our feet.

Lunched and with a full tank I had time to think about our problem. Running the pump for a short while revealed that the relief valve on the calorifier was letting by and that was where the water was going. Relieved water ended up in the stern gland bilge and was pumped away by the sern bilge pump!

We continued our cruise. Through the lock, down to the turning point at the end of the Tram way Mooring site and back again, through the lock, back to home mooring, to the turning point at The Arm just north of Spice Ball Park and then back to town to moor under Tom Rolt Bridge: our weekend mooring: 2 miles, 2 locks, 2 Lift Bridges and four and a half hours to fill up with water!

But with no isolation valve on the calorifier inlet, how can I fix the relief valve without draining the tank again?

The water pump says off.

There and Back again

I had to meet the welder at the boat so boating was in my mind. I had arranged to spend the day with a friend who had 'nothing' to do with his day off. We decided to go boating. There was little sign of any rain and the breeze blew fair as we went north. We met nb Petroc in town as we walked to the boat and discussed the possibilities of water shortages that could affect boating in a northerly direction. However, a report from the boat coming down Hardwick lock as we left was that there was no sign of low levels in the Cropredy pound. All looked good.

(The Banbury town pound, Harwick Lock to Banbury Lock, was the lowest we found with no flow coming in from the Hanwell Brook.)

As we passed (Little) Bourton Lock we noted the extent of the flood protection scheme that is being built (M40 Bridge to Little Bourton Lock). Whether it will ever be needed depends much on your view of climate change. Many feel we have had our '100 year event' flooding for this century! Approaching Cropredy the report proved true as the boats on the farm moorings were floating. They weren't the last time we passed!

With no food on the boat and both of us on a weight reducing diet we determined to buy some lunch at the Cropredy Bridge Store. We found that their only ready made sandwich was "All Day Breakfast". We looked at each other and agreed to go to the pub! At the Brazenose the local sausages with olive oil and mustard mash were too good to resist and we had a lovely lunch. I made the relapse complete with a pint of Hookey Bitter Ale!

The return cruise was eventful only for the fantastic view of a kingfisher flying low over the water for a hundred yards away from us and then turning to fly back toward us and wheel overhead: a truly blue streak.

Not a drop of rain, blue sky for long periods, good company and water underneath us make for a good day out.

Nothing to do with Boating

View Larger Map

We went for a drive. The sun shone and we had a wonderful day in the Cotswolds or the hinterland thereof. After coffee and a loo stop in Chipping Norton we ventured into unknown territory and discovered a land of lost inns and pubs. One was our target, The Swan Inn at Ascott-under-Wychwood. We passed many other closed and for sale or to let. It appears that the village local has died. May I say, possibly the heart of the village has died too with the advent of Hoseasons and the web booked holiday cottage. We couldn't get a pint of local beer in The Lamb Inn, Shipton-under-Wychwood: not even a pint of ale from the brewery that bears its name! The beer came from Greene King, Old Speckled Hen et al with a guest ale from East Anglia! All is lost Camra!

There is still a lot of countyside out there. But when I stopped to take a stroll in the fields I met with a sign saying "Please do not walk in our grass strips or conservation areas and woodland as it disturbs the game birds". Not half as much as a team of beaters, dogs and two dozen guns! 57.4 miles, 0 locks, 5hrs

Maybe and end to the WATER IN THE BILGE

The boat lists to port. I have been below the floorboards under the sink again today. Having taken the water pump out and taken it completely to pieces and put it back together again I found that it is still leaking into the boat bilge every time it runs.

So I went to SOVEREIGN WHARF today and bought a new SHURflo drinking water pump. It is rated at 3 gpm, an improvement on my last one of 0.6gpm. It is guaranteed for three years but Ray said that that means it will fall on its back after 3 1/2. At £85.00 that is less than £30 per year.

I also filled with diesel. This is now £0.85p per litre. A 10p rise on last year. I only filled one tank because I may need welding on the other side and the deck is the top of the tank! This accentuates the list to port but should be compensated by the empty loo tank!

We backed the boat up to Tooley's from Sovereign Wharf,(We had turned to have a pump out). We moored opposite Orion who had the most beautiful sounding original 1934 Gardner Engine. While waiting I fitted the water pump. I then found Matt needed a second opinion on my welding work. I need to talk to the welder on Friday. More on that later. We took the opportunity to talk about paintwork though. SONFLOWER is due for the dreaded blacking next April. Matt says he would like to get her in in March to repaint the roof at the same time.

Then I went forwards back to Sovereign Wharf and tried to moor on one of their finger moorings to use the electric hook up (by arrangement). The wind was wrong for making the tight turn. I had to go in bow first in order to be able to come out and face the right way to return to home mooring. I struggled. I am quite pleased with my boat handling usually but today it just didn't seem to be working. With a boat moored on the next pontoon with the owners aboard, I didn't want to touch their boat. It is about 60ft from the end of the pontoon to the opposite bank (SONFLOWER is 57 ft)but try as I may the boat did not want to get into the 8ft gap available! The occupants of the adjacent boat came out to help but I couldn't get in because of lack of water. The level in this pound is about five inches below normal and the mooring appeared to have silted up! The proprietors kindly allowed me to moor on the wharf while they were shut for lunch and I used the aquavac to suck out the remaining water in the bilge.

As lunchtime finished and no customers arrived I took the opportunity to re-fill the water tank. Thence to home mooring and some lunch at 3.00pm!

That's a day's boating!

Wonderful Idea!

I have just seen an advert in Canal Boat for BWML Marinas. They tell us that having a mooring in one of their marinas entitles the boater to visit any of their other marinas free of charge, subject to space being available and pre-booking.

Now here's the idea: how about BW giving any holder of a long term mooring license the facility to use any other long term mooring site for overnight mooring while out cruising? Subject, of course, to availability and the requirement to move on should the usual incumbent appear.

This could save a lot of congestion at those 'honey pot' sites we so often hear about as long term morings are often only just outside the visitor mooring zones.

Interesting Blog

Being very interested in food and its preparation on board I am keen to share this Canal Cook's Blog that shares recipes that are interesting. I have a veg drawer full of beetroot! Some returned with us from the boat and more came in our organic veg box from Riverford today. The Best Mate says we have more in the freezer from a previous harvest! So I did a google search for a recipe and came up with this one. Now I have found it I think I will be a regular visitor.

In Trevor Basin to the end

We did not go into Llangollen with the boat. I was worried about the draught of SONFLOWER which is 24 inches on a good day. Against the current her stern would be pulled down a bit more and the canal is very shallow in places. Where it narrows passing would be very difficult without grounding. The recommendations are variable but some say 20 inches is the practical maximum draught.

So I walked in. Here are photos of the sort of views we missed.




And one of the pretty flowers beside the towpath. Anyone recognise them?



I walked with a couple from Thame who had left their three under five children with their grandparents to escape for a walking holiday. They were walking from Nantwich to Llangollen and then cycling back! They had been booked into B & Bs on the way.

I also took a stroll across the aqueduct and back again. Here is a view of the River Dee that runs beneath it:

The stay in the basin in Trevor was delightful. Never a dull moment with the day punctuated by craft that entered to find nowhere to go except to turn round; a boat called "Destiny" came under the bridge, made a banging sound from the engine bay and came to a driveless stop. It was then towed out by an Anglowelsh Day Boat only to return two hours later towed by two Anglowelsh day boats and then pushed onto a mooring to await replacement of a drive plate after the Bank Holiday weekend. I helped hire boaters who wanted to be helped as the winding hole is an interesting shape. One week-ending crew were all dressed up as pirates which added to the colour and fun. Their helmsman said that he would not refuse my offer of help next time! He did all right actually considering the 'help' he got from his crew who jumped on and off and pushed the boat here and there. The crew also had a go at fishing and left me the rest of their maggots for me when they left.

We also had to leave the mooring for water and, as the Bank Holiday Friday and Saturday were 'turn round' days, water was unavailable at the boat yard. We had to cross the aqueduct, turn at Froncysyllte and water there to return over the aqueduct again. We chose to do this first thing on Saturday morning so as not to lose our mooring place! Here is a picture that shows how nice it was!

A relaxing time to end the holiday and give us an opportunity to clean the brass and get our washing together to prepare for departure! We watched hawfinches eating rowan berries from the trees next to the boat and I caught an eel in the basin on the free maggots. I took it, still writhing on the hook, to the crew of NB Destiny who have four cats and six kittens on board. They were delighted to recieve it, wrapped it in newspaper and beheaded it. The kittens set about it raw! I cut off the head, line and the hook, now a slimy ball! I do not like eels! I threw the rest of the maggots into the basin in disgust.

Our friends came just before lunch so we all repaired to The Telford Inn for a meal with them while rain poured down outside before we unloaded their stuff and filled the car with ours. We drove away at 3pm leaving SONFLOWER with the usual mixed feelings but knowing she is in the hands of a capable crew to bring her safely home to Banbury.

More Cruise 2011 Pictures

Queueing for a tunnel



In Chirk Tunnel


Moored in Chirk Pool. A good place to witness boating etiquette or not!

Moored at Chirk Marina. A great place for free water and free advice


A view of the Pontcysyllte aqueduct from Froncysyllte.

On Pontcysyllte Aqueduct



On Pontcysyllte. I usually have my right hand on the tiller! Here I am hoping the SONFLOWER will not be the first narrowboat to fall off!