Home Sweet Goole

Moonshine entering Pollington Lock

We departed Goole Boathouse at 10.00 am Saturday morning for the 2 hour trip up the Aire and Calder Canal to South Yorkshire Boat Club.  We have been members at SYBC for the past 29 years but unfortunately due to their beam restriction we are unable to moor Moonshine there, hence the reason that Goole Boathouse has been our new home for the past 12 months.  However, Goole Boathouse is very well situated with good access to the tidal Ouse (York, Trent, Seaward or inland up the Aire and Calder and Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigations).

 

New signage at South Yorkshire Boat Club

One of the reasons for this weekends trip was to test the new port throttle cable which was fitted last weekend.  We realised this needed a small amount of adjustment and this was done once we were moored on the available visitor mooring.

 

View of the club from the basin entrance

 

Our Jack Russells enjoying their afternoon walk to Whitley Lock

 

Home Sweet Home (Goole Boathouse aka Smith's)

We have had a steady weekend with the added light relief of not having any work to do on Moonshine.  We have enjoyed a couple of lovely meals, shared in a new members 60th birthday party and had a good catch up with our long standing friends, however it is always good to get back home...home sweet Goole.

Busy Weekend (or not!)

 

We could not dedicate much time to Moonshine this weekend due to other commitments, however when we did arrive at Goole Boathouse we were pleasantly surprised that civil works have been underway throughout last week to create a hard standing area, presumably for boaters to work in a clean environment.  There is always something happening here at the boat yard even in the depths of winter, and with friendly yard staff and fellow boat owners we are thoroughly enjoying our time here.

 

Last weekend work was started on the new lighting panel switch to upgrade the look and to set them out in a logical order.  A new trim panel has now been made and trimmed in a spare piece of matching vinyl and the new switch mounted to this.

 

 

The 3 control cables were delivered from ASAP Supplies (www.asap-supplies.com) earlier on in the week.  These were purchased at a very competitive price and we were once again able to take advantage of the discount applied to our account for being a RYA member.  These have now been fitted to the fuel shut off valves and port engine throttle.
Next week we hope to test these by having a trip up the canal to South Yorkshire Boat Club.

Control Cables and Switches

Old Throttle Cable

Cable Damage

When we bought Moonshine the starboard single lever control was very stiff, after investigation this was narrowed down to the throttle cable being worn.  This was replaced with a new 33C Morse Cable earlier last year, which returned it to a nice smooth operation.

Now that we are catching up on the mechanical side of things, we have decided to change the remaining cables as they are all original.  The port throttle cable was removed and was found to have been rubbing on the charge air cooler, which has worn through the outer sheath and corroded the steel wires.  When the new cable is installed we will sleeve it with some rubber hose to help prevent this damage in the future.  The removed cable has now been measured to ensure we have the correct length for replacing.

 

Fuel Valve Stops

Stop Valve Cable


 










The fuel valve control cables were removed and measured for their replacements as these had also become stiff with age. 
Next month when Moonshine is lifted out of the water, the gear cables will also be removed, measured and replaced.

After owning Moonshine for the last year the saloon lighting switches have been a petty annoyance, as they appear to have been wired randomly with no method to the layout.  Ideally we wanted to alter the wiring and keep the existing switches.  However as you can see from the above photos, the fixing screws are concealed behind revolving covers of which the inner covers are impossible to remove without damaging the plating.  Therefore a new 6 gang flat stainless steel switch has been purchased to replace the old switches.  The footprint of the new switch is a lot narrower, but fortunately we have a small piece of cream vinyl (from the cut out of the aft cabin port hole) which is just big enough.  A trim piece will be made from paxolin and covered to match the surrounding vinyl and the new switch will be mounted to this.  Photos to follow upon completion.

Old and New Switches

 

 

Switches released and wires marked up, and new back box fitted for new installation

Hull Marina

Moonshine left her moorings at Goole Boathouse on Saturday at 8am. The above photo shows her approaching Ocean Lock, Goole bound for our greatly anticipated tidal Hull trip.

 



The primary purpose of this weekends trip was to test the boost pressure of both turbo's. Since changing the engine air filters the other week we needed to see if this had made a difference, or if indeed one or both of the turbo's need refurbishing when Moonshine is lifted out in March. At the moment it looks like the starboard turbo needs some attention. Also, we had yet to test the newly installed engine mounts under load, and these appear to be a great success.

 

The only shipping we encountered was Emma, inbound for Goole on Saturday morning. Very recently the channel in the Humber has altered significantly, the channel turns south east a long way before Brough. Once passed Reeds Island the channel is very close to the Lincolnshire Bank from South Ferriby to Chalderness. The tides were very high this weekend and we were within this area at high water so there was plenty of depth.

 

The forecast was very cool for Saturday morning with the possibility of frost or even ice with a f3-4 NW breeze, with a bit of wind over tide, and we received no help at all from the tide taking us 1 hour and 5 minutes. These were a lot better boating conditions than we encountered on our previous visit to Hull in thick fog last Autumn.

 

 

Yet again, glorious crisp blue skies greeted Moonshine whilst

she lay on the visitors berth.



Hull Marina

Hull Marina

Shark sculpture, The Deep

The Deep

Low tide, River Hull

Tidal Barrier, River Hull





Sunset over the Humber Bridge

Hull by night

Hull by night



On Sunday we awoke to cloudier skies to those we had enjoyed the day before, with a f4 SW breeze with wind over tide.  We travelled at displacement speed until bouy number 23 close to the Humber Bridge due to the slightly choppy conditions, we then planed back up to Goole.  This journey took us 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Significant change of the channel

Busy day for shipping out on the River Humber on Sunday

Two more ships entering the River Trent at the Apex Light
 

Moonshine has run well with her newly refurbished propeller which has no vibration.  The new canopy sunroofs have proved themselves to be both wind and water tight due to the spray we encountered from the intermittent choppy conditions.  This weekends trip has been a great success with nothing breaking down, and at times like these it is a pleasure being a boat owner!



Sample Flooring and General Maintance

 

Later on this year we would like to renew the saloon, mid ships and forward cabin flooring with a teak and holly effect to bring Moonshine up to that next level visually speaking.   We received some samples of a new to the UK product Lonseal Lonmarine Wood from America.  This is a flexible synthetic flooring very similar to a high quality vinyl which would need to be bonded onto the plywood sole, however this isn't really for us.  Therefore, we will obtain a sample from Robbins Timber of their teak and holly laminate, which is very hard and can be supplied on it's own or bonded onto varying thickness's of ply.  This type of flooring is more commonly used in yacht charter fleets where a low maintenance, and hard wearing floor is required.

 

 

On Saturday Peter checked all the shorepower leads that came with the boat.  This short lead which converts from the 16A Marineco socket to a 16A blue connecter, of which the blue plug was found to be in bad condition.  This will be replaced next week with a good quality MK plug.

 

With very hard frosts being forecast this coming week, we decided another tube heater was required in the main saloon.  Hopefully this and the other tube heaters in the engine room will do their job and help prevent any major frost damage.

Asus Transformer T200TA and Other Odd Jobs

Our Tidal Hull trip was cancelled this weekend due to the stormy conditions, however this provided us with the opportunity time wise to do some much needed mechanical repairs on the old Mondeo in order to keep her on the road for the next few years.  If the weather is ok in a few weeks time we will go then, however if not (using the same old mantra) there will be plenty more opportunities.

Last Monday I received my new 'toy' in the form of the Asus Transformer T200TA.  It was a toss up between this or the purchase of another Ipad to take to Moonshine, but the Asus was considered to be the winner in what would provide me with the much needed versatility for blogging whilst away from home compared to the limitations on an Apple device. 
The larger detachable screen and bonus of keyboard dock with 32gb tablet and 500gb dock storage is more than enough for my needs, however I would have preferred a 4gb ram rather than the 2gb provided, but unless you have a bucket load of cash you can't have everything. 
The 5mp camera on the tablet doesn't appear all that good, but that was never a factor in my purchase, unlike the battery power which is very favourable.  There are a wide variety of ports on the device (which will be very useful for transferring music to Moonshine's stereo micro sd card), and the larger track pad is much better than it's smaller sibling the T100TA.  Windows 8.1 runs very fluid on this device, however the screen could benefit from an anti glare screen protector when being used in sunlight. Also a car charger will be purchased direct from Asus to allow a fully portable experience.  

Another 5m reel of Fluxia  LED tape light in warm white was ordered via Ebay from Intaaudio, to provide better lighting in the engine room.  The existing lighting was very poor, with just 1x10w bulkhead light fitting facing aft. The new tape light has been cut to size and applied to wooden mounts which in turn have been fixed in the engine room and soldered.  The black mount has been fixed to the forward end of the lifting engine room hatch with the strip mounted at an angle of 45° so all the tape lights shine vertically downwards.  Additionally the bulkhead light fitting was changed for a 600mm super bright Led strip light

New Led Lighting installed in engine room

 

One design flaw in the Seawings 355 are the large sunroof openings and the unsupported flat expanse the canopy has to cover.  Different methods have been seen on various other models but this is what we have designed.  Timber was used to make the supports which lock in place into the drainage channel around the external sunroof opening.  We have incorporated a small arch to help shed water and or snow.  This was finished in black to match the other trims, and the top side was finished in black leatherette so as to prevent any chaffing on the new sunroof cover.  These are removable when the covers are removed.

 

www.inlinefilters.co.uk/ 

 

 

Another engine room job was to change the air filters.  We have been experiencing low turbo boost pressure on the starboard engine, so before removing the turbo for refurbishment, and after seeing the state of the air filter it may not have been getting enough air in. It is just a process of elimination and it makes sense to investigate the basics first.  Time will tell on the next highly anticipated tidal trip.

 

 

 

The final job of the day was to replace the tv aerial socket. We have a small outdoor aerial which plugs into this socket in the wheelhouse.  We had been experiencing signal problems, so replaced the old with a new flush mounted MK socket which now looks a lot smarter and hopefully will give us a better signal.

 

Cold and Frosty Morning

Moonshine early Sunday morning was bathed in bright sunshine and patchy ice on the water in the basin.

Now it is that time of year the tube heaters have been placed in the engine room to help protect against potential frost damage.

Since owning Moonshine she has had a leak on the power steering ram, which has been a long term problem (as we acquired 4 bottles of power steering oil with her).  To change the ram would be a very difficult job due to the limited access, therefore we thought it was worth trying this Wynns product as it is highly regarded in the motor trade and works by softening seals to return them to their original condition.  This has worked a treat and was well worth the £7.99 paid rather than several hundred pounds on changing the ram.

Yet another hole has been cut into Moonshine, this time as an extra inverter socket.  When we originally installed the inverter a double plug socket was fitted in the saloon area for the tv to run off whilst not on shore power.  However, after last weekends cruise it was decided an extra socket would be beneficial in the mid ships cabin for the kids to charge their laptops from.  Whilst on with that job the other original double plug sockets were also replaced with brand new white MK sockets so they all match throughout.