20/10/2023 0 Comments Thursday 20th OctoberMy brother pointed out I haven't blogged recently. But there are reasons. Mainly I decided to move the boat to Crick Wharf Marina on the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union Canal, and to do it quick before the weather broke. I got the gas rigged up but without actually having it in a locker, just a hole in the stern deck. Did a bit of a clean up, collected Gareth and set off on Oct 1st, arrived 10th. This is DEFINITELY the last time I tackle the Nene, though at this time of year it was better, The weed had been cut and the water was deeper. Rather than snagging weed 10 times a day I think we did it about 10 times the full length of the river. I haven't got photos of Crick Wharf so see here. This shows the well deck with the decking planks removed so I could check there was space between the frame members. Below shows the decking cut out to suit and the gas fitting previously in the locker now attached to the frame with a bracket. The messy bulkheads behind where the old locker was will need cleaning and painting. This is how It was for the journey to Crick.
0 Comments
19/9/2023 0 Comments Tuesday 19th SeptemberI wasn't happy about how big'n'ugly the new locker would be when I tried out a cardboard prototype then had a flash of inspiration. Trentcraft fitted with outboard motors didn't have a rear deck like Seren, just a well deck and transom for the outboard. BUT they also had space in the well for gas bottles. Seren has a well deck under the rear deck so why not cut a hole in it and lower the gas into the space, then make a smaller, neater locker to fit on top? More details later.
14/9/2023 0 Comments Thursday 14th SeptCalor Gas have decided to stop supplying 3.9Kg propane (and 4.5Kg Butane) cylinders as used on Seren and plenty of other small boats, caravans and motor-homes. Fitting a larger cylinder and new, larger gas locker to accommodate it isn't really an option on a small boat so I've decided to switch to 5Kg Patio Gas. The cylinder is only slightly larger but won't fit in the existing locker, and suitable lockers are not available ready made so I'll have to make one. The smallest Patio Gas cylinder is 314mm high excluding the carrying handles and 306mm in diameter. For comparison the older style are 340 x 240mm. So I need a locker that is about 70mm wider higher, which would be annoying as I also use it as a step. There are some advantages; the larger capacity is useful and the new regulator ‘snaps on’ without needing a spanner and has a simple, clearly labelled on-off valve rather than the screw valve on the older cylinders. Finally, it has a contents gauge making it easier to plan when to change the cylinder rather than having it run out half way through cooking dinner. I've designed a new locker to be made of aluminum. It's only got two sides and a lid because it will be fitted tight into the corner and drain via a hole in the deck into the self-draining well deck beneath the visible decking. Below is the development of the sides. The top will be 4.5mm aluminium chequerplate. The metal is ordered. Need to get a move on as I'm hoping to move Seren away from the Gt Ouse and need the gas sorted before the trip. I'll take photos as I make it and write it up for Canal Boat, hopefully that'll cover the costs.
1/9/2023 0 Comments Friday September 1stHaving drifted into retirement when we moved down here in 2016 I seem to have drifted into work again. Writing for Canal Boat magazine. One piece out now, next one in November issue (probably out next month) and another just submitted. Plus a commission for a piece about Calor's discontinuing their small gas cylinders and how to make and fit a slightly bigger locker for a 5Kg Patio Gas cylinder. Should help pay for the next bit of refit work on Seren!
29/7/2023 0 Comments Friday 28th JulyAll done!
Bit of an anti-climax really. I'm disappointed that I didn't complete the planned route but without Gareth's help I don't think I would have coped with the heavy lock gates on L&L. Met up with Tony and wife (sorry forgot name) at Jones's for tea and a chat which was nice. Even I can get a bit lonely after 5 hours alone on the New Bedford. Nine locks from Earith to Kelpie mostly passed off without incident apart from a few time-wasters and incompetents. Back at Kelpie about 19.00 and Linda picked up so now home. Got a mental list of all the things I need to out right, repair, finish on Seren. Must write it down... 27/7/2023 0 Comments Thursday 27th JulyExpecting to be at Salters Lode as the tide turned (12.30) and out shortly after. But I left early so I'd have time to check the engine and prop before setting off. Haven't had weed trouble for days and got all the way to |Nordelph (last village before Salters) without a hitch then picked up something with a thump. carried on moving though and with a bit of fore and aft thrust got a decent speed up. At Salters I went down the weed hatch to investigate. It was a willow frond wound tight round the shaft but leaving the prop free. came off without too much of a fight. On arrival I had a look at the water level and could hardly see it, just mud and sand and a little trickle down the middle of the channel. The lockie explained it is almost neap tide so very little range from high to low and the high arrives very slowly. Finally got out about 13.30. Made decent progress for the first hour (about 4.7MPH on my sat nav app) but then we got to the narrow section as the tide turned and speed dropped by 1MPH. The headwind wasn't helping either. Later though as we got to the wider part the current slowed and the wind dropped a little. Still, it took an hour longer than going down with current and tide helping. The New Bedford being almost straight you can see for miles but it's disheartening at times when you see a landmark, a bridge or a slight bend in the distance and it takes about 30 mins to get there. Overnighting on the EA landing stage at Hermitage (it's allowed when the lock is closed). Need to get diesel from Westview in the morning then meet up with Tony at Jones's. 27/7/2023 0 Comments Wednesday 26th JulyWent through Stanground as planned at 09.30. The Middle Level is weedy but no-where near as bad as the upper Nene. My first thought was that's weird as the ML is basically a series of drains with boating an after-thought but I suppose there's no point having drains clogged by weed so maybe the MLC make more of an effort to dredge and cut the weeds back. I did pick up some on the prop, several times during the day but eah time managed to shake it off with some reverse thrust.
I was planning to stop at March but I was there by 14.00 so just had a brief tea break then carried on to Outwell. I need to be at Salters by 12.30 tomorrow so it'll be easier from here. There are two boater-operated locks on the ML Link Route, Ashline at Whittlesea and Marmont Priory near Upwell. Both are weird. Ashline is in a gated compound and you need a ML key to get in, though with a bit of effort you could climb the fence. The paddles are operated by vertical screws but there's no of that high tech gearing you get on canal locks, just a square spindle for your (oversize ML/Ouse) windlass, so you have to turn it horizontally. Which is surprisingly hard. Each takes about 60 turns to complete. So nearly 500 turns to open/close all four. Marmont Priory had a lock-keeper until a few years ago but is now DIY. It's not designed to be boater friendly. The landing stages are not next to the lock but a few metres away, access from the lower is via steps up to the road, along a short distance and down again. All that lies between is a patch of reeds and irises. The lower gates have hydraulically operated paddles but I think they must use grease not oil in the hydraulics, they are hard to turn and move VERY slowly. The upper gates have the same, but they are disabled. There are two ground paddles, one similar to the gate paddles at Ashline and the other a hybrid looking bodge with a hydraulic gate paddle system mounted on top of the ground paddle base. That's an improvement though, last time |i came this way that was broken too leaving just 1 out of 4 paddles operational. To make life more hazardous there's a road bridge over the lock with limited headroom so you need to crouch. And finally for no obvious reason the upper gate beams are very low, almost on the ground, making them hard to operate. I would love to get one of the ML Commissioners to put a boat through single-handed and see what he/she makes of it. Put a spicy stew in the slow cooker before I set off (gammon, chorizo, onion, red pepper, courgette, tinned tomato, cannelloni beans). One of the attractions of Outwell is it has a chippy and the chips went very nicely with the stew. 25/7/2023 0 Comments Tuesday 25th JulyAll going according to plan. Left early, about 08.30. Three locks and few miles gentle cruising to Peterborough Embankment. Done a bit of cleaning but probably not as much as I could.
Cut a new rope in half and spliced one piece onto the rear dolly before I realised it was a 15m rope not 20, so it's a bit short. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, I might have to learn how to do end-to-end splicing to put a few extra metres on! I still have the old one but it was getting a bit worn. For convenience when single handed I usually put the rear ropes over the centre dollies on the roof then along the roof to the cockpit so I can grab one as I get off. The point where it rubs on the centre dolly is getting badly worn but it would do a little longer if necessary. Went shopping in Asda so should be OK for food for a few days, Aim to stop in March tomorrow so could buy stuff then if I think of something, otherwise the next decent shops are in St Ives. I've booked Stanground Lock for 09.30 tomorrow. March is about 5 hours from there but If I'm fit I might press on to Upwell/Outwell. Need to be at Salters Lode by lunchtime on Thursday and that's another 5 hours or so from March so it'd better to go further on Wednesday if possible. Tide is due to turn at 12.30 and the lock open soon after, then I can go up the New Bedford to Earith in about 4 hours. After that it's a day back to Kelpie then either Linda picks me up or if I fancy a longer trip, on Sunday Ill go up to Bedford. I have a hospital appointment in Bedford on Monday. 25/7/2023 0 Comments Monday 24th JulyPouring with rain in the morning and cold too. Ran the engine for a while to warm the cabin and heat up the water then did some laundry. Radiator nice and hot to dry clothes.
Rain eased off a bit so went into Oundle Marina for the usual stuff plus a new cooling water impeller. Didn't actually set of until about 11.00 but by then the rain had stopped. Amazingly good day after that, no weed, no technical problems. Did eight locks to Wansford Station mooring. It's a short EA mooring with 2 long narrowboats moored abreast taking up the whole length but the guy on the out boat was happy for me to moor alongside him and the river is wide enough for that not to cause a problem. 23/7/2023 0 Comments Sunday 23rd JulyAwful morning but nice afternoon.
Saturday evening I was really tired so went to bed early. Then woke up desperate for the loo at roughly two hourly intervals. I'll spare you the biological details but it was like a few months back sin the aftermath of radiotherapy. Up at 11pm, 1am, 3.30, 4.30. That time I made tea and did the day's Wordle. Then 6.30 and finally got up sometime after 8am feeling like I hadn't slept much at all. Had a bit of breakfast and another nap then moved Seren about ½mile downstream and through one lock to the EA mooring at Thrapston which is then about a ½mile walk to the shops. Got milk and orange juice but the walk was exhausting. Couldn't face lunch so had some juice and yet another nap. Woke about 2pm feeling properly refreshed and set off. Wide river, few weeds (none on the prop all day) even some sunshine. But by Upper Barnwell lock I was flagging a bit so stopped at Oundle Cruising Club visitor mooring. Being Sunday there were a few members around, mostly in the bar and they were very welcoming. Free mooring, free shower and the guy behind the bar even gave me a free drink. If it wasn't so far from home I'd apply for membership! I'm planning on going into the Marina when it opens tomorrow for water, loo and replacement cooling impeller. Then on to Wansford or thereabouts depending on weather and health. Peterborough by Tuesday where I'll probably collect Milly, #1 grandaughter and have her for a few days. School holidays, working parents... 22/7/2023 2 Comments Saturday 22nd JulyIt started raining during the night, and was still raining when I got up. While I was eating breakfast it brightened up a little but then clouded over again and carried on raining. I bought some stewing beef at Tesco yesterday so I made a stew with that plus assorted veg and put it in the slowcooker.
So, on with all the wet weather gear over several layers of clothes, plus two pairs of socks inside my boots. I can cruise with Seren's cockpit roof shut though I leave the side windows part open to better judge the distance to the banks. But of course I have to get out to operate locks. At the first lock, Upper Ringstead, I saw a boat leaving ahead of me and hoped I'd catch up before the next so we could share. But there was no sign of him at Lower Ringstead. I caught up at Woodford where there was a a bit of a kerfuffel by the landing stage. A day boat from Willy Watt's was meandering about and a big narrowboat was sideways across the cut trying to get to the landing stage. I was too late to see the bit before that when the narrowboat guy fell in the river. They all got sorted out eventually and as the day boat was only 40' I was able to go behind so we got all three in the lock together. Below the lock was another dayboat lurking around waiting for the one locking with me. That one was electric and hired by a group of young ladies (10 years younger than me) to celebrate someone's 60th birthday. They were somewhat badly dressed for boating in the rain so kept to the cabin between locks leaving a younger guy to do the steering. Narrowboat man who had fallen in stopped on the landing stage to get dried and changed so at the next lock (Denford) I shared with both the dayboats. Lots of crew, no clue. But no-one drowned. I was planning to stop at the EA mooring by Thrapston Bridge for lunch and one of the day boats had the same idea. They went in ahead of me but it was already full so we both backed out. A little further downstream is Islip Dave FOTRN mooring so I stopped there for lunch and a nap. About two hours later the narrowboat guy from Woodford tied up behind me. Unless there's a dramatic improvement in the weather I'm staying. Might even hoover the cabin and put the heating on. Update. It's stopped raining but it's grey, cold and windy. I'm staying for the night. Islip Dave is a small mooring surrounded by private property with no footpath to get off into Islip or Thrapston. But I did the shopping etc yesterday and it's really not the weather for recreational walking! 22/7/2023 0 Comments Friday 21st JulyPosted a day late as has become traditional.
Spent Thursday/Friday night moored rather naughtily to the downstream landing stage at Wollaston Lock. My excuse being that once again I'd picked up weed and I was too damn tired to remove it. Downstream landng stages aren't used much on the Nene anyway as it's usual to leave the downstream gate open. As it happened no-one went through the lock after me anyway. One more lock on the way to Wellingborough and once again picked up a load of weed in the lock cut. Fortunately I was able to shake it off and press on. Stopped at Wellingborough for a few hours. There's a convenient Tesco, a sanitary station and water supply. Had lunch and a nap then off again. The river is getting wider, deeper and less weedy as I go down, but the lock cuts are still a problem. Several times though I was able to throw the weed off by using reverse. Further upstream that rarely worked as there was usually a clump of weed on the rudder too that just transferred forward to the prop when I reversed! Pretty uneventful for once after that until the approach to Irthlingborough Lock where I picked enough weed to bring us to a near standstill. Fortunately I was next to the EA moorings so tied up there to remove it. A mile or so after the lock is the FOTRN mooring at Stanwick Lakes so I stopped there for the night. 20/7/2023 0 Comments Thursday 20th JulyDid a bit of maintenance this morning checking the oil level (low) and cooling system. In fact the oil was so low I thought I'd better get some more. There was a choice of walking back to Whitemills marina along the Nene Way or up to Earls Barton. I think I chose the wrong one, the garage was the far side of the town, about 2 miles, or two hours walking, buying oil and popping into a convenience store on the way back. So then I had lunch and a rest before putting in the oil, checking for leaks and cleaning out the water filter. Seren is indirect cooled, which means she draws water though a seacock and passes it through a heat-exchanger. I turned of the seacock while I cleaned the filter, and forgot to turn it back on. So I burned out the rubber impeller in the water pump. Luckily I had a spare. After that, yet more weed nightmares and once again I gave up short of Wellingborough where I expected to be 2 days ago. But rather than dwell on that I read a comment on Mastodon a few days ago from someone who claims to have invented Spaghetti Spamolese. So I thought I'd reply with my Spamish Omelette. Fry onions, red pepper, garlic and SPAM. Add diced boiled potato. Add beaten eggs and a little milk, salt and pepper. Cook on low heat and finish under grill. 20/7/2023 0 Comments Wednesday 19th JulyNo blog posted last night as I was too tired, but here's a catch up. Starting with images of the bodged propshaft as promised. As you can see, a lot of sawing and filing to make a roughly half-round groove. Glued a piece of a 4" nail in it, cured under temperature controlled conditions(!) And then filed to resemble a key. Took about 2 hours.
Unfortunately I made it too tight and tried to hammer it in. Didn't go far enough and got stuck. So I tighted up the coupling and hoped it would hold. Which it did for a while until I picked up another load of weed and tried to use reverse to dislodge it. SO I wedged an old M4 screw in there instead, and that fell out too. The final (so far) version uses an Allen key in the keyway and that seems to hold. After all that progress through the weeds was slow. Went to Billing Amrina for fuel, water and loo emptying. But they don't do fuel. It's a HUGE operation with hundreds of boats maybe a thousand mobile homes, an entertainment venue and funfair. But no diesel. So went to Whitemills as well. Picked up weed en route to Earls Barton lock but couldn't face doing it again so stopped for the night between lock mooring and canoe landing stage. At some point during the day I met a couple of Conver weed cutting boats operated by the Environment Agency. I made a wry comment aboout the hassle I was having and asked where they were going to cut. But apparently they weren't from 'Waterways' but from some other division and they were only cutting non-navigable channels. They did say that Waterways had recently launched their big Berky weed cutter and wold be starting soon. I saw it at Billing Marina tied to a pontoon, going no-where. So far I've had four excuses from EA staff about the weeds: 1. (Early June) We haven't launched yet because it's broken 2. (Later June) We never start until 1st of July, don't know why. 3. (Mid July) It's an EU regulation. 4. (Yesterday) It's been warm and wet. 18/7/2023 0 Comments Tuesday 18th JulyWhy I hate the Nene...
Midsummer Murder From Northampton Town Lock down to Rush Mills Lock the Nene runs alongside Midsummer Meadows. When I came upriver in early June the weed growth was terrible and I complained about it. Going down river at the end of June it was worse, bringing Seren to a standstill several times. Seren is quite small and low-powered. Where big steel boats with big engines are merely slowed down by weed we stop. And while I’m down the hatch we drift into the bank and pick up more weed. Going upstream or into the wind I often drift back further than I managed to progress since the last weed problem. Returning to Northampton Marina after discovering the closed flood barrier it took me three hours to do a mile. And now I was tackling it for the fourth time this year As far as the EA moorings it’s fine, but then you round a corner and enter what is basically a swamp. Having set off at 08.00 by 11.00 I had managed about half a mile and three trips down the hatch. The moment I restarted we picked up weed again having gone precisely no-where. I stopped for a rest and a cup of tea. By the time I had cleared the fourth lot of weed we'd rotated 180° so I polled away from the bank and tried to turn around. Managed 90° then picked up weed. Reverse thrust and ... the long suffering propshaft coupling that had remained intact for weeks failed again. I spent the afternoon fixing it (photos to follow when I get around to editing them). Tomorrow is another day. But it'll probably be just as bad. |
AuthorPhil, owner, captain, chief engineer, electrician, carpenter, cook and comms manager of Seren Archives
April 2024
Categories |