Electrical problems and a towpath band session

Despite the noisy surroundings, we slept like logs outside Tescos. Next morning we were off to meet Pete and Rob that evening at Cowley. On this stretch we always meet the gravel barges. Here we head for the bushes because they don't give way to anyone!


Then we seemed to have a problem. The engine starter battery was obviously pretty low that morning and we only just got started. Watching the voltmeter as we travelled showed that the charging system was behaving erratically. At this rate we would in danger of being stranded when we needed to start the engine next time. Mooring up at Cowley I inspected the battery with a volt meter, a hydrometer and a general visual inspection. It all seemed OK, so I suspected it might be time to invoke our membership of River Canal Rescue to get a more technical appraisal. I phoned them up and they said a man would come out soon.

Well, he did come, but not for four hours. Meanwhile Pete and Rob arrived expecting to cruise off directly. The RCR guy was persistent in tracking the fault and eventually put the blame on the alternator controller. After a good deal or rewiring he routed the controller out of the system so I was back with a simpler, but he said, just as effective system. The charging did seem to be working better.

All this took two hours and by now it was too late to cruise off so we decided to stay put for the evening and after a plateful of pasta and chicken by Kath and sauce by Lloyd Grossman, we broke out our musical instruments and had a towpath band session. Do we really play better when we've had a few drinks, or does it just seem like it? I vote for the former.

A long reverse and a thunderstorm

A three day outing. Herbie seems to have survived the heat very well and despite the very hot conditions was quite cool inside when we arrived to load up. At the suggestion of Steve at the boatyard we reversed a couple of hundred yards up the narrow cut to the slipway to turn round. This saved us quite a while over going forwards the other way to the turning place. However, as boaters will know, manoeuvering a narrowboat in reverse is not easy, especially when the canal is severely weeded up! I stood on the boat clearing the weeds as we backed into them, and Kath stood on the bank attempting to steer the boat using ropes fore and aft. It wasn't very elegant or very quick, but we got there, and just managed to turn the boat round in the tight space.

Not all the plant life counts as weeds, the Slough Arm has lots of nice water lillies.

Anyway we made it, and set off out towards the main Grand Union line and southwards towards Tescos at Bulls Bridge. for supplies of food and drink to entertain our guests next day. The humidity was really building up and we could tell a thunderstorm was coming, and we were glad to arrive at Tescos and moor up to wait it out. We weren't to be disappointed because the thunderstorm arrived right on top of us. There was hardly any time between the flashes and the bangs. I think a narrowboat ought to be a safe place in a thunderstorm, being a metal box well earthed. A proper Faraday Cage I reckon, not that I'm volunteering to be struck in order to prove it!

The storm passed at dusk and we decided to stay put. Not the best spot in the world, directly outside Tescos lorry bay, and directly across the canal from a 24hr bus maintenance depot. There was plenty of noise, added to by the fact that we were only a couple of miles from the take off runway at Heathrow! Despite that, we had a very pleasant evening sitting in the cratch playing music and watching a surpising number of boats still travelling in the dark.

Night time outside Tescos

A hot topic

I'm getting nervous about what it will be like when we get back out to Herbie tomorrow. It's been so hot here at home that our conservatory candles have melted, even though its almost always in shade. Look . . .



Herbie is basically a steel box, so it must be burning hot on top. I just hope the insulation is effective, and that my bottles and cans of beer haven't exploded!

Not only that - will the undredged Slough arm still have enough water for us to move, and will the weeds let us through? Well, there's only one way to find out. Watch this space.

Google maps has quite good satellite pics of the Slough arm. If you put in the post code SL0 9RG assuming you are Googling from UK, and switch on to satellite view, it will take you to our moorings. I don't think we were there when the photo was taken. Surprising how different it looks from the air. From the boat most of the surrounding industrial sites further along are hidden behind the trees, or over the cutting bank. I never realised all that stuff was there.

Electric shock.

Kath reminds me that I said on the blog that I would report back after going on my boat electrics course at Reading. Well I turned up but the electric shock was that it was cancelled so I had to go ohm again. Another guy from Woking had also shown up - I guess you could say he was in the same boat :-). The college, sorry, University, said they had been ringing round to tell people, but they hadn't spoken to me or my answerphone, or the guy from Woking. I had to write to them last week to remind them I hadn't had an apology or a refund yet. An email came back apologising and apparently I should get repaid next week. Any way thats the current situation. I would have put up some resistance but I don't think it would have caused a potential difference. It has however 'ampered my chances of understanding the electrics.

Don't assume Tony Brooks is at fault. Its the college, sorry University, not him. Apparently not enough takers for the course.

Shopping, camping, and plans for a musical cruise

Where can you buy (in one shop) a 5 litre tin of bitumen paint for £8-65 to touch up your boat blacking, a local hand made pork pie, a bottle of good beer for a quid (or a choice of real ciders), a kitchen baster (£1) for sucking oil out of the drip tray under the engine, and then get 6p off a litre of diesel? Before you cast off and steer your boat in that direction I'd better add that it's a long way from a navigable waterway :-( In fact its Harry Tuffins supermarket in Craven Arms Shropshire. A real Aladdin's cave. When you come round into the next aisle, you never know if it'll be plums, chicken feed or water pistols on the shelf! We love it.

We've just been camping at our favourite camping and walking site at Little Stretton, a brilliant shady spot in this hot weather, right next to a cooling stream, and with spectacular scenery in almost every direction you could walk.

The trek to the shops in nearby Church Stretton is a bit arduous though as you can see here.

Church Stretton

Back on Herbie later this week, assuming there is enough water in the Slough Arm for us to move! We're having an overnighter with our occasional band "PRANK" (Pete, Rob And Neil & Kath - geddit?). Taking our instruments (bouzouki - Pete, bodhran - Rob, mandola, guitar and Scottish smallpipes - Neil and hammered dulcimer - Kath. If things go normally, we'll play a few tunes / songs and then have a beer break and then forget to start playing again. Must remember to take the camera so I can prove it happened.

I'm also keen to fix up my new roof box ends that I have made so as to give the box a pitched roof, and to display my freshly painted mop, boat hook and broom in Herbie colours. If I'm not careful, the roof will end up looking smart (not till I've de-rusted and repainted though.)

Camping in a gale

When we bought Herbie, we decided not to give up our summer camping breaks at some of our favourite spots. One of these is the Warren at Folkestone where we have just spent the weekend in our trusty Dandy camper (now in its eleventh year and good for another twenty). The warren camp site is right above the beach and is surrounded by really abundant plant and animal life. What's more on a clear night you can see firework displays in France!

Our Dandy at Scotlands Farm near home.


Despite the hot weather, the nights were really windy and on Saturday night we had the strongest gale we have camped in for many a year. Although our position was very sheltered a nearby tent had poles broken and we could hear people hammering in guy line pegs well into the night. However it didn't come anywhere near our experience in the Towersey festival hurricane in (was it?) 1986. The morning after that we were one of only a dozen tents standing out of a couple of hundred!

I hope it was more sheltered where Herbie is moored!

1. Nearly stranded 2. A Close Shave

Last weekend Herbie came close to being stuck. On Sunday we decided to make the most of the hot spell and take the boat out for a couple of days. The short length of canal at High Line yachting where we are moored is now so weedy and shallow that we almost gave up trying to get through. The propeller was getting weeded up in a few seconds and there is so little water under the boat that she hardly is able to move. At one point Kath even resorted to taking to the bank with a rope and acting like the traditional tow horse! In the end we forced a passage and were on our way. Its really only a 50 yard stretch where the problem lies. The trouble is its exactly where we moor!

After cruise down to Tescos at Bulls Bridge for supplies, we headed North through 3 locks and finished up at Denham in a peaceful spot. Lots of wildfowl chicks are now around, many of them growing fast. Here are some cygnets that came to see us. Strange that one of them is white - I thought they didn't go white till next spring.

Now look at the canal in the picture. How wide would you say it was? Well I can tell you its 50 foot and half an inch. I fancied we might just turn Herbie there to save going up to the next official winding hole (turning place). Herbie is 50 ft long and when we were half way round the front was touching the far bank and the back was half an inch from the concrete edge! We would have made a convenient footbridge across the canal! So we got round by the skin of our teeth, much to the amazement of some other boaters nearby. I never seem to remember the camera at such times, maybe we'll do it again soon and get a picture!

This weekend its the boat electrics course at Reading. Maybe I'll be able to make sense of this


or this

We live in hope!

Pestered by exotic birds!

You'd think on overnight stops in the countryside you might get woken up by cockerels, but with me its peacocks! There are a couple at our favourite stop at Blackjacks lock on the Grand Union, and some more near Seabrooks locks where we moored for the night. Then went I went up to Nottingham for the boat maintenance course recently I camped overnight, and lo and behold, more of the b*&%#y things. Then, last week we camped at a farm near Newport Pagnell, and sure enough at five in the morning - more peacocks! I'm beginning to think they're following me.

More interestingly at this last place, they also had ostriches. Now they have a noise of their own. The male blows out his neck, rather like a bullfrog, and emits a wierd booming roar. When I approached him (there was a fence between us) he did an amazing dance, weaving his neck back and forth behind his outstretched wings. Not only that his legs and bill turned a blood red. I kept my distance!

Today we're off for a short trip on the boat to take advantage of the fine weather, then at the weekend I'm going to do the other half of the boat maintenance courses. This time the electrics. Lats week I tried to map out the wiring on the boat, but "under the bonnet " its phenomenally complex. All I can hope for I think is to understand what each gubbins does, and how to diagnose which bit is failing if there's a fault.

Education, education education

Over the weekend I attended a course on boat maintenance organised by RCR and delivered by the well known Tony Brooks of TB Training. If, dear reader, you have a narrowboat and don't yet consider yourself expert on diesel engine maintenance, boat electrics etc, then I can't recommend the course highly enough. Tony is a great teacher and you get to get your hands on all the bits and pieces of machinery and to have a go at things like bleeding the fuel system, setting the valve clearances etc. There were seven of us on the course and I think we were unanimous in saying it exceeded our expectations. The ground covered in two days is huge, but it is so clear and practical that you can't fail to learn loads. I'm even beginning to understand the electrics.

Do it!

Yesterday I took daughter Claire and boyfriend Joe for a spin in Herbie in preparation for them borrowing the boat sometime. Claire is pretty good on the tiller, but there is so much to explain about the fridge, the loo, the inverter, the water heater etc. I'm having to write a manual and a huge checklist for what you need to do when you leave the boat at the end of the trip.

The canal was lovely and weedy so Joe had good practice at clearing the weedhatch!

In ( tempered) praise of the Slough Arm

Some people have a poor opinion of the 5 miles of the Slough Arm of the Grand Union where Herbie is stabled. They should see it at the moment. The water is clear, full of fish, dotted with damsel flies, edged by yellow Irises and altogether very lush. However if your boat is much more than 2 feet deep, I'd walk the towpath rather than cruise it because it is very shallow which makes it very slow going, especially as you will need to stop at least once to clear the weed from your propeller! One lucky angler, using two rods, caught a four pound tench on each of them simultaneously as we passed. He kept his cool, dealing with one at a time while we stopped to watch.

This week my good friend Pete Higson joined me for a short cruise from our moorings at Iver, down towards Slough to the winding hole (about a mile) to turn the boat, then four miles back out onto the Grand Union proper, turning left and going just a hundred yards to the Water's Edge pub /restaurant. Pete declined the honour of steering Herbie up to the pub landing stage since it looked (and is) a fragile affair requiring a sharp turn and a gentle stop. So I had a go and all I can say is the jetty is still standing.

The pub, which we were anxious to explore for future use, is OK except they have no real ale:-( It would make a pleasant enough overnight mooring for a meal at the pub. There's something special about mooring up ten feet from the pub door! The food looked reasonable. Thankfully the cold Guinness was a good substitute for proper beer on such a hot day.

It wasn't so hot on the way back though. Wwe good a good soaking in a very heavy thunderstorm. All we could do was head for the nearest bridge, get underneath and wait it out.

This weekend I'm off to Nottingham to attend one of RCR (River Canal Rescue)/ Tony Brooks boat maintenance courses. Watch this space for a review.

Rain, mud and fun, sunshine and a blizzard!

A somewhat delayed posting because we've been on the boat and away from the internet for 11 days, and then had lots of network problems NTL :-( when we got home. Anyway cast your mind back to the week before the bank holiday and read on.

We moored up at the Wendover Canal festival in rain that rarely seemed to stop. Mooring in the rushes, we needed to use the gang plank to reach the muddy bank. Needless to say it was slippy and on Thursday Jacob did a spectacular back flip off it to immerse himself in the canal. He was very shaken, but otherwise OK after a change of clothes. According to tradition he can now call himself a boater!

It was amazing to see the festival site transformed from an empty field in just a couple of days. They even built a temporary bridge over the canal. Despite the bad weather the festival attracted some 8000 people and about 140 boats, and we all had a good time. Jacob watched birds of prey demonstrations and had a go at abseiling,

and we enjoyed evenings in the huge beer tent which was mostly full of boaties. Tring brewery brewed a special beer for the occasion called Under the Bridge - very passable indeed. Perhaps the highlight for me was the Saturday night band "Grand Central" who were superb and played hits from the 60s through to the present day. I commend them to you.

The trip home - good company, fine weather, fun with oil leaks, and a blizzard!

After overnighting in the lush and quiet Tring cutting with the mist swirling over the water

we collected friends Rick and Marilyn at Tring station. A quick trip down and up the Marsworth flight - for the hell of it, and we were headed southwards toward home. At Marsworth we were delighted to spot the narrowboat "The Old Bovine", home to Leon and Ray who were so helpful to us last year when Richard's boat "Bankside" suffered a battery failure. As ever, Leon was painting the boat, so we stopped for a chat and some helpful tips on paint and painting.

The journey home (Wednesday to Saturday) was brilliant, with very good weather for the most part. Having two extra crew is a great help. Here they are with Kath.

I was disappointed to see that recent oil seal changes hadn't stopped our engine oil leaks, so after cleaning out the engine bay floor and lining it with newspaper we ran the engine and looked for drips. Eventually we found the source of the leak. Not a seal or a gasket at all, but a drip from a nut where an oil pipe enters the block. It just needs tightening. Sadly we didn't have the right spanner to get at it but, next time I'm at the boat with the right tool, it shouldn't be a difficult job at all.

On our last morning we had an amazing blizzard of cotton-wool-like willow seeds (like dandelion seeds). They were everywhere, so thick they covered the canal and even got in our throats. I've never seen the like before.

All in all, a great trip. Where next?

Black and shiny

What a wet weekend! I went up to pick up Herbie from Bulbourne dry dock. The hull looks a lot better as you can see in these before and after pics

Before

and after

The oil leak is fized, so that's good too. However the renewal of the tiller bearing has left it a bit stiff to move. Jem Bates at the dry dock thinks the rudder might be a bit out of alignment between top and bottom bearings and this didn't show when the old tiller bearing was worn. We'll try it for a bit to see if it eases, but if not, they'll have to have another look.

Next job is to do something about the TV arial which clutters up the roof. I've taken it to bits so the top can stow out of sight in our newly decorated roof box. At the moment it obscures half of the front of the box. Can't have that! I just need to sort out a new arrangement for the poles and guy lines for quick assembly.

See the wide beam boat across the canal from Herbie. He had a neat way of delivering some visitors back to the towpath on my side. He just untied the front of his boat and swung it across the canal like a bridge. His visitors hopped ashore and that was that!

Before the heavens opened I cruised down to Cowroast through the thickly wooded Tring cutting stopping for a spot of fishing on Saturday night. All the ducks now seem to have lots of ducklings and I also saw some moorhen chicks. The swans are still incubating by the looks of it.

Next week, the Wendover Arm canal festival. I hope the weather improves!