Disused Arm

This morning all the mushroom vent tops were removed and the top edge of the interior stainless steel liners were masked with some tape we purchased from Tesco.  We even removed the extractor fan from the vent in the shower.  All of this was done because I’d become paranoid concerned that condensation might be forming up in the lid of the mushroom vent and then running down the outside of the liner into the ceiling cavity.  An earlier trip to the local Homebase store had resulted in the purchase of a tube of construction adhesive which I intended to use to seal the join between the mushroom vent and the liner.

After removing the tops of the vents it was possible to see down into the join between the base of the mushroom vent and the liner.  All the seals looked rather good so I’d obviously been panicking concerned about nothing having done the work properly the first time!  However just to make sure another beading of construction adhesive was applied and then smeared with my index finger.  My pre-planning skills must be improving because I remembered to lay paper on the floor below each vent just in case some of the adhesive dripped during the operation (it didn’t).

Why use construction adhesive?  When we were fitting out Waiouru the engineers at the boatyard told me never to use a silicon sealer as it eventually breaks down and the seal will fail.  Construction adhesive has different properties and  therefore any seal is less likely to fail.  I guess time will tell if this is accurate.

In the afternoon I decided to go exploring.  there is a timber footbridge across the canal and I wondered where it would lead.  To my surprise I discovered it led to a disused canal towpath.

The timber pedestrian bridge and entrance to the canal (red arrow).

I had incorrectly erroneously assumed this was a small winding hole.  It wasn’t until I reached the first bridge that I realised it was a canal and not a stream.

Notice the bridge number (56)

One of the bridges had a horse tunnel.

Boat arch to the left and horse arch to the right

The lower end of the canal is choked with weed and scum whilst the upper end is actually quite clear.  However the canal is very shallow with less than a foot of water in it.

Lower section

There is what looks to be a winding hole and sluice at the far end

Walkers crossing the top of the sluice

There is still water in the channel beyond the sluice.

I’ve assumed this is a sluice because the terrain is flat negating the requirement for a lock. The path of the canal and my route can be seen in the following Google Earth screen dump.

The canal route is shown in green and my return route in red.  The route back took me under the canal which provided a scene most boater wouldn’t see.

The Old Leicester Road (now a bicycle & pedestrian way) goes under the canal.  Can you see the stern of the narrowboat passing over the aqueduct?

The aqueduct has obviously been reconditioned.

Back at Waiouru it was time to do some “Googling” to see what could be found about the history of the canal.  One website stated it was part of the original canal built by Brindley.  He followed the contours of the land minimizing the need for embankments, locks, cuttings, tunnels and aqueducts.  That makes sense because there is a sizable embankment , aqueduct and a tunnel beyond this point which must have been constructed at a later date when shortening the route.  Another website mentioned the canal was actually profitable until the early 1950’s which tends to confirm the earlier information that the route had been shortened.  I also discovered during my searching that Les (nb Valerie) had previously walked the disused arm back in January 2011. 

Last night on our current mooring. 

It’s been a month since we last emptied the blackwater tank and today the gauge registered half full so tomorrow we’re planning to head to Clifton Cruisers for a pump-out and a replacement bottle of Calor gas.

An early start…. for others

Woke this morning after being rocked around by the first boat of the day.  We were having breakfast when a group of young walkers passed on the towpath.  Jan though they were participating in some type of event!  Then a boat went past with decals on it and she realised it was some type of sponsored trip.

Jan was immediately onto Google and whilst searching a second boat passed.

OK…… It was a sponsored event for Matt Hampson.  A former England U21 rugby prop who in 2005 became a quadriplegic in a freak rugby training accident.  According to the foundation website <here> this is the foundations 5th sponsored walk.  The participants travel from Rugby to Twickenham over the next eight days.

Jan wanted to see the man who was going to carry the beer keg.  Would it be an old wooden keg and was he going to drink the contents along the way?  Well he managed to pass us without being photographed.  But it turns out the keg is aluminium and empty.  Alastair Robinson has converted it to a collection barrel and hopes to raise £1500 during his walk.

Photo courtesy of the Walk4Matt website

Another unusual contestant is the man paddling the route in an old tin bath tub.  Jan did managed to get a photo after he had passed the side hatch window.

I’m not sure who has the tougher challenge.  Walking the Thames Path with a beer keg, or paddling down the Thames in a bath!

boats started to go past reasonably frequently when Jan suddenly yelled “Insanity!”  I wasn’t sure if she was referring to herself or me.  It was Sheila and Bruce on nb Sanity Again heading south towards Braunston.   Off to the Crick Boat Show we presume!   ( Jan here…. I didn’t yell out “Insanity”……..your ears need cleaning TOM ! )

Bruce way down the sharp end whilst Sheila steered

Hopefully we’ll have a longer meeting at Crick.

Jan was amused by the antics of a couple of hire boats.  The day boat moored on the water point for  hours but didn’t take any water.

I saw them later in the day motoring back to the hire base.  Actually I was expecting to see someone being towed on water skis behind!  The had the throttle fully open and were pushing an enormous amount of water in front of the bow.  The wake at the stern was something to be seen! 

The second hire boat (a “Yellow Peril”) had moored beyond the water point and was partially into the bridge hole on a blind bend. 

It made entertaining viewing as other boats attempted to manoeuvre through the narrow gap.  You would think common sense would have enabled the crew to realise it was a most unsatisfactory mooring.  But then it appears not everyone gets their share of common sense these days!

Rugby

After a leisurely light breakfast we strolled up the footpath beside Tesco and over the pedestrian bridge crossing the railway lines into Rugby.  On the way I noticed the memorial to Sir Frank Whittle and stopped to take a photo.  To my surprise, Jan didn’t know who Frank Whittle was and why he was so notable.     Jan here…….somebody had to have fun and wind him up!

Here was me thinking everyone knew Sir Frank was the inventor of the turbo jet engine.  His first prototype was built in 1937.  The only thing that has puzzled me is, if Frank had invented the jet engine, how was it that the Nazi’s were the first to build and fly a jet aircraft?  Apparently Dr. Hans von Ohain was the designer of the first operational jet engine.  Poor Hans… who remembers him?

From what I’ve been able to read there’s no connection between Sir Frank Whittle and the town of Rugby.  He was born in Coventry and moved to nearby Leamington Spa with his family as a small boy.  He served in the RAF retiring as an Air Commodore and eventually migrated to the the USA in the mid 70’s where he died of lung cancer in 1996.  He is buried in Cranwell, UK which just happens to be the location of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell of which he was an alumni! 

He must have been a very determined individual as he was twice rejected on medical grounds by the RAF for an aircraft apprenticeship because he was only 5ft in height and of ‘weedy’ physic.  Frank then did a considerable amount of physical training adding 3 inches to his height and chest thereby gaining entry. Eventually he was accepted for officer training at Cranwell where he qualified as a pilot.  He later completed an engineering degree at Cambridge University. 

There was a market underway in the centre of rugby.  We’re still trying to get used to the concept of weekly town markets.  Apparently it’s a “farmers market” if selling local products and a “market” if the produce is from further afield.  Not sure if that is correct?  If so; then this was a market.  After wandering around Jan purchased some fruit from one of the stalls.

We know the strawberries are from Spain because we were able to read the label on the box they were in.  We’ve no idea where the apricots and plums were grown.  They have more taste than the fruit we normally purchase in Adelaide but are not as succulent as fruit locally grown.  It’s probably too early for good locally grown fruit!

Back at Waiouru I’ve been attempting to fix the picture on the small TV.  It’s pixelated and sometimes there’s no signal.  We have a picture on the main TV and the recorder so it’s not a problem with the aerial.  Always start with the simple things first!  I took the small TV off the wall in the bedroom and reconnected it to the aerial outlet in the saloon.  The TV produced a good picture.  So we either have a problem with the TV coxial cable to the wall socket or the short cable from the wall socket to the TV.  I then replaced the short cable between the TV and the wall socket.  Initially there was a good picture but it then reverted to being partially pixelated.  It’s possible the cable terminal at the wall socket has been damaged but before I start ripping the boat apart to get at the cabling we’ll leave everything until we can find a location that has a strong signal so I can confirm it’s a cable issue. 

The last job for the day was to visit Homebase and buy a tube of construction adhesive and a calking gun.  I’m not happy with my ceiling cavity seals between the mushroom vents and the chromed vent liners.  Jan thinks she saw some water dripping from one this morning.  I want any water (or condensation) forming in the mushroom vent to drip back into the boat rather than run into the ceiling cavity where it might start to cause rot.  Tomorrows job…. if it doesn’t rain!

More Kiwis

One of us was rudely woken by someone loudly proclaiming “Wake up you lazy devil……. It’s 8.00am and the sun is up!”  At 6.30 this morning Jan took a lovely photo from the side hatch.  Today was a complete contrast to yesterday and boaters were on the move.

The plan was to travel two hundred metres to the winding hole opposite the entrance to the Willow Wren base and then return past our mooring to the water point at Brownsover.  We still don’t have a good '”pre-start” routine because we each forgot to take a walkie-talkie and Jan didn’t have the camera to record my reasonable effort at winding Waiouru.  With our luck we were expecting a boat to appear during the winding process.  Somehow it didn’t happen.  Even more surprising the water point mooring was vacant allowing us to top up the half full water tank.  Jan put the Candy washing machine on whilst we were moving which worked out rather well as the cycle finished in time for us to moor.  When the tank was full (plenty of pressure from the tap) the bow was down four inches and the stern was up two inches.  It’s been a month since our last pump-out and the tank gauge hasn’t yet reached half full.  The 14 day mooring immediately adjacent to the water point was vacant so we hauled Waiouru back onto it!

I erected the rotary clothesline on the stern post so Jan could hang the laundry to dry.  Jan then went off to Tesco to buy some bread for lunch whilst I broke out the boat cleaning gear and washed the starboard side twice.  It’s the first time the starboard side has been given a proper wash.  The chamois was used to dry the side,then I started applying the first of what will be two coats of polish.  OMG the surface area is vast!  The task wasn’t made any easier by the fact that there is a shelf in the canal bank below the waterline which meant there was a 1ft gap between Waiouru and the bank.  This resulted in me having to stretch with one foot on the bank and the other on the gunwale.   In the end I gave up after the first coat of polish.  If it doesn’t rain tonight I’ll attempt to get the second coat on tomorrow.

We should probably start thinking about what we might do to the second (smaller) red panel.  It looks a little bland at the moment.

The photo makes the panel look “washed out!”  Any suggestion on what to do with it?  The other side has a porthole in the middle of the panel!

After lunch I was in the middle of a telephone conversation with a glazier about glass splashbacks for the galley walls and Jan had her head suck down the sink (she does this sometimes when life gets unbearable!).  Jan started talking to me but with my hearing I couldn’t understand the muffled words.  Then I realised there was a passing boater calling out.

Both of us managed to get our heads out the side hatch to see nb Helen-Louise and the flat vowels of a Kiwi calling out “ Ki Ora Waiouru. We’re Elizabeth and John….. Friends of Dot and Derek of nb Gypsy Rover!”  There was only time for a few words before we realised “CAMERA”.  Couldn’t find the damned thing at first and by the time we got back to the side hatch they were gone!  Oh well… next time……

[NOTE:  It just started to pour down….. but the sun is still shining!  That puts to bed any idea of a second coat of polish tomorrow <phew…. reprieve>

After ferreting around in the bow locker I found the last of the Craftmaster black topcoat paint and decided to give the stern deck it’s first topcoat.  After carefully applying the paint I can see what an appalling job I’ve made of it.  It looks awful with numerous brush marks.  The primer and undercoats went on so well…… It must be the paint LOL.  Sod it…… looks like more sanding it required!

The last task for the day was to finish re-configuring the ‘Nook’ e-reader so it works as a tablet.  It’s now much easier to read our email on the Nook than '”fire-up” the laptop.

Testing time ahead!

After our fruitless attempts to contact the UKBA regarding the “life in the UK” test we’ve made the decision to travel back down south so I can take the test.  Last night we booked an appointment in Hounslow, which is near Heathrow Airport.  The one piece of good news is the appointment is on a  weekend and we’ve been able to book a car from Enterprise at a special rate.  However there won’t be much left from £100 after paying for the car and fuel.  Time to hit the book again!

This morning Jan went off to Tesco in the rain whilst I continued configuring fiddling with the new Nook e-Reader.  As we’re starting with a ‘clean slate’ I’ve decided to take the opportunity to sort my books into categories.

  The piece of equipment in the following photo has been chained to a mooring ring just down the towpath from Waiouru.  I’m not sure what it does but it looks like a microphone at the top of the staff and we assume it’s recording the sound of moving boats as a means of counting boat traffic.  Does anyone have more accurate information?

Whilst we wait sandwiched between upper and lower water I decided to clean out the storage area under the spare bed and also check the bilge.  The bilge was last checked six months ago and we removed a significant quantity of water.  Most of this was as a result of the engineer failing to reconnect the water tank to the water pump after fitting the water tank gauge.  I was then given the ‘go-ahead’ to refill the water tank.  The water passed straight through the tank and into the bilge.  We had several hundred litres of water in the bilge before I realised there was a problem.  Fortunately we were able to use the pump out hose to remove the bulk of the water before using the wet-vac to suck up the dregs.

All the stored contents have been removed from under the bed and the area vacuumed.

Note the end portion of the compartment is the electrical cabinet containing the Victron Combi, consumer unit and Hurricane Control Box.  The holes in the partition are for ventilation into the electrical cabinet.  Air is force fed through the cabinet by two 6” 12v computer fans.

Access to the bilge is in the floor of the storage compartment adjacent to the toilet tank inlet.

Photo taken before the area was cleaned!

I was pleasantly surprised to discover very little water in the bilge.  It would have been even more pleasing if the area was dry, but that’s probably unrealistic.  This is the lowest part of the bilge so any water is likely to be found here.  The water pump is at the front of the cabin and the baseplate in that area is dry.  However this wasn’t the case during winter so it’s reasonable to assume any moisture is probably the result of condensation. 

It does look damp but with a 20mm baseplate it’s going to take quite a long time to rust all the way through!

After lunch nb Plum briefly moored ahead of us.  John and his wife have lived aboard for 13 years and run a solar power business from the boat.  Actually it’s a narrowboat and a small rectangular butty which is their workshop.

Solar Afloat

John had quite a long conversation with us and (naturally) it was mostly about solar power on narrowboats.  John made a couple of suggestions about enhancing the performance of our solar panels on Waiouru which we will consider.

When the rain stopped and the yellow dot in the sky appeared I decided it was time to exercise the legs.  The supermarket locator app on our Android smartphone showed an Aldi supermarket just over a mile away so finding it became the objective of the walk.  It wasn’t had to find the Aldi….. Actually it wasn’t lost!  Rather than return via the main roads I opted to search for footpaths.  This resulted in a small amount of back tracking but I was able to make my way back to Waiouru mostly using pedestrian footpaths through greenbelts or suburban back streets.

The bottom arrow points to the Tesco at Rugby.  The town centre is in the opposite direction to Aldi.

Good and not so good!

It’s mostly rained today and we accordingly came to an early decision not to move.  We have no timetable to meet so we can afford to wait until things improve.  One might almost feel sorry for the boaters passing us in the rain, except the majority don’t reduce their speed to ‘tick-over’!  Jan suggested we consider passing boats at the same speed but two wrongs don’t make it right!  I put out a ‘spring line at the stern which has had an effect but it’s too shallow to get Waiouru against the bank and consequentially we end up with list.  

The Hurricane is continuing to perform faultlessly and we’re optimistic hoping it will continue.  My assumption is the last problem was caused by my overfilling the diesel tank thereby preventing air bleeding out of the fuel.

In between showers I went down the weed hatch to complete a temporary modification.  What I find good about the design of the weed hatch is it’s separate from the engine bay with access obtained from the stern deck.  If it was in the engine bay then there is a potential risk that the hatch cover could loosen and water enter flooding the engine compartment with the further possibility it might result in the boat sinking.  Having a separate weed hatch eliminates this risk.

If the handle is turned anti-clockwise it loosens the screw thread and allows the white bar to also turn anti-clockwise from under the black locking plates.  When the ends of the white bar are clear the handle, bar and hatch cover can be removed from inside the weed hatch.  This provides access to the drive shaft and propeller.  It’s a good concept!

The not so good part of the design is the bar can actually work loose allowing the canal water to surge up into the weed hatch chamber.  There is no danger of this sinking the boat but it makes a hell of a noise.  In my opinion the design isn’t quite right.  Instead of the white bar being secured under a piece of angle iron at each end it should be a piece of inverted ‘U’ channel.  That way the bar would not be able to twist out from under the end catches.  I’ve devised a temporary solution.

The 3” G clamp prevents the locking bar from turning.  This is actually the third clamp we’ve purchased.  The previous two were purchased from the 99p shop and snapped under the strain.  This is only temporary and the permanent solution is to modify the angle iron to ‘U’ channel.  It’s not a major job.

I’d be interested to know if this is the standard weed hatch design for a Wilson-Tyler shell?  Actually there is one more issue!  The hatch baseplate doesn’t fit flush over the hole in the uxter plate.  As a consequence we get canal water surging around the bottom of the weed hatch compartment when the propeller is turning.  We might try to minimise this by fitting a heavy duty rubber/foam strip around the edge of the hatch baseplate in an attempt to seal it.

Looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow, it’s more showers.  Somehow I think we’ll be staying where we are!

The Nook and more on the UKBA Saga!

The modifications to the operating system and software on the Nook e-reader are almost complete.  It does now work as a tablet which enables me to send and receive emails plus browse the internet.  Some of the other programs have yet to be downloaded and installed.  My overall impression….. The Nook can be enhanced to become both a tablet and an e-reader however the screen isn’t really good enough to display web pages.  I could (almost) call the graphics ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’.

Between the showers I made a quick trip to the local Maplin to buy another DC plug for the laptop.  The previous plug was removed from the 240v power supply as it was needed on the 12v power supply that I made.  Maplin had one in stock and I was able to solder it onto the end of the cable this afternoon.

Around 8:45am there was the distant sound of a very distinctive boat engine.  Jan opened the side hatch in time to see Hadar go past.  Keith was steering with Jo standing on the gunwale.  There was only time for a very brief ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ before they moved out of sight.  We’ve agreed we need to keep a camera closer at hand.

The big disappointment was our attempt to contact the UK Border Agency regarding the ‘Life in the UK’ test.  The actual conduct of the test has been contracted out and our problem is the post code we are using is down south but I need want to change the test centre to our current location.  The website doesn’t allow this.  Today I phoned the 0845 (pay) number and tried every menu option.  Two things were immediately apparent.  When I phoned the number a few weeks ago the first option on the menu was to report a suspected illegal immigrants.  That option has been deleted!  The other option which has been deleted is the ability to speak with a human.  All the remaining options go to a pre-recorded voice which quotes a website address (too fast for me to write down) and then ‘hangs up’.  We’re paying for these calls and by the end of my time my frustration meter was off the scale.  We now have two options.  1.  Become yet another illegal overstayer.  2.  Arrange to sit the test back down south and pay the additional travel and accommodation costs.  We’ll have to go down the latter path.  The problem for UK citizens travelling overseas is countries adopt reciprocal processes and it won’t be long before British citizens find themselves being treated in a similar reciprocal manner by other countries.

The remainder of the afternoon has been spent transferring our library of e-books from the old BeBook to the new Nook.  It’s a relatively simple process but I’m complicating it by correcting all the file metadata.

Fast Cruise Today

Both of us had a rough night with upset stomachs.  Lunch yesterday tasted fine but something must have disagreed with us.  We didn’t chose the same meal but there were similarities (chips and peas).  As a consequence the planned cruise to east Wales in the rental car didn’t occur.  However Jan suggested some retail therapy would be nice (window shopping only… of course!).

After a light lunch we drove the short distance into Rugby where not much was open.  Being at a bit of a loss we decided to go to Coventry.  The gps took us to the centre of the city where again most of the shops appeared to be closed.  By then Jan was rather bored with the idea of shopping so we decided to take a quiet drive through back lanes and see the countryside eventually arriving in Leamington Spa.  We didn’t want to be there because we want to save it for a time when we’re cruising through the town on Waiouru.

Driving out the other side of the town we noticed an ASDA supermarket.  Jan wanted a ‘comfort stop’ so we moored by breasting up against a couple of cars in the car park.  It’s the first time Jan has been into an ASDA store and that seemed a good reason to do some retail therapy.  I’ve been looking at replacing our rather old and well worn BeBook e-reader with a ‘Nook Simple Touch’ e-reader.  All our e-books are in EPUB format which the Nook will display. There’s no point us attempting to purchase a Nook online as we don’t have an address!   However they are stocked by Sainsbury’s, PCWorld, Currys, ARGOS and ASDA.  Unfortunately I’ve had great difficulty finding a Nook in stock. I suspect the reason being they are currently on special at £29, which is a £50 discount on the normal retail price.   But today Jan noticed the ASDA at Leamington Spa had two in stock and seizing the moment we purchased one.  Also purchased was a USB SD Card Reader and a 4GB micro SD Card.  The reason for purchasing the latter will become apparent.

Driving along a B road towards Rugby we noticed a rather attractive country scene which included a collection of low brick buildings and a tall brick square town which had a flag flying from the top.  We would have loved to stop and take a photo except there were no moorings and the other vehicles were passing at faster than ‘tick-over’ speed.  We reluctantly carried on.  Back at Waiouru and the Hurricane heater is working well…. please may it continue this way!

The Nook

The Nook Simple Touch runs on a Barnes & Noble modified version of the Android operating system.  I want to convert the Nook e-Reader into a Tablet.  This will enable me to ‘surf’ the internet and read/write emails, etc.  To achieve this l need to ROOT the Nook.  For the non ‘Geeks’ it doesn’t mean I’ll be destroying the Nook.  When an Android (or Linux) based operating system is ROOTed it means the user has removed or circumvented the manufacturers protection and is then able to modify the operating system.  Doing something similar to an Apple device is known as to ‘JailBreak’ it.  In ROOTing the Nook I may ‘BRICK’ it.  If you BRICK a device it means you’ve so corrupted the operating system it can’t be recovered and the device is as useful as a brick!  At a cost of £29 I’m prepared to risk BRICKing the Nook.

I’m not clever enough to be the first person to modify the Nook operating system and I followed the instructions from the following website <click here>.

Two pieces of software are required. 

• Win32 Disk Imager
• Nook Manager

The former will write an IMG (image) file to the micro SD card we purchased at ASDA today.  The latter contains the modified operating system that will ROOT the Nook.  It comes as an IMG file.  So the first piece of software is used to write the second piece of software to the micro SD card.  Inserting the micro SD card into the Nook and then turning it on ROOTs the Nook.

Having now ROOTed the Nook it is possible to modify or add software to it.  I’m adding NTGAppsAttack which will install the following programs on the Nook

Google Market (Play Store)

Automatically updates to latest Market for NST/NSTG Android version. Includes in-app purchases.

GMail & GMail sync

Google Contacts sync

Google Calendar & Calendar sync

Google Talk

Google News & Weather

Calculator

Dropbox – Useful for getting books and files across to your Nook Simple Touch.

Amazon Kindle – Use the Nook to read Kindle books!

Read It Later – for reading articles saved for later reading from various devices

NewsRob – RSS feed reader that syncs to Google Reader

Opera Mini – Web browser

Of course the Nook has a black & white screen and modifying the operating system will not change it to colour.  But then all of the above applications do not require a colour screen. 

Hopefully by tomorrow the Nook e-reader will be running as a Tablet.

Expensive Card

Not a birthday card for Jan.  There’s no point in spoiling the girl and raising future expectations!

Jan has been attempting to get a replacement debit card for her Australian bank account.  This is her 3rd attempt and involved a lighting trip to Heathrow to collect the recently arrived card.  We hired a car from Enterprise for the journey so it’s become an expensive card. 

The card had been posted from Australia to a good friend of Jan’s grandparents and when we arrived to collect it from Hilda she had an unexpected birthday present for Jan.

Apparently chocolates are a girls best friend!

On our return to Rugby Jan attempted to follow the instructions to activate the card by phoning Australia.  After four failed attempts with the canned voice telling her the account details were wrong; (they aren’t) and with the frustration meter going off the scale; Jan gave up!  Bloody expensive scrap of plastic.

On the way back up the M1 motorway it started to hose down with visibility becoming very poor on a couple of occasions.  Moreover we weren’t doing 4mph and there was nowhere to pull over and moor.  It briefly cleared just as we arrived back on Waiouru, but then the heavens opened again and the boat was pelted with hail.  I managed to get a quick photo of the towpath through the porthole.

As I was taking the photo Jan started squeaking that some of the hail was bouncing off the roof into the inside of the mushroom vents and then falling inside the boat.  She was particularly concerned about the vent above our bed!  Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve slept in wet bedding……. from water of course!

The only good piece of news for the day was the Hurricane started without any problem.  Hopefully it keeps going that way.

My attempt to book a date and time to sit the “Life in the UK” test has hit yet another obstacle.  The booking must be made online and it requires a postcode as part of the process.  The UKBA never replied to any of my phone calls or emails so I used Hilda’s post code at Heathrow to complete the online registration.  However the website will now only allow me to book for the test in her location and we are miles away with the intention of heading further north.  So I phoned the Test Centre Helpline where I was informed they couldn’t help me and I’d need to contact the UKBA.  They even gave me the same number I’ve unsuccessfully used for my previous attempts. Back to square one……. “There’s a hole in the buck dear Liza, dear Liza”  Maybe the UKBA is encouraging me to become an illegal?

NZ Leads Australia…… Again!

New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote back in 1893, whereas Australian women weren’t able to vote in Federal elections until 1903.  More recently NZ enacted legislation allowing gay marriage.  Meanwhile Australia continues to debate the issue with the Federal opposition appearing to be strongly opposed to such a move. 

As one would expect some in New Zealand are already anticipating the next major change……..  However some Kiwi’s (according to an Australian friend) have “jumped the gun”!

We won’t mention the rugby!

It was rather difficult mooring in the wind yesterday afternoon and we were very fortunate that the moored boater behind came and assisted us.  It wasn’t until later (much later) that we realised he must have been Dave of nb Sokai whose blog we follow.  I popped my head out the back hatch this morning thinking I should introduce myself only to find they had already quietly departed. <damn> Their latest blog post mentions they are on their way to Oxford whereas we are heading north.  Maybe another time Dave & Beryl!

Jan was appreciative of the blog comments regarding her birthday yesterday.  In the end I treated her to a Scottish meal.  Rather than both of us struggling through the wind and showers I walked the mile to MacDonalds on my own.  She seemed rather impressed that I’d gone to the special effort of including a McFlurry dessert in the order.  It must be true love because I walked past the Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried, both of which were much closer to our mooring.

This morning the Hurricane heater ran for an hour and then stopped <grrrrrr>.  The engine was also running to charge the batteries, so I wasn’t going into the ‘garden shed’ to check the Hurricane until things had cooled down.  I suspect the problem is ‘fuel starvation’ to the Hurricane.  As you might recall, the heater started for the engineer at Calcutt after being left turned off for the previous four weeks.  My guess is the fuel trickled down to the heater fuel pump and filter during that period and this has been sufficient fuel to run the heater for the three hours since we left Calcutt.  The plan is to have a look at the filter in the heater after the engine has cooled to check whether there is any fuel.  I’m also going to attempt to restart the Hurricane after the engine has charged the batteries just to confirm it’s not a low voltage issue.  I’m reasonably confident it won’t be the voltage because the SmartGauge was reporting the voltage as 12.25V before I started the engine.

After lunch a Willow Wren hire boat passed with a ‘stag party’ aboard.  Their departure point wasn’t that far from our mooring but they appeared to have already consumed a significant amount of amber fluid and were acting accordingly.  Jan was leaning out of the side hatch as they passed when one called out in a boozy voice “I’ll jump on your roof and do a sexy dance for you!”  Jan just yawned and mentioned her birthday was yesterday!

2.30pm – The Hurricane Heater (Again!)

The engine was now cool enough to cuddle so doing my ‘indian rubber man’ impersonation I wriggled and squirmed into an awkward position where I could see the removable side of the Hurricane.  The panel is held on by four machine screws and (of course) the shaft on the screwdriver was too long to fit into the confined space between the Hurricane and the hospital silencer.  Extracting myself from the engine bay proved more difficult than the entry.  At one point it looked like Jan might have to serve me dinner in-situ!  Fortunately there is a Wicks store nearby and I was able to purchase a short shaft screwdriver for £1.32.  Back in the garden shed I removed the inspection panel and started to identify the various components; specifically the fuel filter which Dave from Calcutt boats had mentioned.  I wanted to see if there was any fuel in it as Dave had mentioned he could see fuel.  The following photo shows the components.

As you can see there is a filter in a clear cylinder with what looks to be a paper cartridge.  I don’t know if this is the air or fuel filter.  There’s no photo in the manual so I need to do more research.   Having taken the side panel off the heater an “jiggled and poked” the components I asked Jan to switch on the heater.  Would you believe it…. the heater started!  So we have an intermittent fault.  But why… what is the cause?  After looking at the training video in the Support Section of the International Thermal Research website (makers of the Hurricane) it appears there is NO fuel filter inside the unit.  What I marked as a possible fuel filter in the above photo is the air filter.  So what was the Calcutt engineer talking about?

Later… The second shopping trip to Tesco in two days.  One each trip we have purchased slightly in excess of £60 which has now given us two fuel discount vouchers.  We could have purchased everything in one trip spending £120 but then we would only have one fuel voucher.  Moreover it’s unlikely we would have been able to carry all the items back to the boat.  As it is; Jan’s £14 shopping trolley now has the ‘colliwobbles’ with one very wonky wheel.  I expect a set of replacement plastic wheels will cost more than the total price of a new trolley!

To Rugby

We both woke at 5.30am and because it’s Jan’s birthday she rose first to make me a cup of tea.  After waiting 15 minutes it dawned on me she was taking advantage of the big day and I’d be going thirsty!  There was a quite a northerly wind blowing across the canal on our mooring at Fox’s Gate so Paul (nb Piston Broke) came out to say goodbye and ensure we got off the armco sheet piling safely.  I suspect it was more a case of wanting to ensure the novices on Waiouru didn’t scrap down the newly painted side of Piston Broke!  

The curtains were still drawn on nb Serena as we crawled past on tick-over.  But then Judith and John had mentioned they weren’t early risers.  nb Yarwood had already gone so they must have heard we were in the neighbourhood lowering the general tone.  Waiouru ‘crabbed’ down towards Braunston for the first half mile being buffeted by the wind.  Then we entered a cutting and things became much calmer.  At the far end of the cutting we came upon this pair of old boats.

Slightly further towards Braunston we passed a second pair.

Both of us are reasonably confident we saw these two boats in the same location back in 2005 when we came to the UK and completed the Warwickshire Ring.  I remember thinking to myself “The ‘ar$e’ is falling off that boat!”  We couldn’t believe people were actually living on them.  Although it looks like some of the water in them must have leaked out the bottom because they now look higher in the water.

The plan was to fill the water tank at Braunston but there were two boats already on the facilities moorings so we pressed on towards Rugby.  There are no photos of Braunston as we intend going back that way later this month.  About a kilometre out of Braunston there was a “clunk” sound from under Waiouru as we passed through a bridge hole.  The ‘feel’ of the tiller then felt rather strange so we stopped and moored (with considerable difficulty).  After turning off the engine (safety first) I rolled up my sleeves and practiced my braille on the shaft and prop.  The unwelcome guest must have already realised eviction was on the cards because the area was free of obstructions.  My assumption is all the “too’ing and fro’ing” getting Waiouru moored had dislodged the freeloader!

We were now the tail end of a convoy of four narrowboats slowly crabbing along in the wind.  Eventually an ABC hire boat caught up with us followed by another private boat.  The six boats continued to slowly make their way north before the boat in front of us reversed direction at the winding hole.  It was about then Jan realised the railway paralleled the canal as she could see a blue locomotive waiting to depart.

A number of boats passed us going in the opposite direction and; as you would expect with our luck; we met one in a bridge hole on a blind corner.  No collision but we can report the Axiom prop seems able to stop Waiouru reasonably quickly!

When one of the boats passed the lady aboard became very animated and called out “I’m Lisa, and I read your blog!”  I continue to be surprised people would waste their valuable time reading these boring rambling with poor grammar, spelling and punctuation!  Anyway,  “Hi Lisa on nb What a Lark.  We recall your comment left on a post back in October 2012 and suspect it was about the same time as What a Lark was launched?  Happy cruising!

Along the way we passed a boat that had wooden mushrooms phallic symbols stools for people with hemroids replica statues from Easter Island (?) at £25 each.

After reading so much about Barby Moorings whilst on the other side of the world it was interesting to go past and get a first hand look.  All I can say is it looks exactly as described…….. A project with a cash flow problem?

The sun came out during our transit down the three locks at Hillmorton; although the wind didn’t let up!  Jan was assisted by the voluntary lock keeper who mentioned it had suddenly become very busy.  Jan managed to take a couple of photos of writing on the new lock gates.  Both of us hope they didn’t cost any more than a normal gate.

I suppose they are a source of interest to some people.  We’re not in that category! 

Descending the 3rd lock

There was a water point below the bottom lock and we used the opportunity to top up the tank.  Not much pressure but we weren’t in a hurry!  The moorings before Tesco were all full.  That wasn’t much of a problem as I think they might only be 24hr.  We passed the water point near Tesco and then moored on the 14 day moorings.  There are mooring rings but we can’t get against the bank.

The first task after mooring was to extricate Jan’s shopping trolley with the ‘wonky wheels’ and head off to Tesco for victualing.  Jan had already received a promotional email from Tesco advising if she spent £60 she would receive a voucher for 10p discount per litre on petrol.  As we’re hiring a car stocking up the pantry seemed a good idea.  Another thing we’ve realised we must do is mark good mooring locations on our laminated Pearsons Canal Guidebooks.  So a permanent marker pen was another purchase at Tesco.

Because it Jan’s birthday I’m treating her to a cooked meal.   I haven’t decided whether it will be the “golden arches” or the “deep fried rat in 11 secret herbs and spices”.  I know she will be so grateful that she doesn’t have to cook tonight!  I don’t know why my FMIL (favourite mother-in-law) thinks I don’t have a romantic bone in my body!