We were paid a visit this morning by Malcolm and Christine Richardson (the "Rich" part of "Richlow"), who came to see us in Sheffield Basin.
They gave us a copy of the Richlow Guide to the South Yorkshire Waterways as a thank-you for my letting them use my photo of Doncaster. I was amazed to find that the photo was already in the guide! Now that really is up-to-date. Beat that, Mr. Nicholson!
Here is the inner title page featuring my photo.
We had a good long chat about the (S)SYN and other topics. I'm impressed by Chris's knowledge of the local waterways, and impressed so far with what I've read in the guide. We'll see how easy or otherwise it is to use when under way. One thing I do like about the Nicholson's Guides is the little bits of OS maps which surround the blue line of the waterway. This forces north to be always up, a Good Thing. The Richlow Guide has rotated the segments of waterway to fit the portrait layout of the pages, meaning that "up" could be any direction. There is a very clear compass marking on each page, though. Another minor quibble might be that the scale varies from page to page, although each page states the distance covered, varying from one mile to four miles.
On the positive side there is a wealth of useful information accompanying each segment of waterway, with details Nicholson doesn't give such as locations of showers. I also like Richlow's use of letters rather than symbols for facilities such as Elsan disposal (ED) and rubbish disposal (RD). Nicholson's symbols for those two are easily confused. Despite the lack of Ordnance Survey maps in the vicinity of the waterway, there seems to be enough information for the boater. The maps are certainly uncluttered. One excellent thing I've spotted is that locations of supermarkets are given, with the supermarkets' brands. Opposite each map page is a comprehensive-looking panel of navigational information, below which are descriptions of the general area and nuggets of history/explanations of why things are as they are.
I'm looking forward to using the guide as we cruise to Keadby next week, perhaps then I can write another review.
Back to today, and while running the engine for hot water and charging purposes I thought I'd redress yesterday's lapse and take the boat to the very head of navigation. This involved passing under the Straddle Warehouse ...
... winding by the Grain Warehouse ...
... and returning under the Straddle Warehouse again (different arch this time).
Ah. Now to the title of this post. When selecting an ale from the "cellar" under the well deck I happened to see that there was about two inches of water in there. Oops! Where did that come from? Fortunately all the paint tins/bottles/brushes etc. were on top of a layer of engineering bricks used as ballast, so I don't think there's much damage. I sponged out the rusty water into a washing-up bowl - there must have been a full bowl's worth of water down there. I took the photo after removing most of the water. (And ale.)
The question is, as I have already asked, where did it all come from? I'm reasonably sure it's not canal water. It was dirty, but I think it was the rustiness which made it so. I suspect it's water from the tank, either leaking directly or from the many pipe connections. I wonder if it's anything to do with the filler neck popping up when I filled the tank recently. The tank is lined with a "hovercraft" liner (or so I was told); could water have got between the liner and the steelwork? Could it be this water which has found its way into the beer cellar?
After I'd sponged out the water I couldn't see any obvious spurting of water from the pipework, so all I can do is monitor the situation.
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Andrew and Bekka have returned to Sheffield, and they came for tea on board. Here Andrew is demonstrating his prowess with mini-Jenga.
That's prowess in the tower-building department.
I'm glad they were in and came to see us. Now we have visited each of our two children by boat. Andrew proudly showed us his new car: a Volvo 850R with manual gearbox. Very rare, apparently, and very fast!
2 comments:
John, you may have already checked the main water pump, but if not, that could be the source It happened to us once and the seal between the pump head and the motor had failed (or the diaphragm and the pressure switch, can't remember now) anyway it's a known point of failure and worth checking.
Neil
Neil, strangely, on our boat, the water pump is under our bed at the other end of the boat from the tank. No, this water came/comes from somewhere near the tank itself. (No more seems to be coming in - I becoming more certain that it's to do with the filler coming away from the deck.)
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