Taking The Long Way Around

We have been quite busy over the last few weekends with one thing or another.  Our eldest daughter has been dropped off and is nicely settled at university, not too far away from us in Leeds. It has been a mammoth task getting all her stuff bought in preparation for this whilst costing a small fortune, and despite the fact that she can request to return home at any point for her washing to be done...as was the case this weekend.

This weekend we are childless but not dogless! We decided on a trip to Sykehouse late on Saturday afternoon (5pm ish) to give Moonshine a quick run out. 

Sykehouse Road Bridge

After dropping said child off at university and battling through a very busy Leeds City Centre we then headed across to Goole Boathouse. Since South Dock Bridge is closed to road traffic this weekend and next weekend, this meant a lengthy detour via Crowle in the Isle of Axholme in North Lincolnshire... what a faff, suffice to say parking was extremely quiet on a weekend for Goole Boathouse upon our arrival!

Anyway after filling up with fresh water we made a quick departure and headed up to Sykehouse Road Bridge arriving approximately 6pm, with just enough time to walk the dogs before it was dark and settling down to an evening meal concoction of gammon, egg, mushrooms, noodles and salad along with the obligatory evening drinks.

This weekend also gave us the opportunity to check if another descale of the raw water side of the starboard engine heat exchanger had done the trick, which after using white vinegar and heating through (just like descaling a kettle) appears to have done some good. Not that we have had any overheating issues this year, but this starboard engine still runs marginally warmer...but we are aware this could be down to this engine running the calorifier, screen heater matrix and the power steering pump so this could be normal. 

Also the heat exchanger end cap is critical how it is fitted. The sea water passes the length of it four times and it looks like it had been fitted slightly out of its correct position. Even though we have had this cap off before, we have always refitted it in exactly the same position. So it may be that someone has inadvertently fitted it in the wrong position prior to our ownership of Moonshine. 

Humbrian Sea Heading Upstream

So all in all a nice quiet enjoyable end to what started out as a hectic weekend, and not forgetting to mention that the weather was quite decent. Next weekend due to work commitments and needing to tackle some jobs at home we will not visit the boat, but this is more to do with the lengthy detour the works on South Dock Bridge dictate.