Autumn Cruise - Burton Waters and Lincoln

Burton Waters

We arrived at Burton Waters on Monday morning, but moored on the canal moorings. Chris Potts the canopy maker from www.marineindustrialcovers.co.uk paid Moonshine a visit to pattern up her canopy and to discuss what we wanted regarding both the canopy and cockpit upholstery. This cannot come soon enough as Moonshine's existing sunroof canopies leak very badly, and now every time we look closely at the main canopy we see another part that has daylight coming through. Her existing canopy would be very lucky to last another winter. We had a walk around the marina looking at their boat sales and saw what is new that is being built on the complex. Every time we visit there is always something new.

Brayford Pool Then and Now

On Tuesday we moved onto the beautiful historic city of Lincoln. Even as a youngster I loved visiting Lincoln on Kriskerry (Seamaster 27) with my parents. However, every time we venture up this way now we wonder if we will get moored up on the very sparse free visitor moorings that CRT provide. When we arrived a narrowboat was already occupying the moorings and by the time we had returned from a meal out at Toby Carvery and a bit of shopping another narrowboat had moored behind us and that was it, moorings full. 

The mooring situation has of late been a huge problem for pleasure craft visiting the city. At one time there were council visitor moorings on the left hand side of the Brayford Pool, but since the cities waterfront regeneration in the early 1990's and the building of the new by pass, university, cinema, bars and restaurants the old decaying wooden jetties have been removed never to be replaced. The only sign that moorings were once there are the old jetty upright posts that were never removed and still stand just under water. 

It must be noted that craft fortunate enough to be able to pass through the Glory Hole can moor opposite the Wilkinsons store.

For this reason we tend to visit out of season ie Easter or this time of year.

Whilst out and about on our travels and on occasions like these where we have no access to shore power we rely on a Silverline 700w inverter which we purchased from Argos earlier on in the year for the tv and kids laptops. We also have a Kipor IG2600 generator which we purchased 2nd hand in December from a friend of ours as he was giving up boating due to health problems. The generator isn't that old and it is probably more heavily used with us than its previous owner. It is useful for topping up the domestic batteries, running tv and laptops etc and if necessary is more than capable of heating the water up via the immersion heater for showers etc. It would be nice to have an inboard generator, but the only place we have on Moonshine to fit one is where her holding tank is situated. 

Woodcocks

On Wednesday we spent the day shopping and returned back to Burton Waters late afternoon just as it had dropped dark. We then tried out the food and bar in the Woodcocks. The food was on 2 for 1 and they have a wide selection of fine pub food.

Saxilby

Thursday saw us trundling slowly back towards Saxilby on the Fossdyke Canal aka The Ditch, where we stopped for the local Co-op and a light lunch onboard before setting off again for Torksey to fill up with water and be penned out of the lock for the river.



Weber

We even managed another bbq as it was dropping dark.

Julia was preparing to sail when we passed. She had laid overnight at Blacktoft Jetty, and was due to depart for sea on the following tide.  She is a large vessel for Goole on neap tides, and could not make it over Whitton Sands on one tide, even though she was in ballast after delivering a load of vegetable oil.

Friday saw us leave Torksey on the ebb to meet the flood at Keadby. From there we planned to The Apex, but travelled at displacement speed back to Goole with the tide as we didn't want the vibration caused by a damaged prop causing any more wear and tear to an already worn engine mount. So that is another couple of jobs to add to the list prior to going tidal again. 

Goole Boathouse

We returned back to our base that is Goole Boathouse with the sight of yet more SYBC boats that have moved there this week for various reasons. Looks like there may soon be an SYBC Goole division! 

River Trent Tidal trip

The weather conditions were a lot better this morning for leaving Goole, bound for the Trent and Torksey Lock, compared to a few weeks ago when we ventured out onto the river in heavy fog. 

We arrived at Torksey Lock safely and having done all the necessary engine checks we noticed that one of the duo props has part of it's blade missing. We will get this seen to before next seasons boating is upon us, but we have decided to purchase a new set of props as we do not know how old our existing ones are, and at least we will have a spare. There was a lot of vibration at speed and also we seem to have used a lot more fuel for this journey as opposed to previous occasions. 

Back in March I purchased a mobile mifi from the 3 Store to provide us with mobile internet on the go. This is even more reliable than our normal mobile internet under contract on our phones, as it is a mini modem and provides us with Internet access even in the most difficult of places such as Torksey and Wells Next The Sea. We can have up to 5 devices connected at a time and has been invaluable in tempting the kids to continue boating with us on a weekend. 

Next stop hopefully Burton Waters to get the new canopy patterned, Moonshine may even return by the end of the week with a new look!

The End Is In Sight...at long last!

The front cabin varnish work has been completed and everything has been put back together.

 

 

 

 

This is mid ships cabin wardrobe, mains panel and shelf that is undergoing restoration. The final leg of the re-varnishing work that must be completed for the end of this coming week. It has felt like a mammoth task going through 4 cans of stripper and varnish (stripping back to bare wood to get a perfect result) . If anyone is yawning reading about this varnishing job, believe me we have felt it to be a tedious task. But that is nearly it...job nearly finished!

Also all the base seat cushions were taken home, the foam removed and the cushion covers given a cool wash. I was not looking forward to placing the foam back within the covers as some are none uniform shapes, but surprisingly they went back into the covers with ease.

 

This is a small job we did at home. This is the glass fibre battery box lid where our Weber BBQ lives. It travelled with us on holiday, but we didn't have it lashed down.  It is very heavy and never moved, however we felt that it could do to be made more secure whilst at sea in heavy seas or bouncing around on tidal rivers. The lid was compounded and polished, and 4 lacing eyes were rivited to it. It certainly should not go anywhere now.

 

 

As an additional project all the silicone joints in the bathroom are being dug out and resealed with Forever White Anti-fungel Sanitary Sealant. It's a small job that doesn't cost much but will smarten the area up further.  There is nothing worse than unsightly looking sealant in bathrooms!

 

This is the transom door. We did think that when we have new cockpit upholstery made, to have the curvature of the cushion cut back a touch so the transom door would hold open on the catch... it has never been able to catch open.  However after looking at the cushion and the possibility of it not looking right if cut back, a more practical solution was to remount the catch on a wooden block that has been made to fit the recess of the seat base. This block needs to be taken home to be painted white to match the white fibreglass seat bases, but this has worked perfectly. No more fighting with the gate whilst boarding.

 

 

Little approaching winter project that is sort of Moonshine related. Both dogs have identical coats for home and boat that were fastened with velcro. I was never happy with the velcro fastening as when dirty had a habit of coming detached. Therefore I purchased 2 metres of matching webbing, curved side release buckles and slide adjuster bars from www.lyndashorsewear.co.uk

I machine stitched everything to the coats with a little help from the internet regarding the slide adjusters, and finally made a belt loop to stop the whole lot sliding out of place. They now have secure winter coats for when the bad weather hits, at a fraction of the cost of having to buy 4 replacement coats already done, and as a bonus I am very happy with the result!

 

 A new purchase for me has been this Bodum Travel Press. I love my morning coffee, but have become fed up of returning to a cold coffee cup after crewing on Moonshine. I originally wanted the stainless version, but that was more costly and I have read the taste of coffee can degrade within a stainless coffee cup. Very pleased with this and am looking forward to using it next Sunday for our early morning trip up the River Trent, to visit Burton Waters for www.marineandindustrialcovers.com to pattern Moonshine's new canopy and to discuss her new cockpit upholstery.

Trent Anchorage and Goole by night

 

Fog Bank on River Humber last Sunday. Photo taken by Humberside Police
 

This photo taken by the Humberside Police helicopter shows the density of the fog on the River Humber last Sunday morning. These conditions forced us to find sanctuary in the safe haven of the Trent Anchorage until the next tide.

Sunset at Trent Anchorage

 

After anchoring the fog soon lifted giving us a clear and beautiful day until it was time to lift anchor at 7pm to navigate our way back towards the Apex Light and up the River Ouse to Goole.

Refurbished Anchorman Anchor Winch
 

When we purchased Moonshine we had encountered problems with her anchor winch in so far that it was performing poorly. We did not really want to do much with it as at the time we couldn't afford a new winch. However due to the fact that it's motor was running lazy and it could not be trusted, we removed it in late June to investigate the problem, as it was no good to us in it's current condition.
We discovered that the main shaft to the winch was seized due to a worn out shaft seal. Therefore we sourced a new S/S bearing, circlips and shaft seal from www.simplybearings.co.uk 
It was given a full strip down, was cleaned and greased and is once again running like new at a cost of £40 for parts as opposed to the cost of a new winch.
We are glad we made the decision to do this as this was the 2nd time we have had to use the anchor winch. All best laid plans can go pear shaped and in this instance all of Moonshine's navigational equipment and her anchor winch excelled!

Goole Docks
 

After a steady journey up to Goole we had to wait for 45 minutes for a ship to pen through the lock outwards. By this time we had been joined by Sachael, a fine example of a Jeanneau Prestige 36.

Refurbished Leather Saloon Seating

Last Friday we received our cream leather saloon seating back from the leather specialist. As you can see from the photo we have achieved an excellent result compared to what it was like before.  We are really pleased with the base seat cushions where the leather was previously very thin and this has been built back up with bonded leather, painted and re-lacquered at a cost of £275. Well worth the money, and along with the now completed re-varnishing works to the saloon, Moonshine looks very smart in her main cabin.
(After Christmas we will have our 3 seater settee from home refurbished, he has quoted for this £140)

Tidal trip to Hull Fair

 Yesterday morning gave us a very foggy start at Goole, as we wanted to go to Hull for the Hull Fair weekend. 4 boats from SYBC arrived at Goole on Friday evening with the intention of visiting Hull also, however due to the fog conditions they decided to cancel and some returned back to base. One of the boats in question did not have a working stern light, and it is essential to have a good set of nav lights when navigating in either these conditions or indeed in the dark. 

We decided we would continue with the trip, and entered Ocean Lock with 4 boats from York. Then visibility deteriorated further. Once we had left the lock for the river it was very dense fog, and we had to keep to the east side close in to avoid 2 inward ships. We travelled together at slow speed fighting a very fierce spring tide until the fog eventually cleared at Reedness, we then all planed at 25 knots to Hull. A typical fast journey for Moonshine from Goole to Hull would normally take 1 hour, but yesterday took us 1hr 45mins. 

Once moored up in Hull Marina glorious sunshine greeted us, and we spent the day shopping and visited the Ice Arena with the kids.

Sunday morning was a repeat performance with the fog, with the sun peaking through but giving us false hopes of a clearance. The boats from York with whom we had travelled with the day before wanted us to guide the way again back up river. The fog was so dense in places and there must only have been between 15 to 20 meters visibility. At one point the last 2 boats had become separated and were panicking on the radio asking we all cut engines so they could hear our horns to locate us. We eased back to tick over speed to maintain a constant heading and still leave a wake trail. It would have been stupidity to have cut engines with no visibility! They eventually caught up, and after much deliberation they decided to continue to Goole to leave their boats for the working week. We however, had already made the decision to head for the safe haven of the Trent Anchorage until the next tide, as we were too late for a free pen in at Goole and didn't want to pay £49 per vessel. Unfortunately the dogs will have to cross their legs or pay the puppy pad a visit. 

All in all it has been a good weekend and a good test for the radar, chart plotter, autopilot and anchor winch under very testing conditions. 

It's all in the detail!!!

 



This weekend saw us refitting the Smev oven and Engel fridge. Before we could do that the grab rail had to be reassembled, along with the hinges, surround, lock and door of the fridge.
The fridge door is stainless steel both sides, however since it is hard work keeping it polished and clean looking we vinyl wrapped it. Unfortunately it no longer matches the dog bowl.

The lower galley doors were refitted along with the curved toilet door, mid ships cabin and forward cabin doors, all of which have undergone massive re-varnishing works.  All cupboard doors have had new push buttons and rosettes installed.

 

 When the grab rail was fitted, we fitted large washers as the original smaller washers had been digging into the woodwork. However, since the bolts aren't central we had to elongate the holes in the large washes to centralize them.

 



The door furniture has been polished and the door handles were stripped and re-varnished. 
The screws which held the fridge and cooker in place had lost their grip in the 12mm ply, therefore we attached 18mm ply doublers and used longer screws to get a secure fixing.
The cream leather settee is at the moment at the leather specialist as this is also undergoing restoration and we hope to have this back for next weekend. Whilst we have no seating we took the opportunity to repair and repaint the grey seat bases.

The mid ships and forward cabin doors have had new mirrors fitted.  These have not cost us a penny.  These were brand new mirrors that were surplus from a restaurant fit out, that were rescued from a skip. A nifty bit of recycling!

This almost completes the saloon, apart from refitting the leather seating. The next varnishing stage is the forward cabin wardrobe and drawer unit, but this is a lot smaller job.

We are also a small step further with the canopy and cockpit upholstery. We have paid our deposit, and have chosen the fabrics. The next stage is to get Marine and Industrial Covers over to pattern up the job, which may be easier said than done now the weather has turned inclement as we obviously require a dry and calm day.