Ever since we have taken ownership of Moonshine, the port engine has always been worse at starting due to it turning over slowly. This could be one of three things, either the starter motor or the supply cables and isolator switch. Therefore, as a simple process of elimination we connected a direct feed to the battery (the battery is recently new) with 95mm² cable. The engine turned over really fast, so that proved the starter motor is good, so the problem has got to be the cables or isolator switch. When we have time this can be proved further by bolting the leads together at the switch position which will prove the cables and crimps, and if the engine still turns over fast it can then only be the isolator switch.
Another job on Saturday morning was to jet wash the non slip deck areas to remove ingrained black dirt. We borrowed a good jet washer from Peter's dad and this did an excellent job.
When aboard we usually listen in to Goole Docks on channel 14 at tide time. We were aware a cruiser had departed Goole for York, and we were surprised to hear the skipper in contact with Goole again requesting the assistance of the Coastguard and Humber Rescue as he was taking on water and had a list to port. Goole Docks were very helpful and had him penned back in and South Dock Bridge opened to enable him to get back to the safety of the canal. At this stage Humber Rescue was stood down as he had made it safely into Goole.
We and another boater from Goole (Humbrian Sea) caught his lines and assisted with pumping out with the aid of our portable electric bilge pump. However our bilge pump along with their boat bilge pumps were unable to cope with the ingress of water. More help soon arrived from South Yorkshire Boat Club (a club we are also still members of) by road to further assist. It took 3 hours with 2 12v pumps, 2 mains pumps, a hand bilge pump and an awful lot of bucketing to lower the level and find the problem. The port rudder stock had been forced up through the hull causing a massive water ingress. The leak was stemmed to a acceptable level by using blocks and wedges to force the rudder stock back down. A fellow club member arrived by boat from SYBC to tow the stricken boat back to Heck to be pulled out onto their slipway. When she departed Goole the remaining pumps were just managing to keep her level for the 2 hour journey back to the club. It was nice to see fellow boat owners rallying around to help someone in distress, but there again in a civilized society you would expect nothing less.
On Sunday morning we visited South Yorkshire Boat Club to attend their AGM and to collect our portable electric bilge pump from the stricken cruiser we helped the day previously, although we hope NOT to have to use it!
The club is in the process of obtaining a park home type chalet to accommodate the existing bar staff they currently have on site. The existing chalet they are housed in has seen better days and nearing the end of its life. The above photos show ground works started yesterday in preparation of the new footings.
Since next weekend will be the start of the new boating season for most, we decided Moonshine's sphere fenders needed replacing for matching blue as opposed to our trusty orange fenders that are about 16 years old. The new fenders are a size larger than the old, however it was just unfortunate that they are not matching Anchor ones to match the exact colour of our other sausage fenders, but they are near enough.
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