Spring

I did some spring cleaning today. Upholstery mostly as we've recently acquired a Vax.

Spring has sprung in Blisworth. The blossom is out over Syncopation. There are still a lot of little jobs I'd like to get done but it seems unlikely any more will be before we go boating the week after next.

Syncopation Spotted

Hadar passed Syncopation at her mooring yesterday. See the picture of the cherry blossom.

Water at Gayton

Last weekend saw me washing the outside of Syncopation for the first time this year. There was a lot of decayed leaf and algae to scrub off the non-slip roof surface. I washed the sides down and everything looks shiny again. Today I took Syncopation up to Gayton junction to fill the fresh water tank and empty the toilet cassette. I even had enough time after I tied up at our mooring to polish one brass mushroom vent. As it had a solid accumulation of tarnish developed since last October it took nearly 30 minutes. At that rate I have a good two or three hours of polishing ahead of me to get all the exterior brasswork sparkling again!

The Last Flying Vulcan Needs You

The Vulcan to the Sky trust need your help. They restored Avro Vulcan XH558 to airworthiness and it's a remarkable thing to see this relic of the cold war in flight. But now they are running out of funds. You can pledge cas on their web site or sign the petition to ask the Government to step in to help assure the future of this unique aircraft.

Dog in Harness

Arrow is a dog who loves to pull on a lead. He's like a small carthorse when he's got his lead on. That's why he now wears a Halti head collar whenever he is out with us. The collar stops all the pulling.

Girly Switch Back On

After some consultation with Vetus I have managed to fix Syncopation's bow-thruster. The problem began when I inadvertantly replaced the bow thruster battery back to front after removing it for charging. The main supply fuse blew when the bow thruster battery formed a short circuity with the main domestic battery bank. After correcting that problem I found the bow thruster control panel would not switch on. After I checked all the wiring and the supply fuse at the bow thruster end I was at a loss. After a quick call to Vetus and a post on the Canalworld forums I decided to check the supply panel fuse inside the bow thruster unit. I had found this fuse before but it looked like another socket for a cable connection. Today I replaced the fuse and everything works!

In the meantime, Mill Wharf Boats have replaced the main water supply pump filter housing under guarantee. The filter cover has cracked three times since we took delivery and leaked into the saloon. Hopefully a complete new filter housing will resolve this.

Time to Get the Haynes Manual Out

On Thursday Cathy started the Picasso up not realising the wipers were switched on and the blades were frozen to the windscreen. Both wiper arms were bent and the wiper blades were destroyed.


On the Picasso the wipers cross in the middle of the screen, passing wihtin about a centimeter of each other. They were impossible to bend back accurately and so one of the arms had to be removed so that the drivers side wiper could work unobstructed.

Our friendly local mechanic tried to order new wiper arms only to find that there are none available until after 24 Feb.

So we hit the internet looking for second-hand wiper arms and came up with a good deal from Cit-Ren. The parts arrived today (the day after they were ordered) and I will fit them this weekend with the help of my trusty Haynes manual.

Lunch Time in the Snow

Lots of snow here so I'm working from home as the transport infrastructure between here and Central London is somewhat unreliable. So in my lunch break I was able to play with the family. We built snow men, sledged down the slopes in the nearby fields on teatrays, had snowball fights and watched the dog running around.

Charging all the Time

I reconnected the warning lamp on the domestic alternator and now have a charge being supplied to the batteries whenever the engine is running. As expected, the Victron multiplus tends to run through a very short charging cycle as it now detects the voltage being supplied by the domestic alternator and assumes the batteries are at full charge. On balance it's probably the arrangement that is most likely to ensure the batteries are adequately charged because the 240 v supply to the Victron is only likely to be present for about 50% of the time the engine is running.

Party Flood

We threw a floating party for Siobhan's eighth birthday. We made our way up the cut from our mooring at Blisworth to the winding point at the top of Rothersthorpe locks turned there and went back to Blisworth. We stopped at Gayton Junction for a Pinata.



Here I am with the chinese dragon pinata suspended from the boat hook on the tow path. The greatest danger during the exercise is from young children swinging a stick. It is much worse if the child is wearing a blindfold - something we just had to try.

Alas, as we approached Blisworth again and after running three bowls of washing up water the cover on the freshwater pump cracked again, just like last summer. We're quite practised in the leaking pump drill now and the situation was under control in about 30 seconds. I think I'll be returning the whole pump under guarantee rather than just the cover this time.

Total distance is 3 miles, 6¼ flg and 0 locks.

Multiple Charging Circuits

I returned to the boat with a new fuse for the bow thruster circuit. Once connected I measured the voltage at the bow thruster with the Travelpower providing 240ac to the Victron Multiplus inverter/charger. All is well there. Further tests at the domestic battery bank revealed the domestic alternator was not supplying any current.Time for a bit more wire tracing. With the help of the Beta Marine engine manual I found the cable that normally connects the domestic alternator D+ terminal had been cut at the engine end. This meant that the alternator will not start supplying current until it reaches quite high revs.
Alternator fact: The alternator only needs a current to energise it at low revs. At high revs the weak magnetic field already present in the rotor will generate enough current to energise the alternator.
I think it was disconnected to avoid having the alternator and Victron compete to charge the batteries. I'm going to reconnect it because the domestic alternator is essential for recharging while cruising when the Travelpower is not running. The two charging systems will only compete in as much as the one with the lowest voltage output will shut down and leave the field clear for the other. I'd rather have the two systems running than none at all as we had when the Travelpower drive belt broke.

Things that Go Pop

After two weeks of battery-pampering I returned the batteries to Syncopation. There were five to refit: four domestic and one bow-thruster. I put the bow-thruster back in first and then got to work trimming the side of the battery box to make replacing the domestic batteries easier. Twenty minutes later I had all the batteries in and began connecting them. I connected the cable from the bow thruster battery to the first in the domestic bank and was surprised by a fat spark. When I touched the terminal with the cable again there was a bigger spark and the nearby fuse blew. Oops! A quick check revealed I had put the bow thruster back in back to front, so the 175 Amp fuse protecting the bt battery charging cable blew when I completed the circuit.

When everything was connected I started the engine and checked the battery voltage and found as I suspected that the domestic alternator was supplying no charge. I switched on the Travelpower and fired up the Victron Multiplus and found a healthy charge going into the batteries.

A check of the instrument panel revealed no red light on starting the engine for the domestic alternator so I traced the cable from the back of the panel. The loose cable looked suspicious and proved to be the connection from the alternator to the charge light - so no charge. It was easy to fix - just plug it in - and the domestic alternator was still not charging. Further investigation required I think.

Batteries

I brought the four domestic batteries home from Syncopation at the weekend. On our last voyage the batteries were flattened when we lost the Travelpower and then tried to bake a cake in the electric oven. I've run the engine for only a few hours since then and have been concerned about the batteries' state of charge.
I discovered that it's rather difficult to remove the batteries from thebox
they are housed in because it was installed before the frame that supports the engine room floor. To make life easier I think I'll have to make a door in the side of the box that I can remove the batteries through. It will need to be strong enough to stop the batteries falling out as well. I suspect I also need a new charger at home because the one I have takes more than 24 hours to charge a 110 Ah battery. At this rate it will take most of the week to charge all these batteries.

Travelpower Fixed

I spent most of today at the boat. I went to Syncopation with two drive belts (one spare). I had to remove the domestic alternator belt to get the new belt on the Travelpower alternator. While I was in there I retensioned the engine alternator belt also. Once it was all back together again I took her for a spin up to Gayton marina and back to put some charge into the batteries.

While I was beavering away in the engine 'ole I was passed by to coal boats in the space of 30 minutes. First was Jubilee going north, then it was Bletchley, going south.

Fish 4 Parts

The quest for a new Travelpower drive belt has come to a close at last with the internet supplier Fish4Parts coming up with the right part. After trying numerous on-line suppliers and three different chandlers unsuccessfully I hit upon Fish 4 Parts. When I couldn't find a 6PK1280 poly-vee belt on their web site I rang their contact number and their sales staff have found what I need. I just have to wait for it to arrive now.

Unfortunately we completely flattened Syncopation's domestic battery bank on the way home on Saturday and I'm not convinced the domestic alternator is supplying a charge so they batteries will stay flat until I can fit the new Travelpower belt and charge the batteries that way.

Return to Blisworth

The night on the shore power at Wilton marina left our batteries fully charged while allowing us to cook. We had to be careful not to exceed the maximum 16 amps available at the supply so only one ring on the hob was available at a time.
We travelled back to Blisworth this afternoon having shuffled the cars again. We arrived at about 3:30 PM and made it home to our cold house at 5:30 PM after unloading and tidying up the boat.

Total distance is 11 miles, 7½ flg and 0 locks.

Day Trip to Wales

I've been driving the car for the best part of seven hours today. I drove to Aberdovey to collect Dominic from the first UK Tourettes Camp, arranged by Tourettes Action. This event was inspired by the US version, made known in this country by the ITV documentary in 2006. In the meantime Cathy brought Syncopation down the Buckby flight to Wilton Marina single handed. We are spending the night on a mooring in the marina - with shore power. Our batteries are nicely charged now.

Wilton Marina chandlery are the third in two days to match the power transmission belt that broke yesterday. Looks like it will have to wait until we get home and I can visit a motor factors.

All week I've posted no photos in this blog because although I'm taking pictures I forgot to bring a cable to connect camera to computer and I've got no card reader. When we get back home I'll download the pictures and add them to the blog.

Total distance is 3 miles, 1¼ flg and 7 locks.

Moored at Wilton Marina.

Generator Woes

We returned to Braunston today with the intention of pushing on until we reached the bottom of the Buckby flight on the Grand Union. Just past the Admiral Nelson pub on the Braunston flight of locks and there were ominous noises from the engine 'ole. Flappy noises like a broken drive belt. 30 minutes dismantling revealed the drive belt for the Travelpower generator had started to shred and was down to about 60% of its normal width.
I cut the belt and took it to Braunston chandlers at the bottom lock but they didn't have the right one in stock. We are going to complete our week away without the Travelpower. We'll have to be very careful cooking - the inverter can run the oven by itself and with the engine running the domestic alternator can supply the power required so we won't flatten the batteries but we can't use the hob at the same time.

Near Napton junction we passed Moore 2 Life again.

Total distance is 9 miles, 4 flg and 6 locks.

Moored at Welton Wharf.

Windmill and the Pill Boxes

I set off up the hill with Arrow to the excellent Napton post office and stores to post some letters and packages for Cathy and buy some milk and bread.

We made our way up to the Old Engine Arm to turn at lunch time then made our way back to yesterday's mooring at Napton.

All the way around Napton you can see the windmill:

Also prominent are the WWII pill boxes by the canal side, part of the strategic defences against invasion in 1941:

On the way back I spotted nb Skyy, moored near the butty Betelgeuse, another picture here. The men from Canal and River Services were busy between locks 9 and 10 dredging the pound and remaking the towpath.

Total distance is 3 miles, 3 flg and 14 locks.

Napton in the Snow

We set off late from Braunston after finding they had no coal at Midland chandlers. It started snowing around an hour after we set off and continued until we stopped as the light failed at Napton. Siobhan started making a small snowman on the towpath.

The coal was running low and we found Midland chandlers at Braunston Turn don't stock it. Fortunately we encountered the coal boat Gosty Hill just after Napton Junction and bought a bag of smokeless fuel from them. We passed nb Moore 2 Life just after the junction.

Total distance is 6 miles, 7¾ flg and 0 locks.

Moored at bridge 112, Napton.