Richmond on Thames

Worked in Richmond last week and had a couple of walks down the Thames path at lunchtimes.
The tide was out on both occasions and I noticed all the beached houseboats, restaurant boat and a couple of narrowboats (including a small Springer like mine).
The Richmond lock and weir was closed for maintemance, including the footbridge overhead (the weir gates are used to maintain the level of the river above Richmond to allow navigation and the gates are lowered at high tide to allow navigation without using the lock (charged at £5 a go).

A very pleasant spot for a stroll or to eat your lunch.

Green slime on the erewash - Azolla Weed

The Erewash canal is suffering from thick green slime at the moment - Azolla Weed - no sun getting through to the canal and must be a danger to the fish and other wildlife. Probably due to the lack of boat activity on this underused canal. Will have to travel up it again next year - hopefully it can keep going until the derby canal is restored to form a cruising ring

Lock on waterpoint at findern

BW today sent letters to moorers at Findern to let the Nadee restaurant use the waterpoint used for boaters. The Nadee insist that they only want the water to water their spice garden (and not provide water for their massive marquee and its regular events!).
The boaters have been protecting the supply via the use of a padlock - the restaurant having installed a high pressure pipe and fittings (a bit over the top for a bit of watering).
I don't feel that this is a good use of the impoverished, soon to be underfunded charity, with very limited resources and my fellow boaters feel that when the bills roll in the water supply will soon be cut off - due to the likely abuse of this facility.
update:
Apparently the water supply is not metered, however, as the country is facing a severe water shortage (which will close many canals next summer) it is unlikely that this situation will continue. Expect the price of a water supply to rocket as it has been doing for electric and gas as demand exceeds supply.

water in engine bay

I noted recently that water has been getting in the engine bay due to poorly fitted deck signs. The holes drilled for the brass signs were not sealed and the screws not secured via bolts. As the boat safety is 4 yrs away I have removed the signs and filled the holes - hopefully the engine bay should now be dry - the deck drains naturally down the hatch channels.



I am going to leave the required repairs until next year now -soft engine mount, stern gland repacking and alternator low output problems to be sorted - expensive time at the moment with house repairs and daughter at uni.



Radio and tv now removed from boat for winter - will move upholstery soon and drain off water. Also need to put antifreeze in engine - pure water at the moment due to the previously reported leaking radiator cap problem - now sorted.

Ongoing maintenance

Stern gland needs repacking badly - water pissing in even at engine idle, presumably due to vibration - one of the engine mounts is soft.

Battery charging issue is a bit disturbing - alternator output poor and unable to isolate starter battery without killing feed to leisure.

Engine is also smoky and takes a few turns to start which won't help the battery issue. Got to decide if I need to spend money on it or look for a cheap recon unit.

Might have to wait until next year now - too many jobs to do at home and at work.

Also need to clean the engine bay - everytime I go in I come out like I am a member of the black and White minstrels

Thoughts on winterisation

Plans so far:
drain off water and leave taps on
Remove all upholstery/soft furnishings
remove all electronic items - tv, radios, etc

shardlow 10/9/11

Off to shardlow soon - hope to get thru stenson lock in less than an hour this time - what a bottle neck it has become.

derby county fan onboard so our challenge for this evening is to find a pub showing the game at 5.15

The malt shovel has italian sky - not sure if they show championship games and the bell at sawley have full sky but would mean extending the cruise.

hope we manage to secure a mooring - the last two trips we have squeezed in next to the new inn just before the bridge

Well that was an eventful weekend.
A leisurely cruise to shardlow ended up quite expensive and painful for some of us.

On the way down a boater got his ropes caught when filling Weston lock - nearly sinking his new boat! We should have known it was going to be a challenging weekend!

We got our favourite mooring outside the new inn.

First problem - no derby match in the malt shovel - requiring a taxi to sawley - bell inn - they had two games on derby and manscum.

Derby were robbed by a dodgy penalty and good performance by the cov keeper - the Manchester muppets were happy with their easy win - shame Rooney doesn't play like that for England!

After another taxi ride back to shardlow on of the lads turned his ankle so was limping for the rest of the weekend.

As my iPhone was nearly empty I left it on charge overnight and as the bilge was leaking badly we had to use the pump - too lazy to grease the stern gland.

After a very nice fill English in the morning - my excessive power use came back to haunt me - flat batteries!

Must look at the wiring as the leisure battery appears to drain the starter as well!

After half an hour trying to get jump leads with no success - someone had a flat starter pack!

I bit the bullet and bought a new battery from the marina - £35 more than most suppliers! Ouch!

After fitting the new battery I checked the alternator - only kicking out 12.4 volts - may be a problem there!

Journey home looked an easy one - canal very quiet and weather surprisingly good.

As we were leaving shardlow lock - we were leaving the gates open for a hire boat, Allan jumped on the boat but lost his footing - ending up hanging off the rail with his legs in the water - unable to pull himself up. The tiller was left to a crew member who didn't know how to steer and suggested we go towards the unguarded weir!

In the end I managed to pull Allan back on the boat and we avoided the weir - the canal time hire boat crew were watching in horror!

The rest of the journey was uneventful and the weather very good all weekend - only rained when we were inside.

Final result:

Allan - bruised chest, thigh and swollen knee
Peter - twisted and swollen ankle
David - empty wallet - minus £115 for battery