Plagued With Bad Luck

Last weekend we had a much needed trip up the canal to Pollington, mooring low side.  

Ever since our return from Wells in June we have been plagued with bad luck. The night we returned from Wells, Peter had his works van broken into on our driveway at home, with matters made even worse by a very aggressive neighbour. The following weekends were used to make security improvements at home, however once these had been implemented Peter suffered a bad ankle sprain at work which has prevented us from using Moonshine over the last three weeks. 

During the trip to Wells we noticed the starboard alternator was overcharging. This was removed on our return to Goole and very promptly repaired by Auto Generators Wakefield, and fortunately refitted the day prior to Peters injury. 

We are all ready for the start of our two and a half weeks holiday next weekend, but we needed to test the alternator was working correctly, hence the trip to Pollington. 

Fingers crossed for good weather and no breakdowns, and with Moonshine now sporting some new wheelhouse carpet she is all set to go. 

'Speedwell' waiting for a weather window to tow a houseboat conversion (completed in Goole over the winter) down south.

Little and Large

A few weeks ago we discovered the old battery charger  was not working, and therefore so as not to spoil our half term holiday in Wells we relied on a small portable charger from home for the week. This worked well, however since it had to work to its limit at times we had to cool it with a portable mains fan. 

Upon our return to Goole, the old Guest battery charger was removed for testing at home. We initially thought our luck was in, as we found two blown fuses inside the unit. We obtained some 10amp time delay fuses from Maplin, replaced these and plugged the unit into the mains and attempted to charge a battery to prove itself. Unfortunately this blew the mains fuse in the house which didn't bode well with our younger daughter who was on her gaming console at the time (slapped hands!), so we knew that there was something seriously wrong with it even though there were no visible signs. 

We then had to resign ourselves to the expense of a new unit. We decided on a Merlin Kisae Abso 40amp four stage battery charger from Cactus Navigation who were cheaper than other suppliers. This particular unit was chosen as you can prioritise your domestic battery bank over the engine start batteries. It also has a lot higher output than the old one and is considerably smaller in physical size. This was fitted last week and everything seems much more lively, so the old unit must have been on its last legs for a while now. 

It has now come to our attention that the starboard alternator was charging over voltage, and it looks as if the voltage regulator has gone faulty. This has been removed for repair, and we hope to have this sorted by next weekend.

 

This past week we have been busy with cleaning and new waterproofing of the newer and old canopies at home. Moonshines canopy was removed and replaced for the old blue one for the week.  This has been quite time consuming as the first stage of the sandy coloured newer canopy was to treat it with Patio Magic. It was then hung on the washing line at home for several days to let the biocide work, and allow any green or mould to be killed...this is an excellent product which is safe to use around animals and for use on fabric. The canopy then underwent a thorough wash, and finally once dried treated with Fabsil to waterproof it. A 5litre Fabsil container was obtained from EBay for £21.38 which was considerably cheaper than our local shops. The canopy is now back on Moonshine, and we decided to give the old blue canopy a quick treatment of the latter along with the dogs rain coats which were loosing their water resistance thick and fast.

We now have six weeks before our main holidays, with the next two weekends being disrupted due to work commitments. Hopefully...everything will be in tip top condition for our trip south.

Wells-next-the-Sea at long last!

We departed Goole on the early morning tide on Sunday bound for Grimsby. A day behind schedule due to the wind which had whipped up on the Saturday, and coupled with a very strong spring  tide we thought we would leave it an extra day so as not to get a battering. Having said that even on the Sunday with a strong westerly 4-5 it wasn't very pleasant in places, but we arrived in one piece covering 39.7 nautical miles, with the only thing playing up being the battery charger. We made a quick trip home on the Saturday to fetch our car battery charger to get us out of the mire, but it's looking like a new charger upon our return....yet more expense!

 

With the wind forecast due to significantly subside on the Sunday evening tide, and looking relatively settled for the forthcoming week, we decided to head to Wells-next-the-Sea for the week and forget about Newark. The past couple of years at Spring Bank the weather has not been suitable for us to make the long passage down the coast without worrying about the journey back as soon as we arrive. We once had to abandon Moonshine for a week in Wells and we did not want to run the risk of doing that again. However, the weather was settled and the decision made!

 

After a very smooth run at sea with another 53.5 nautical miles under our belt, we arrived at Wells where we planned on spending several nights.  We haven't visited Wells for a few years, and the extended pontoon and visitor facilities are a fantastic improvement. They plan on extending the pontoon further and purchasing a new boat hoist and making improvements to the slipway amongst other things as soon as revenue permits.

 

After spending a lazy 4 days thoroughly ensconced in Wells we decided Friday was the day to leave bound for Hull Marina. It was such a shame as the weather was lovely, however with a gentle southerly breeze behind us and with the breeze turning north westerly f 1/2 the further up the coast we travelled, we enjoyed a nice calm run back logging 72.7 nautical miles.

 

We departed Hull Marina on Saturday homeward bound. The river was quite rough off Hull, so we travelled at displacement speed in a fresh westerly f4 until we got to the south side of the river which was significantly calmer and were then able to plane up to Goole covering another 22.2 nautical miles. 

We have logged a total of 188.1 nautical miles this past week, and Moonshine and her recently refurbished outdrives have certainly proved themselves. A fantastic if not lazy week away with excellent weather conditions...it goes to show that it has been calmer at sea than in the river both ways. We just need to inspect the battery charger now to see if this is repairable, if not it will be a new unit. 

Making Things Good Once Again

We have had a few jobs on the go this past week in an attempt to make things good once again. One being the wind indicator flag which was looking very tatty with the fabric falling to bits. We utilised an old rain jacket for this which seams had started to fail, in the past we have used old umbrellas as the material is the same... we never throw anything away you never know when it may become useful again. It is now as good as new once again and ready to be refitted for the season ahead.

 

We have also had a go at smartening up the Oceanair sky screen hatch blinds. These had gone mottled and were starting to look unsightly. In an ideal world it would have been nice to have these refurbished, however in an attempt to extend their life a bit longer we opted to purchase three cans of vanilla vinyl dye. These were sprayed in situ, as it would be quite involved to remove them both. The deckhead was masked up and everything beneath was covered in sheets. The result is quite good, not perfect, but a big improvement. This should put these on for another few years. 

 

We also thought it wise to purchase a carbon monoxide alarm, which was purchased from Argos for £9.99.  We have one of these at home, and after reading of some recent incidents involving carbon monoxide poisoning on boats, we thought it was time to purchase one for Moonshine. 

 

Finally, this weekend Moonshine has been treated to a good polish, so she looks smart for our forthcoming holiday.

Planning Ahead

After work commitments partially spoiling last weekend for us, all was not lost as some of the weekend was spent sourcing another car and we did get a trip to Sykehouse on the Monday on Moonshine to check some engine tweaks were running as they should do.

We were lucky enough to enjoy this weekend off and relax at Pollington. With Moonshine running well we are able to start planning ahead in relation to the forthcoming Springbank holiday. We will not be going to sea, unless weather conditions permit of course, however we are planning on a trip to Hull Marina as the recent problems with the lock gates should be fully operational for this coming Friday all being well. From Hull we will do Grimsby and then head up the River Trent and probably make Gunthorpe before returning back to base. 

We plan on taking another two and a half weeks off for our main summer holidays. We haven't visited Wells Next The Sea for a few years, so this will be a must this year before heading to Lowestoft and getting as far as Burnham-on-Crouch. Nothing too taxing for us this year, so hopefully we should be able to thoroughly enjoy the places we visit this time around, and more importantly it shouldn't cost quite as much as our two previous holidays...hopefully... I may end up eating my words on that issue!

Nice And Toasty Once Again

Last weekend whilst at Torksey our MV Airo 5 heater suddenly decided not to work, whilst displaying its fault code that there was something wrong with the glow plug pin. This needed sorting thick and fast for the oncoming forecast cold snap if we wanted to continue to use Moonshine away from our home berth.

The heater was removed last week, and we gave this a thorough clean and decoke. The heater after three years of service since it's original installation wasn't in that bad condition, but if left any carbon build up could result in problems in its efficiency. We contacted our original supplier who hadn't had any problems with having to supply a new glow pin and recommended we test said glow pin on a car battery independent of the heater to test if this was indeed the problem. On contact the pin worked as it should do so therefore we were now left thinking the ECU had gone faulty or hoping in vain that the glow pin socket had worked loose from the ECU and was not making good contact. Before doing anything else we recommissioned the heater on Moonshine to see if re-establishing a good contact would solve the problem, and thankfully it did. We can only think this is yet something else that has a tendency to vibrate loose with the movement of the boat whilst at sea or in choppy conditions. We decided once the heater was working properly once again to spend the night on the New Junction having our first BBQ of the year. It was nice being able to wake up the following morning in a toasty warm boat. 

 

Plan B and the Old Fashioned Way

Having had to alter our cruising plans this week after our unsuccessful attempt at getting through the bridges in Lincoln, we decided to head up the River Trent to Newark and beyond as our plan B.

The moorings in Newark were practically deserted apart from two small cruisers, one of which apparently had broken down but they were not moored economically and not using the mooring space wisely, however we still managed to get on the Kiln pontoon and access the electric and water facilities. 

 

Heading on up towards Hazelford we had to moor low side whilst a work boat carried out repairs within the lock to the lower paddles, but after an hour we were soon on our way making good time through Gunthorpe and Stoke Bardolph before the lock keeper finished for the day. The moorings top side of Stoke were deserted so we stayed here for the night as it is nice and peaceful.

 

The following day we departed Stoke Bardolph for the short run to Nottingham and Holme Lock. We had originally intended on spending the night top side of Holme Lock, however even though there was enough mooring top side this scenic place has in our opinion been spoilt by CRT's decision to allow the permanently moored boats to stay on what was a large visitor mooring. These boats were moved there a few years ago when the hydroelectric generating station was being constructed in the old lock, as their moorings all used to be on the lock island. This decision has drastically reduced the amount of visitor moorings, and looks unappealing as they have used Heras temporary site fencing as security and have spoilt a very scenic location. 

We gave the dogs a walk around the rowing lake (about 5km) before heading back down stream to our new favourite secluded location being Stoke.

 

On Good Friday we thought we would head back down stream to Newark hoping to beat the busy start to the Easter rush. We enjoyed another night on the Kiln pontoon, but having to improvise 'the old fashioned way' using 10 litre water containers to fill our water tank as we could not get near enough to the water point. This is another niggly fault, as the two water taps are towards the upstream end of this fairly long pontoon and could do with spacing out better. 

As the Easter rush started to arrive it was quite entertaining watching a cruiser attempting to squeeze into a 30 odd foot gap on the Kiln moorings with the flow behind it but aborting his bad decision at the last second. How it escaped any impact damage was a miracle. 

 

Easter Saturday we departed Newark bound for Cromwell and Torksey, passing Naughty Cal on her way upstream at Besthorpe. Amongst other craft heading upstream we encountered a narrowboat at Normanton Sunken Island which was well over on the wrong side. We had to slow down to allow it to get into the correct channel... there is a motorway sized sign advising which side of the river to be on, obviously he hadn't seen it or chose to ignore it, and didn't seem happy with us when we passed him as we refused to go into the shallow water. 

We spent a very blustery rest of the afternoon and evening on the pontoon bottom side of Torksey lock, and upon starting our boat heater in the evening this decided to play up. We think this just requires a replacement glow plug but will investigate this further, therefore the warm blankets were out once again out on the boat.  Apart from that we had a quiet stay on the pontoon, and we had a very early start to look forward to the following morning when we could once again stretch Moonshine's legs for her passage down to Hull.

 

We caught a very early morning tide heading downstream towards Keadby, choosing to travel down on the ebb at displacement speed, meeting the flood near Keadby.  Once there was enough depth we opened Moonshine up and planed down to Hull passing numerous craft heading back from their Easter break, including another Seawings 355 'Odin' from Farndon. 

We did notice that Moonshine's prop wash and speed was not as it should be, this was rather concerning as our initial thoughts were that we had lost an exhaust bellow. Since we were spending two nights in Hull we had plenty of time to investigate the problem. From the dingy Peter had a good prod around underwater as best as he could and everything seemed fine. Our thoughts are that we had caught a stick or some form of debris across the outdrive and had been dragging this all the way from the Trent to Hull. We had no problems on our run back from Hull to Goole running at 25 knots through the water in less than an hour, including reducing down to displacement speed at Upper Whitton for 5 minutes to pass the 'UKD Seahorse' which was repositioning the 32B lightfloat so as not to cause any problems from our wash. We had excellent service penning in at Ocean Lock and once safely back at our berth we were on our way back home for lunch time. 

A successful week away and a good test for the newly refurbished outdrives. We just have the boat heater to sort now.