Sea Dog

Wind wise, there haven't been many calm days had we chosen to head further down the coast. Due to the current global crisis, we chose to stay in Wells and have a nice relaxing holiday. 

We have discovered Scout enjoys the dingy, and looks forward to her little dingy trips...the older two aren't that bothered,  choosing to bed back down for naps between walks...we may make a sea dog of her yet!

Construction of the new Lifeboat Station has commenced. They plan to widen the ramp access over the dunes to facilitate a faster launching route at low water, whilst still allowing public access at all times. 

The town quay looks odd without the Albatros, which went to Maldon, Essex on 18th August 2020 for a major refit. 

Monday and Tuesday are looking calm weatherwise. We plan to top up with fuel on Monday at high water, and depart Wells Tuesday. Fingers crossed for a nice calm run back up the coast.

Silver Season

After feeling rather deflated for our forthcoming summer holiday due to the current climate, we decided an infusion injection of excitement was needed. Therefore, we had planned on Wells next the Sea, and a Wash holiday, the latter of which we haven't visited for the last 8 years. However the impending works to extend the King's Lynn visitor pontoon soon put paid to that idea.

We had an early pen out of Ocean Lock Friday morning. It was on top of the spring tides and due to a lot of fresh water coming down the Ouse, the river was littered with debris. We were also aware that UKD Seahorse was dredging in the Hull Marina entrance until 10am. This meant there was no rush for us to get there, however we did decide to plane when a large coaster which had penned out of Goole after us was hot on our tail at The Apex. Passing Whitton Island, a yacht called us on the VHF requesting assistance to tow him off as he had grounded....well out of the channel. We advised we were unprepared to assist in this instance, as the tide was now ebbing and he had gone aground at high water. Bearing in mind the tides would now be dropping off, we didn't want to risk grounding ourselves, and requested he contact VTS for Humber Rescue to assist with a tow. The skipper of said yacht understood our decision, but we never heard him call VTS. We presume either our wash or the ship's wash may have freed him. We were soon back on the plane to test the engines for sea, but reduced speed again at Lower Whitton and made Hull just as the dredger had completed his works.

We spent two nights in Hull Marina waiting for the breeze to die down, penning out early Sunday morning to head to Wells.

It was very busy in the lower Humber with shipping movements, and with the wash from the pilot and wind farm boats it wasn't a particularly smooth ride. Once out at sea we kept close to the Lincolnshire Coast which was a lot calmer, but crossing The Wash it chopped up once again. Wells next the Sea, as ever, was a great sight to see after an arduous trip. We can now relax, as at the moment we have no other plans other than having a lazy relaxing holiday.

We have heard the term 'silver season' described for this time of year, as retired folk can enjoy a quiet holiday once schools have reopened. Time will tell if this will feel odd to us. 

On The Move

A week last Thursday we loaded Moonshine up for our much anticipated 4 day visit to Hull.  On Friday morning we penned out of Ocean Lock, and had a good calm fast run down river. Once in the lock at Hull, we were directed to C pontoon near the boat hoist, as the visitor moorings being close to the new foot bridge construction site were said to be very noisy. We spent an enjoyable 4 days there, however on Monday and Tuesday the winds had gotten up very strong from the west, thus making a very uncomfortable ride back up river. We therefore decided to stay an extra day and returned back to Goole on Wednesday once the winds had abated. We penned out of Hull Marina on their 1st penning, and with a moderate wind still blowing wind against tide we headed back up river at displacement speed.

The new AIS installation has worked flawlessly, and Ocean Lock were able to pick up on Moonshine's location advising several outbound ships that we were on our way back inbound. This has been a very worthwhile investment.

Returning back to Moonshine again on Friday evening, and after completing some mechanical jobs in the engine room on Saturday morning, we were on the move once again for a quiet overnight stay at Sykehouse Lift Bridge allowing us the opportunity to spark the old Weber bbq back up again.

Whilst in Hull earlier in the week, we decided our Nav lights were looking rather tired and the lenses star crazed/opaque reducing the range.  We looked into replacing the complete units, but discovered that replacement lenses would be a lot cheaper option, as there was nothing wrong with the bodies and internals. We placed an order from a German Chandler's on the Sunday, and promptly received said new lenses on Wednesday. This was a nice easy job to do whilst at Sykehouse.

Having had our liberties returned after lockdown and with friends enjoying their own holidays, we are now looking forward to our holiday in early September.  We are crossing everything for this, in the hope that another national lockdown does not scupper our plans.

See and Be Seen

We have busy investigating purchasing a class B AIS transponder for about a year now.  After much deliberation we opted for a Onwa KP708A, which would double up as a backup chart plotter. Prior to purchase the agent emailed us several chart images showing the cartography as this plotter is available with built in K2 or K3, or for an additional charge Navionics charting. We opted for K2 charting, as K3 was a bit 'clunky' in operation, with the option later down the line to install Navionics if necessary after getting used to the unit.
The set came with a Puck aerial for internal installation as standard, but we also upgraded to an external 'mushroom' GPS aerial. In addition a Scout AIS 3ft aerial and stainless steel rachet mount was purchased for AIS transmit and receive signals.
All of this came with the challenge of reconfiguring the dashboard, which gave us the opportunity to mount various instruments to give us better visibility to use. This involved relocating the bow thruster control and clock, and then making two modules to house the six units, without making the dashboard look too cluttered. We think this has been quite a successful but time consuming exercise, but will be a good beneficial additional safety aid.

Before

After

This weekend we had a trip up the canal to Pollington. This has been our first opportunity to stay overnight on Moonshine since lockdown eased. Next weekend, we plan on visiting Hull Marina for a well earned five day break. 

Released from Lockdown

Since Christmas we have had only a couple of overnight stays aboard Moonshine, however due to windy weather earlier in the year we opted to stay in the marina. During the month of March, it became increasingly obvious that a boat holiday was going to be out of the question until later in the year.
However, we have been busy with boat jobs prior to lockdown. New carpeting to hull areas in all three cabins, and some additional lighting in the forward cabin. The new biscuit colour is a lot nicer than the original blue which was starting to break down.

Moonshine had her annual lift out the week before lockdown, and we were lucky to have her relaunched before everything came to a 'standstill'. 

One little job which was annoying us, was to replace a sun yellowed plastic vent on the mates side of the wheelhouse. We found a Plastimo vent  which was a direct replacement, which was purchased from Goole Boathouse.

We had a problem with the original Volvo/VDO starboard engine tachometer which was failing to read.  These are becoming very difficult and somewhat expensive to source. We enquired about a repair, however this was going to be £185 plus vat, and this may not have been a guaranteed price depending on what fault they found. After much deliberation, we decided to buy two new matching 4000rpm KUS Marine tachos, with a black face and stainless steel bezel. These were ordered mid January from China for £38.99 each, and took 6 weeks to arrive. Upon arrival, we paid the customs charge (about £18 which needed to be paid before the Post Office would release the package to us), and with much excitement we unpacked them only to find white faces. These needed to be returned as they would not match our dashboard. We eventually received replacements 3 weeks later, after advising them to declare with customs they were warranty items. We were now into lockdown, and rather frustratingly were unable to fit them. Once restrictions were eased, Peter visited Moonshine and carefully enlarged the mounting holes with a power file so as not to damage the veneer, as the old tachos were flush mounted and a lot smaller in diameter. We are really pleased with the look and the quality for the price paid.

This weekend we paid a visit to Moonshine, and stopped at Sykehouse Road Bridge for the day, before heading back home later on the Saturday evening as Peter was on call the following day. Hopefully we will be able to stay overnight very soon, and start planning ahead for a simple holiday aboard later in the summer.

Injectors Overhaul

A few weeks ago at the end of our October holiday, the 6 injectors on the port engine were removed for overhaul.
These had to be carefully removed, so as not to disturb the copper sleeves in the cylinder head. Volvo Penta make a special, but rather expensive tool, for pulling the injectors out whilst bearing down on the copper sleeves to keep them in place. After lots of research, Peter decided to make his own, as the general consensus was that the Volvo tool was not up to the job and broke easily if the injectors were stubborn...in common layman's speak, 'made of toffee'.
Photo below shows home made sleeve cleaning tool (left), and home made injector puller (right).

The removal of the injectors went smoothly, and were taken to diesellogic.co.uk at Garforth, West Yorkshire which is very local to us. Their turnaround was very quick, and after testing them, they all  required work. All 6 injectors were reconditioned with genuine Bosch parts, and were ready within 24 hours. We had had a price from a local Bosch main agent, who had said these couldn't be reconditioned locally, and would require a service exchange from the factory at double the price we paid of £55 plus vat each from Diesel Logic.
Photo below shows home made injector puller in use.

Whilst the injectors were out, Peter took the opportunity to clean the top of the cylinder head, degreasing it with brake cleaner and it was then repainted.

When Peter refitted the refurbished injectors the engine started easily,  however three of the cylinders suffered 'blow by' past the injectors. This meant the newly refurbished  injectors were not seating correctly on the copper sleeves as they had before. Peter then made a home made sleeve cleaning tool from plywood (see 1st photo), and using 220 grit aluminium oxide abrasive paper, he meticulously and very carefully cleaned the seat of all 6 copper sleeves until they were all in perfect condition whilst changing the paper regularly, and manually blowing the dust out with a short length of hose.
Once refitted, the 'blow by' had been cured, and the engine started and ran smoothly, whilst checking for fuel and coolant leaks. As everything was ok, all the unions were touched up with paint and all the air ducting and engine covers were refitted.
This weekend we took the opportunity to give Moonshine a test run out up the canal to a very cold and frosty Whitley. 

Proper Boating!

So the half term holiday started off rather damp to say the least, with more than 24 hours of rain from the Friday well into Saturday. We had pre booked with Goole Docks, giving them at least the required 24 hours  notice of our departure time for 4pm Saturday for Hull, however when calling them up on the vhf, they informed us that due to traffic we wouldn't be penning out until at least 5pm. All pleasure craft local to Goole Docks know the protocol, that commercial traffic takes priority, however it was at least half an hour after our vhf call that commercial traffic contacted Ocean Lock to make a move. This was very frustrating, due to daylight hours now drawing in, however we just made it into Hull Marina after a fast run, due to the fast failing light, by the 'skin of our teeth'.
It is awkward at Hull at the moment due to their restricted lock operations, due to faulty outer gates. The lock is closing 18th November for 4/6 weeks for repairs, and 'hope' to be operational again for Christmas.
We had a good two days here on the visitor pontoon, before heading back to Goole on the very early am tide, as Peter had to be back to attend a family funeral for Wednesday.

On Thursday morning we returned back to Goole and loaded Moonshine up once again for her trip to Doncaster. It has been at least 7 years since we last headed inland to Doncaster, and thought this would make a nice change to finish the week off. On entering the New Junction, we caught up with Aquarius from South Yorkshire Boat Club, and together we made light work of working the bridges between us.

We parted ways with Aquarius at Barnby Dun, and continued onwards obtaining a good mooring on the Doncaster town visitor moorings after approximately four hours underway.

Since Doncaster wasn't brilliant for exercising the dogs, we headed back downstream to Barnby Dun just after lunch on Friday where dog walking terrain was much better, and fish and chips from the local chippy. Whilst waiting for Peter to be served, I was salivating at the window of the local Chinese takeaway.....maybe next time.

On Saturday the rain was set to return later in the morning, although you wouldn't have thought so whilst walking the dogs in glorious sunshine. We thought it would be best to get a wriggle on and move off to Sykehouse before the forecast heavy rain hit. We departed Barnby Dun around 10.30am, with Helen operating the road bridge. Aquarius had now caught up with us as he had come from Doncaster, however an opportunistic narrowboat whom had been moored on the downstream side of the bridge whistled motioning the fact he wanted to come through also, which wasn't a problem, however he advised another narrowboat was also wanting to come through and that they had cast off and would be quick. Well I am not sure of what their idea of being quick is when you have loads of traffic waiting at that very busy bridge. The bridge had been closed by the time that narrowboat had started to move off the mooring, and unfortunately the owner didn't look very happy. Some people seem to live in their own little world, having no regard for others. Unfortunately your damned if you do and damned if you don't in situations like that, and run the risk of being abused by motorists.
Anyway, after ranting about that incident between ourselves, we kept pace with Aquarius once again working the bridges between ourselves. By the time we arrived at a manned Sykehouse Lock, it was raining quite steadily....it's not pleasant but this is proper boating!
We spent a rather wet night at Sykehouse Lift Bridge, however that didn't seem to stop the firework displays in the village.
Sunday morning brought with it the sunshine which burnt the low mist away, and after a lie in and leisurely dog walk to Sykehouse Lock and back, we were soon underway returning back to base at Goole Boathouse by lunchtime.


We have had a nice week away, with both the combination of tidal and inland work, but it will be back to the 'grind stone' over the next few weeks due to work commitments in the lead up to Christmas. The port injectors are coming out this Monday for refurbishment, and if needs be the starboard injectors at a slightly later date....fingers crossed this doesn't turn into an overly expensive job.