Monday 16 June 2014

Its coming together nicely.

Sunday 15th and Monday 16th June

Sunday I was on my own. G and J had plans so after we had been out for a fried breakfast we went our separate ways and I made my way over to the marina.
First job Sunday, was to position the bilge pump and run the wiring from the battery to the pump.
 The pump I've used has an inbuilt float switch so is totally automatic, as soon as the water in the bilges reaches more than about 30 mm the float rises and switches on the pump thus ejecting the water. 'simples', as the water level decreases the float drops and switches the pump off. There is the facility to manualy switch on the pump if you wish but generally its automatic in operation. As i don't have a dedicated switch for the bilge pump yet, I havent used the third wire for the manual function but wired it permanently to the battery using the auto wiring. At least i can leave the boat safe in the knowledge if we have some torrential rain the pump will do its job.

Whilst down in the engine bay dabbling with the electrics I thought it would be a good idea to check the electrolyte level in the batteries as they're not usually very  accessible. All was ok there so thats another job jobbed!
Next job was to drill the holes in the deck plates in order to mount the port side storage box. Not too difficult as we'd already marked them out previously, but still a bit rough on the knees and leg muscles that hadn't recovered from Saturdays efforts! I managed to do the two outer bolts, but had to leave the two inner bolts for this morning (Monday) as i needed longer bolts.
Bolts acquired, job done.



I'm really pleased with the amount of work we've accomplished this trip. Unfortunately I need to get back to Kent tomorrow so I'll leave you with a picture of two doting parents and their offspring. Taken this morning just a little way along from my mooring.
Aaahhhh!
Bye for now.
 


Engine bay clean up, and hinging the deck plate.

Saturday 14th June.

After Friday's efforts at bleeding the fuel system the engine bay was a bit of a mess so first job was chuck some absorbent pads down the engine 'ole then, send Bro down the 'ole with some rags to do some mopping up. (well he's much more supple than I am, and can crawl right round the engine to get to the other side). Whilst he was down there he tightened up the skin fitting for the bilge pump outlet and fitted the outlet hose to the fitting with a jubilee clip ready for me to attach the pump when the wiring is in place.
Next job was to place the hinges in position for the engine hatch plate, and mark and centre punch ready to drill bolt holes.
This took a while so Bro disappeared off to another appointment leaving me to get on with it. (see, I do get my hands dirty sometimes). By the time he returned the job was well under way, and I'd also drilled the deck plates ready to bolt the starboard storage box in place. Also i'd drilled and fitted the lifting handle to the hatch plate.
Bolting everything  together was so much easier with two of us working together, and we soon had it sorted.


Having the hatch plate hinged makes life so much easier. Being able to open and shut the hatch, although still heavy, is now easily a one man job. The hinges are open so the hatch can be slid off the hinge pins for complete removal if necessary.
Time was getting on by then so we called it a day, a good day's work i felt and after all the climbing in and out, in and out of the engine 'ole my legs were protesting somewhat!

The trip back to Kings Bromley and some engine problems.

Friday 13th.

Tom, from the dry-dock phoned me on Thursday to say Bracken was all finished so they would be refloating her on Friday afternoon if I wanted to be there to see it happen. Well of course I wanted to be there! He said it would be around 3 pm so I arrived around 2 pm only to find Bracken already floating and moored outside the Swan! 
During the work that was carried out they'd had to drain the diesel from the tank, refill it with water whilst the welding was done, then drain the water out and refill with diesel when the work was completed. I started the engine and ran it up for a while whilst Tom and his lad finished refitting the rear rope fender 'button'

Lovely new blacking shows up the scruffy old paintwork.

You can see where a new strip of steel has been welded round the stern just above the waterline, this is why the diesel tank had to be drained.

As soon as G & J came home from work we shot over to Fradley to move Bracken back to Kings Bromley. Jenny met up with us and came aboard for the short cruise back and to assist with the locks.
We set off around 7.30, most other boats were moored for the night so we anticipated a nice quiet trip.
Unfortunately, just before the first lock out of Fradley the engine gave out a few 'clanks' and promptly died on us. "you'll have to bleed it" says Graham. 
"Hows that? I says.
"You've got some air in the system, crack the joint on one of the injectors, see if anything comes out" says Bro.
 I did that and nothing happened.
"there should be a bleed screw somewhere to get the air out of the system" he says.
Well I have to say I've worked on lots of petrol engines over the years but diesels are to me a total mystery. 
So i got down and dirty in the engine bay, not really knowing what i was looking for, until i spotted a knob. It just seemed to be begging to be turned, so I turned it while Bro cranked the engine over on the starter whereupon diesel and air was vented spluttering all over the place. As this was happening the engine started to fire up so I turned the knob in and the spluttering stopped and the engine ran ok! 

It's the yellow  knob, the other one is where you top up the oil.
(I think)

Once the engine was running ok we continued through the lock on up towards Kings Bromley.
I had to bleed it once more after we'd covered a few hundred yards, but after that it ran fine.
One boat came towards us which meant the next two locks were in our favour so that speeded things up a bit.
Wood End lock, clear run now.

Jenny fretting 'cos she's never done this before!

Getting the hang of it now.

Graham acting all nonshallant, nonshellant, carefree.

Nearly home now, moving the boat on the Friday eve was a good move as we now have the whole of Saturday to do some deck work.
More of that tomorrow.








Wednesday 11 June 2014

Down in the dock

Tuesday 10th June.



Dry docked and pressure washed.

Not much old blacking left after pressure washing.

One of the welding jobs is to renew the socket the rudder sits in. You can see how worn the socket is.

Port side of hull, steelwork is quite sound.

The port side wear edge at the stern, another welding job is to replace the metal that's been worn away by the rudder banging against it as can be seen in next picture.

Starboard side wear edge, same problem.

Looking at the state of the blacking its hard to believe Bracken was last blacked only 12 months ago.
The reason it hasn't lasted is because the previous owner blacked over a layer of scale instead of removing it first. When my surveyor did the pre-purchase survey, in order to measure the steel thickness he hammered the side of the hull and some of the scale fell off taking the blacking with it.
The moral to the story being remove scale before blacking and don't black over loose or flaking rust or steel!

Monday 9 June 2014

On the move

Sunday 8th June.

After Saturdays rain we were pleased to find Sunday morning dry and bright for our trip down from Kings Bromley marina to Fradley junction where the dry-dock is situated. Only 2.3 miles, and 3 locks to deal with so we were not in a hurry, although i was a bit apprehensive about Fradley Junction. The junction is where the Coventry canal meets the Trent and Mersey canal and is a notoriously busy area with boats coming and going not to mention the hordes of sightseers, (known as 'gongoozalers')  that congregate round the White Swan pub, (locally known as the 'mucky duck'). On nice sunny days the area can be heaving with boats, cars, motorcycles and pedestrians. (if  I'm honest i was concerned at how big an audience I'd have watching me cock it up trying to moor up right outside the Swan!).
First job on arriving at Bracken was to turn on the diesel and start the engine, so Graham was sent down the engine 'ole, blowlamp in hand whilst I had the difficult job of turning the ignition key! The engine fired up almost straight away no problem. (Amazing how that blast of hot air up the inlet manifold makes all the difference) 
After remembering to disconnect the shore line, we cast off mooring ropes and set off.
 The exit from the marina is quite narrow and halfway out I had to brake sharply to let another narrowboat pass, we then followed on down the canal towards the first lock which would be Wood End lock, a distance of about 1.25 miles.
Playing follow-my-leader.

Looking back, how peaceful is that!

Rhododendrons, camera dosn't really capture the colours.


Waiting for G & J to 'turn' the lock in our favour. They're waiting for the boat in front to exit the lock.

This stretch of canal is so pretty and the woodland so lush and green at this time of the year.
Arriving at Wood End lock we had to wait for the guy in front to go down first, then after making sure there wasn't a boat waiting to come up, Then G & J turned the lock in our favour.
(for the benefit of people who aren't familiar with the routine I'll explain. If you are familiar, feel free to fast forward).
The boat in front of us went into the full lock on our level. When he emptied the lock he dropped to the level of the canal the other side of the lock (called going 'down hill'). When he exited the lock, he closed the paddles and gates to keep the water in the lock so G & J could open the paddles on our level to refill the lock, so I could take Bracken into the lock. We then opened the paddles on the downhill side to empty the lock, so me and Bracken descended to the level of the next stretch of canal. (incidentally the stretch of canal between locks is known as a 'Pound')
 Then we closed the downhill paddles and gates and continued on our way.

That was Wood End lock, a very pretty  area and situated quite close to some extensive woodland.

A rare photo of the skipper, and Jaq looking as lovely as ever :)

We passed through two more locks on our way down to Fradley, no pics I'm afraid as it was getting quite busy with other boats coming up the locks and others just moored up not going anywhere. Some had moored quite close to the locks so it wasn't always easy to know who was waiting to go down the locks, and who was moored for the afternoon.
The closer we got to Fradley, the busier it became. At one point it was more like the M25 motorway but eventually we arrived at the junction. 
Tom, who runs the dry-dock  had told me to moor right outside the pub and he would come and find me, which he did, and we then moved the boat over to the moorings adjacent to the dry-dock. Thankfully i didn't 'cock up' the mooring as there were hundreds  loads of gongoozalers!


Swan on the left, Coventry canal off to the right immediately in front of me with the entrance to........

........the dry-dock where Bracken is going.

As it was 1pm by then, after mooring we decided to have lunch in the Swan, they have an excellent carvery and reasonably priced too. I asked for a child sized portion as my appetite has not yet got back to normal, but to be honest I couldn't see any difference in size, it was a huge meal and very tasty too.
After lunch we sat outside whilst Graham went back to the boat and emptied the fridge and turned the gas off before being rowed back in a small dingy by Matt, one of the guys from the dry-dock. (quicker than walking round.
"you WILL hold that rope in while I climb out wont you?"

"Oh yes very funny, now pull me back in!"

Before returning to G & J's, we popped down to the garden center at Fradley to say hi to Jenny, and then made our way back home, tired out and after some tv and nibbles we were all in bed before 11pm.









Saturday 7 June 2014

Preparations for drydocking.

Friday 6th June,

Another horrible journey up from Kent, ok until the M1 just after junction 13 where the traffic got slower and slower till eventually everybody came to a standstill. Then the inevitable fire engines and police cars came whizzing up the hard shoulder so everybody switched the engines off, got out and wandered around stretching their legs. After about 45 mins there were signs of movement further up the road, and gradually the traffic got moving again.
About 2 miles further on I passed the scene of the accident. I kept my eyes firmly on the road ahead, (dont want to add to the accident statistics) but i was aware of a substantial amount of wreckage around an articulated lorry that seemed to have had the whole of one side 'peeled' open!
I got into Lichfield around 2.30 in the afternoon so the trip at that point had taken 4 hours, a quick stop at Morrisons to pick up some supplies and grab a bite to eat and then on to Kings Bromley marina.

Isn't it amazing how quickly cobwebs form! The spiders had had a field day with no-one to disturb them and there were loads of webs all over the outside of Bracken!
Gas on, fridge on, supplies stowed away. Windows opened, front doors opened to let the breeze blow through as it was quite stuffy, (Friday was quite a hot day).
I spent the evening at G & Jaqs, and ended up staying the night there too as Bro and I had some shopping to do Saturday.

Saturday 7th June

There was such a noisy storm in the early hours, thunder, lightning and rain!After catching up on a few household chores Graham and I drove over to the boat and discussed the intended jobs. One of the important jobs is to fit a bilge pump. What no bilge pump! I hear you cry?.... No, unfortunately, the previous owner had not thought it necessary to fit one. Anyway i now have the needed items so thats a job to do whilst Bracken is out of the water. (Graham had the unenviable task of baling out several gallons of rainwater a few weeks ago after some pretty heavy downpours!.... Bilge pump needed)!
Another intended job is to hinge the engine hatch cover so it can be raised and lowered more easily.
At present the cover is a large sheet of 4mm steel which measures just less than a square metre, and is therefore quite heavy and awkward to open and close being unattached on all 4 sides. You get some idea in the following picture.

So the plan is to hinge it along the back edge so that when its raised it will then lean against the stern rail under the tiller arm. Well that's the plan anyway.
(the boxes are not yet bolted in place, that's another job).
So off we trotted to the local DIY store to look at hinges and stainless bolts and nuts etc.. etc..

Whilst I'm catching up with this blog here's a couple of pictures of the new fuel filter and water separator assembly, I forgot to include them in the last posting.
Standard filter refill, easy to obtain spares.


The weather wasn't conducive to working outside, rain and more rain so we drove down to Fradley and had a look at where we're bringing the boat to tomorrow for drydocking. 
Whilst at Fradley we popped in to Kingfisher cafe and each had a bowl of beef and veg stew and very nice it was too!
Then, back to Grahams garage/workshop to make some alterations to the hinges and to cut some bolts to length ready for fitting hopefully this week.