Balance beam repair

I was slightly concerned last night that our choice of mooring perhaps wasn't the best, as a satellite image showed we were right next to Aldi's distribution centre in Atherstone. In the event it was absolutely fine.

At Atherstone Bottom Lock the towpath side bottom balance beam had been repaired with angle iron and bolts.

As we travelled vaguely west towards Fazeley I was aware that I had seen no trains at all on the line which runs approximately parallel to the canal. At the railway bridge (50B) I realised why. There were workers on the line.

We got to Fazeley Mill Marina at 1655 hoping to be able to get diesel and gas, expecting it to be open until 1800 as per the website, but were told that it shuts at 5. We are now outside ready to get topped up in the morning.

Something vulgar in Nuneaton?

After yesterday's excitement all we did today was about four hours of boating, including seven locks, and visiting Aldi and the Co-op in Atherstone. On the way I managed to get a photo of a curious fingerpost sign in a canalside garden.

Yes, Fradley is in the direction indicated, but "Vulgaria"? Is a Nuneaton resident having a swipe at Bedworth? or Coventry? (see below)

After tea I made a second foray to Aldi on my own, and got caught in a thunderstorm on the way back to the boat. We had tied up below Lock 7 so I had plenty of time to get pretty wet.

I've just looked up Vulgaria. It seems to be a Hong Kong comedy film from a couple of decades ago. The sign is still a mystery to me.

Replacing gearbox control cable after it broke (and suffering another breakdown)

At Brinklow CRT is getting round the landslip problem by literally getting round it. A temporary floating walkway has been constructed over the edge of the canal bypassing a not that huge pile of rock and earth on the towpath.

Everything was going swimmingly for us until Sutton Stop. As we entered the stop lock I suddenly found that I could not disengage astern gear. All I could do was kill the engine. We descended the lock and I pulled the boat out onto the lock landing on the right, where we would be out of the way. The Morse control lever felt most peculiar; it didn't take long for me to diagnose a broken cable. The photo below shows a short length of inner cable (running bottom left to centre), still connected to the gearbox lever on the left, and the outer cable (on the right) now hanging free.

Within three miles of where we were now stranded live two sets of friends. The first were on holiday in Suffolk. The second had gone to Baddesley Clinton, fortunately not by boat. Stephen drove back while we had lunch, then took me to Springwood Haven where I bought a replacement cable (having removed the old one and measured its length). Back at the boat I fitted the cable. It was two inches shorter than the original, but there was plenty of slack so that was not a problem.

I had not done this before, so I discovered that what holds the outer in position at each end is a toroidal channel in the metal part next to the black plastic sheathed flexible part. This channel at the gearbox end is held by a brass clip secured by two bolts, lock washers and nuts. The clip has a protruding ridge which engages in the channel. At the Morse control end the channel is held in position by a small brass U-shaped pin. The protruding parts of the U are of unequal lengths. This pin goes through holes in the hard plastic "socket"; the longer part of the pin is bent over to stop it falling out.

The photo below shows the back of the Morse control; the two thick black cables are the throttle (going into the red housing) and the gearbox (black). The U-pins are inserted from the left in both cases; I have already removed the gearbox cable one.

At the gearbox end the inner cable screws into a brass piece which pokes through a hole in the lever and is prevented from falling out by a split pin. The photo shows me inserting this split pin.

Here is the gearbox end of the cable all fitted. The brass clip with its détente can be seen to the left.

I am very grateful to Stephen for his advice, especially on measuring the distance the inner extends from the outer at each end on the old cable, and making sure the new cable's measurements are the same. I did this and found everything worked perfectly when I started up again.

Interestingly - and could this be the cause of the failure? - the cable shows it has partially melted where it ran against the (fibreglass bandaged) exhaust. The new cable presses against the exhaust in the same way and cannot be rerouted as it is close to the gearbox clamp. I need to insert a thin piece of something heat resistant to protect it. Ideas, anyone?

We thought that was the end of the excitement for the day but, just an hour later, the engine began losing power. Yes, we had run out of diesel! We always have a full jerry can on board so in went 20 litres to get us out of trouble. We had stopped by a long stretch of piling just south of Marston Junction. Very handy again.

Before this emergency top-up (and I know, the jerry can is now empty) I sucked out a lot of crud and water from the bottom of the tank. It separates from the diesel immediately in the jam jars I put it in; I'll provide a photo later.

How does he steer like that?

Shortly before we set off from Bedworth this morning fuel boat Callisto came past. (No, the title of this post does not refer to the steerer of Callisto.)

That brief excitement over, we had an uneventful passage to Hawkesbury Junction and onto the Oxford Canal, stopping beyond Bridge 19 for lunch having joined the mini-BCF convoy of nbs Grace and Chyandour.

I always look out for the collection of old cars by Bridge 4. This Volvo P1800 is sadly becoming overgrown. (No steerer there.)

After a socially distanced lunch on each of our individual boats we set off in convoy once more (Stephen having seemingly abandoned the helm (yes, there's the reference)) ...

… to stop again at All Oaks Wood for (socially distanced) cups of tea on the towpath. That is to say, Jan and I sat on the towpath while Stephen and Gwyneth sat in their well deck and Terry and Chris occupied their rear deck.

They were staying there for the night, whereas we wanted to get to Brownsover for a Tesco shop and so I can get a paper in the morning. There was plenty of space on the towpath side; the offside moorings were all taken. We're handy for reversing across the cut to the water point in the morning - or we could stop below Hillmorton Locks (or are the water points there the slow ones? Could just wait until Braunston …)

Scissor Sisters do their thing in Atherstone

I thought it wasn't meant to rain much today. OK, it wasn't heavy, but it was persistent. We went up Atherstone Locks with the help of our friend Stephen, who had driven over from Coventry for the fun of doing some locks. Thanks Stephen, it made a big difference. We stopped for water at the top and gave our friend coffee, then we moored at the first available space. We now had some hours to kill before Jan's appointment with a hair dresser in Atherstone at 4 pm.

Moving on, we passed this interestingly painted boat: Wobbly Limited.

Presumably it refers to something in popular culture which has missed us.

We ate tea in shifts on the move, and tied up to Terry and Chris's boat Grace in Bedworth. We joined them for drinks and chat in their conservatory. Tomorrow the plan is to go with them in a loose convoy up the North Oxford, picking up Stephen and Gwyneth on Chyandour from the Wyken Arm on the way.

Side hatch rain protector

It's been a long, long time - but we are, at last, under way on board Jubilee again. And I'm doing another blog post. I should have blogged during lockdown, I suppose - after all, I had enough time - but, as with doing my tax return, I managed to keep putting it off. Now the rules are being relaxed and we are allowed to stay overnight on our boat, so here we are. In Polesworth, as it happens.

We set off from our mooring in Fazeley at about midday when it wasn't really raining. Our first lock for ten months (!) was Glascote Bottom Lock.

Locks! Hooray!

As we steered along the Coventry Canal we passed a boat with an interesting rain hood for the side hatch.

Not much good in windy weather, I imagine, but just right for today's still but drizzly conditions.

At 5 o'clock, with the rain getting heavier, we decided to stop. We should be able to do the Atherstone flight tomorrow in the dry, if the forecast is accurate. For tea we had the remains of yesterday's curry which we enjoyed with Andrew at an Indian restaurant in Sheffield, the first meal out for a long time.

We had come to the boat on Monday, driving up to Sheffield the next day. Only a couple of hours after getting to the boat nb Harnser came past with Brian and Diana on board. They were going to be heading our way, towards Coventry, but had detoured up the Birmingham and Fazeley to allow a stream of boats to clear Glascote and Atherstone Locks.

Jan will be having a long-waited for hair cut in Atherstone tomorrow afternoon, then we shall crack on to Bedworth. We are on our way to Debdale Wharf for blacking, something which should have happened in March or April.

It's good to be back.

What's unusual about Atherstone Lock 5?

After breakfast we moved up four more locks to tie up below Lock 5, the most convenient mooring for Atherstone town centre. Jan had her hair cut at Scissor Sisters while I had coffee on board, then we did a bit of top-up shopping in Aldi. Back at the boat we had lunch and saw Chris and Di of Ultreya who had tied up behind us. Then we set off up the remaining five locks of the flight.

The entry to Lock 5 is under Watling Street.

Now, look at this photo. Nothing about the lock is obviously strange ... or is it? We are so used to perspective - where things closer to us seem bigger than things further away - that it doesn't seem odd that the nearer balance beam seems longer than the other one.

But it really is much longer than the further one. If I had taken a photo from the other side (why didn't I?) it might have looked very strange. The short balance beam is the length it is so as to accommodate the skew road bridge. Next time I'll try to remember to photograph it from the other side.

Here's a "towpath alpaca" at Harvey's.

We tied up for the night at Sutton Stop, having ascended the stop lock onto the Oxford Canal.

Oil change overdue

After some four weeks at home we're now back on board Jubilee. On our way to the boat we stayed overnight in Cranfield so we could see Ally, Ben, Josiah and Micah; then drove up an empty A5 yesterday afternoon to Fazeley. Some basic mental arithmetic led me to realise that an engine oil change was a few hours overdue, so I checked I had a new filter and enough oil, and took the boat to Fazeley Mill Marina to empty the Elsan. We stopped opposite our mooring and I did the servicing, during the course of which I discovered that I have somehow accumulated at least four 5 litre cans of old oil.

I change the oil every 250 hours (Isuzu 38hp) - I hope this is often enough.

David took a break from sanding down the cabin side of Kew to wave us off.

We hadn't gone far along the Coventry Canal when we saw Chris and Di on Ultreya. We suggested stopping but they said they were just about to go, so we helped each other up the two Glascote locks. The other side of Amington they were catching us up, but I didn't see them after Alvecote.

We stopped just above Atherstone Lock 10 so I could watch the F1 Grand Prix highlights. I put the aerial up and switched on the TV to check I had a good signal - and found the formation lap under way. I had got the time of the programme wrong; fortunately I had missed nothing of the race proper.

When it was over we went for a short walk as the sun was setting.

Jubilee above Atherstone Lock 10

Spider in the shadows

I can't resist taking photos of backlit bulrushes. These were about an hour after we set off from Atherstone Top.

Arachnophobe alert! (next photo)

We stopped at Nuneaton for Lidl. We spent rather more than we had intended, but came away with a pair of safety shoes for me and a pair of headphones for Jan. The shoes are comfortable and seem reasonably heavy duty; the headphones are very light and sound good.

We enjoyed almost continuous sunshine today, the first day of spring according to some. As we continued past Bedworth I noticed the shadow of a large spider on the cabin slide.

Then I realised it was actually cast by the knot in the string holding the can to the aerial.

Sutton Stop was quiet as we entered the Oxford Canal.

The Volvo P1800 is still by Bridge 4 ...

... and is still gently rusting away. Such a sad waste of a lovely car.

A plan was hatched during the day for a meal at the Lime Kilns pub in Hinckley (where the A5 crosses the Ashby Canal. We could have gone by boat but wanted to be in Braunston in good time for the BCF spring conference this weekend, so we were picked up from Ansty by Stephen and Gwyneth.

A guinea fowl was patrolling the car park, but seemed more interested in the car than us.

There were nine of us for the meal: Andy, Sue, Jan, Christine, Terry, Gwyneth, Stephen, Morgan (Andy and Sue's niece) and myself behind the lens.

Tomorrow we carry on up the Oxford Canal towards Braunston.

First boating of 2019 and replacing an iPhone battery

Yes, after a break of many months we are back on board Jubilee. Hooray! We drove to Fazeley yesterday, emptied the Volvo into the boat and prepared for a three week trip. I managed to remember all the things I'd switched off or closed, so I opened the gate valve from the domestic water tank, opened the diesel valve, switched on the gas, closed the water taps and switched on the water pump. Pleasingly, everything seemed to come back to life in the manner intended. The engine fired up first go too.

This morning we reversed to Fazeley Junction and set off for Glascote. David L came with us to help us through the locks before cycling to Tamworth Market.

Half an hour later (Amington?) we passed a house we hadn't seen before.

Bill and Ben seem to have had an update.

A plaque gave details of a royal nurse maid we hadn't heard of: Charlotte Bill "Lala".

We stopped for lunch at Polesworth and had a phone call from David to say that a package had arrived for me. This was the replacement battery for my iPhone which had almost died. I cycled back to Fazeley, brought it back to the boat and immediately got to work.

I was only just in time. The phone was being forced apart by the old battery, which was expanding as it died. I wasn't in time to stop the case splitting.

I hadn't started opening it in these two photos: this is the phone gently exploding all by itself.

The replacement battery came with the tools for undoing four tiny screws. The first two were of the "pentalobe" type with, as the name suggests, five lobes, which your common or garden pozidrive wouldn't come anywhere near.

Those screws were small, but the two I had to unscrew next were the most microscopic I had encountered. The divisions on my tape measure are millimetres. I hadn't known the tape measure was magnetic! The head is not much more than 1mm across; the length was about 1mm.

Here are the old and new batteries together. The side view shows how the dead battery is expanding.

I am very pleased to report that I managed to get it all back together again and, so far, it seems to be working. Thanks eBay. All for less than a fiver including tools and delivery.

Back to the boating. We thought about stopping half way up the Atherstone flight but decided to crack on and finish the locks.

It's good to be on board again - tomorrow we're aiming for Stretton Stop on the Oxford Canal. Braunston by Thursday, ready for the Boaters' Christian Fellowship Spring Conference on Saturday.

Overspill weirs on the Coventry Canal

We lit our stove today as we did mostly sedentary jobs this morning. It was good to get the lovely warmth - and occasional smoky smell - from the dry logs we've been carrying around all summer. It was also very good not to have to go anywhere in the rain! This afternoon Jan walked and I cycled to Tamworth for a little light shopping (no, we didn't buy any little lights) and stayed dry. Now (10pm) it's pouring with rain again (on the day, naturally, when CRT announced the closure of the Caldon Canal at Hazelhurst Locks to save water on the T&M).

Cycling along the Coventry Canal towpath the other day I photographed a couple of overspill weirs.

They didn't have much to do ...

… but the rain will be making a difference. The River Tame in Tamworth was up today; it'll be even higher soon.

The effects of wind

The main story today has been the wind. Trees were shedding leaves, twigs and bigger stuff. Mostly they were demonstrating their resilience by bending and not breaking.

Corrugated metal sheets were lifting off the roof of a farm building, banging and clattering as they fell back.

The flag at the Samuel Barlow, Alvecote, hung on by a thread.

The water in the marina looked distinctly choppy.

Even my coffee had waves.

And our BCF burgee flew like it has not flown before.

But I'm jumping ahead. Before we set off I helped Graham on Dawn Run (and another single-hander ahead of him) up the locks as far as Lock 5.

When we got going the wind certainly made it interesting. There was a certain amount of debris - mainly leaves - being driven into our faces, and my hat struggled to stay on my head despite the string round my chin. Some parts were sheltered, giving a respite, but the wind really made its presence felt in open spaces. Passing Alvecote Marina was where we received the most buffeting. At one point I saw a mass of leaves fall into the water ahead of me; when I got to it I saw that they were attached to a branch several feet long and 1.5 inches diameter. My hat wouldn't have provided much protection.

The crew of one boat we passed were concentrating so hard on steering that my "Good morning" was totally ignored. I could hardly have been closer to them when I said it, loudly. Any more of this and I'm in danger of getting a complex.

At Glascote we watered up and descended the two locks, the lower one being our last lock (probably) of 2018 (boo hoo!)

Despite a short but heavy rain shower the sun shone again as we tied up at Fazeley. We are here a few days early for the BCF gathering this weekend. Jan, as Chair, will spend the time preparing for the event and for the committee meeting on Friday.