British Grand Prix, Silverstone

I mentioned in my last blog post that I'd been to Silverstone, so here are a few of the photos I took. Normal boating service will be resumed shortly.

The weather for the whole weekend was sunny and hot, just like it was the last time I came three years ago.  Friday evening saw the qualifying sessions for Saturday's "sprint qualifying".  Yes, qualifying for qualifying.  Lewis Hamilton emerged the fastest, with Max Verstappen second and Valteri Bottas third.
 

On the Saturday there was plenty of track action. I think this is a "Masters GT Challenge".

Back with Formula 1, whenever the British drivers Hamilton (of course), Lando Norris ...

... and George Russell came past the stands they were greeted with cheers and applause.

Verstappen won the sprint qualifying - a half-hour race with no scheduled pitstops - which gave him pole postion for the grand prix proper on the Sunday.

Before the race on Sunday Russell and Norris clearly enjoyed the fans' adulation.

For the race itself I was not in the best position as far as seeing action was concerned. There is only one of my photos half worth showing: Hamilton doing a victory lap with a borrowed Union flag after his controversial win (having taken off Verstappen with a collision in the first lap).

That's it from Silverstone until the next time. Meanwhile we are currently outside the closed Anchor pub at High Offley on the Shroppie.

Why did I photograph this boat?

We left Water Eaton on 21st June, moving the boat north to Downhead Park. Ally picked us up to take us to Cranfield, where we borrowed Ben's car and drove home for gardening etc. We were back on the boat on 24th June; we moved on to Giffard Park on 26th. Ally, Josiah and Micah came with us to the pub there, where we waited a very long time for the food to arrive. Not good.

For some reason I took a photo of this boat.  Too long ago for me to remember why,

By Sunday 4th July we had moved to our favourite spot just north of The Galleon in Old Wolverton. Over the next few days we did a lot more driving: to Essex, to Bedfordshire, to Norfolk, to Essex again and back to the boat on the Bucks/Northants border.

On Thursday 15th July we moved further north, to Grafton Regis.  This is so I could cycle to Silverstone for the Grand Prix weekend, as I did three years ago.  Photos to follow.  For now, though, a quick update on our current location:  Fradley, just above Shadehouse Lock on the T&M.

Using Waterway Routes to find abandoned canals

We found the Waterway Routes mapping system invaluable on the rivers in East Anglia recently; I was interested to see how useful they might be on the canals. I was expecting them to be not useful at all, given that we always use Nicholson guides and CanalPlan. But … guess what? Waterway Routes turns out to give a lot of extra detail compared with Nicholson, a case in point being lines of abandoned canals.

Coming along the North Oxford the other day I was able to spot - thanks to Waterway Routes - evidence of the former line of the canal in fields alongside the current course of the canal. It's a bit difficult to see in this photo, but there's a slight dip and change in the field pattern from the centre by the water off to the right.

It's easier to see in this next photo: the original canal ran alongside the trees - the cows are standing on the greener grass marking the route.

Another feature of the maps I have found useful here on the Ashby Canal is the clear marking of moorings. The "M" symbol indicates either piling or rings/bollards; handy when much of the rest of the bank seems to be reedy or overgrown. Oh, and when a water point is marked on Waterway Routes you can be sure that that is exactly where it is and that it will work. Mind you, it doesn't tell you how good the pressure is (perhaps a future refinement?)

Here's a screenshot of part of the Waterway Routes map for where we are in Hinckley. The top two M symbols in hexagons are actually on the same length of piling, but there are "No Mooring" signs at the bend, thus cutting the mooring space into two, as shown. The numbers in the long purple box give distance in km and miles, the number of locks, the number of moveable bridges and the time taken to travel from the beginning of the Ashby Canal at Marston Junction. So I know that it will take approximately two hours to get to the junction tomorrow.

I would have to say, though, that Nicholson (or Pearson) does give a lot of interesting background information on the area you might be travelling through, and it does tell you where pubs might be. Yes, many of the pubs listed in Nicholson have now closed, but for regular boaters they are a useful reminder of known hostelries. We will continue to use Nicholson but I have found we tend to keep the Memory-Map version of Waterway Routes within sight while travelling. The duration markers where you can judge the time it will take to navigate between two points are possibly slightly pessimistic, but it's better to be a little ahead of time than behind. We're only talking a few minutes in a journey of five hours, so not bad at all.

I haven't said anything about what we've done today: we joined Andy and Sue at their Hope Community Church in Hinckley this morning, then I cycled back to the boat to watch the Grand Prix. When that had finished we winded and went to Nutt's Bridge visitor moorings. We then walked into the town and met Andy and Sue again for a meal in Wetherspoon's. Back on the boat Jan and Sue practiced a couple of songs ready for next weekend while I rooted out an old dongle for Andy.

Here's one more photo (from Friday). A poor old Volvo P1800 has been in a garden with several other vehicles by Bridge 4 on the North Oxford for many years, getting more and more overgrown. As an old Volvo owner myself (in both senses) this hurts me!

A milestone reached

Yes, almost literally. But first to today's cruising.

At Minworth Locks there was work going on to improve the towpath for cyclists. As one who often uses towpaths for this very purpose I have to say that a wide metalled surface makes a huge difference. In all the car shuffling I've been doing this year I have so far cycled from Fazeley to Gayton Junction via Birmingham, Stratford-on-Avon, Tewkesbury, Droitwich, Birmingham again and Leamington Spa. All the cycling has, of course, been done in shortish stages and in the opposite direction to the boat.

I should have taken a photo of the finished path. It looks rather clinical freshly blacked (you'll have to take my word for it). More like a footpath in a brand new housing estate than a towpath, but it'll soon acquire a used look, I'm sure.

Speaking of which, just before Minworth Top Lock was a new housing estate. The building on the right is what's left of the Cincinnati Building. Just discernible on the faded huge sign are the letters (N)CI(N). It looks as though a new wall has been built where the building has been cut in two.

After a wet start the weather improved, with plenty of sunshine. It was a bit breezy, though. Here Jan is looking after Jubilee through one of the Curdworth locks.

Now to the "milestone". No, it's not my birthday. The Volvo 240 reached 200,000 miles on the clock as I was driving between Tyburn and Fazeley.

This is a mile later, where the numbers have more or less settled down.

We bought the car 20 years ago at 65,000 miles, so we've done an average of 6,750 miles per year. I do far fewer in the Amazon, something like 1,000 miles per year.

I suppose the next boat "milestone" will be 5,000 hours on the engine hours counter. Tomorrow we will put a few more on as we travel from Fazeley to Alrewas.

Big load? The Volvo isn't floored

We picked up the ingredients for flooring the lean-to conservatory in a house in Birmingham today. These included four sheets of 8' x 4' plywood (or their metric equivalent), all of which - fortunately - needed cutting down slightly. I had measured the boot of the 240 and ascertained that they would fit, albeit at an angle.

It was a tighter squeeze than I'd thought but, after we'd moved the front seats and tilted the backs forward, and with a bit of juggling, everything fitted. That's two sheets of 1.99m and two of 1.77m length, by 1.22m wide (and 18mm thick). There are six packs of laminate flooring in there too.

Getting it out at the other end was, somehow, harder work. Now all I have to do is make it all fit in the house. (I've not attempted this sort of thing before.)

After the heat wave of last week, some boats near us have had their stoves going. Not us.

Oh, back to the Volvo: when I started it up today the ignition warning lamp stayed on. The alternator belts were still in place. I switched off and on again, this time the lamp went out. Coming away from the builders' yard the same thing happened. I think that, after 199,000 miles, the alternator may be giving up. Come on, car, just another thousand miles! You can do it!

Inner tube retired

I did a spot of bicycle maintenance today. My folding bike had a flat tyre. When I removed the inner tube to locate the puncture I decided that it was time to retire it. Excuse the pun.

There were already 13 patches on this tube! And the latest thorn had pierced one of those patches.

The bike is now up and running again with a brand new inner tube in the rear wheel. Must buy a new spare now.

I cycled to pick up the Volvo 240 which had had a bit of work done to get it through the MOT. It cost more this time than probably all the previous 20 times put together. Still cheaper than a new car, though. And I'm hoping that it will last a while longer, although I'm now looking out for a 940 unless a good 240 comes along.

20 mile round trip (by cycle) to get bilge pump

On a recent trip home to mow the grass etc. I discovered that the car's radiator had sprung a leak. Not a catastrophic, empty-out-all-the-coolant-in-one-go leak, but a leak big enough to drain the reservoir overnight and for the engine to run at slightly higher than normal temperature.

Fortunately the car is a Volvo 240 and everything is easily accessible. Three Jubilee clips for the hoses (and one small pull-off hose); two bolts and two screws. Unfortunately all my tools were on the boat. Fortunately that is not quite true. I found a couple of screwdrivers and a socket set. I located a replacement radiator in Ipswich at Brookhouse Volvo and I wanted to be sure that all bolts etc. would come undone. At home, therefore, I undid and retightened everything except the two screws holding the plastic cowl to the radiator.

With assistance from a friend I hacksawed and chiselled the screws off, and found replacements. In Ipswich all went swimmingly (as the old coolant poured out ...) and the new rad dropped in a treat. Only problem: one of the securing bolts sheared off as I turned it. (I'd loosened it but not enough.)

At Writtle Jan's dad helped me drill out the bolt and provided another bolt to help secure the rad. This bolt was smaller than the original as, having drilled through the damaged bolt I couldn't remove the remnants from the captive nut into which it had been, er, bolted. We couldn't find a suitable nut for this new bolt, but at my parents' in Shenfield my dad provided a nut and bolt which did the trick.

We got back to the boat at 1500; Jan went to the post office in Rugeley to see if our postal votes had arrived while I cycled to the Penkridge branch of Midland Chandlers for a bilge pump. I had more success than Jan. Our postal votes STILL haven't arrived, despite having been forwarded a week ago.

My cycle ride was mostly enjoyable. After losing my way a little trying to find Penkridge Bank, a road leading through Cannock Chase, I got back on track and began the steady climb through the forest. Having reached the summit at last I relished the downhill run - until encountering a large amount of surface water on the road. This was nothing compared with the return leg; a sudden downpour led to the A513 being more like a river in places. I got wet.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I chose a different route after picking up the bilge pump. This took me through the village of Brocton. If you're ever in the area the village shop is worth a detour. At the time, having already cycled about 14 miles, I was pretty hungry. The sign outside the shop advertised hot sandwiches - I screeched to a halt. Unfortunately the "chef" had clocked off and there were no hot sandwiches. But the coffee machine (£1 a cup) was tempting so I grabbed a £2 chocolate cake and asked for a coffee. Another but: the coffee machine was on a timer (why?) and had no power. Neither had the microwave oven. No problem, said the friendly shopkeeper man. He went round the back, boiled up a kettle and provided me with the best cup of instant coffee I've had for a long time. While talking to him as I drank the coffee I found out that he remembered the days of horse-drawn boats with their cargoes of coal from the Cannock pits, and talked about the canals of his youth which are now housing estates.

Suitably refreshed I set off from Brocton for Rugeley via the aforementioned A513. Before reaching the main road the heavens opened. I was able to shelter from the heaviest of the rain under several large trees (it's all right, there was no lightning about). Rain water flowed down my side of the road, as I have said. Somehow I avoided getting drenched by passing traffic, but my feet still got soaked. My route took me past the Shugborough estate - it was slightly weird seeing it from a non-canal perspective.

I have waffled on long enough. Tomorrow, if I can dodge the showers, I ought to fit the new bilge pump. I went for another 750 gallons per hour machine, the same as the old one. And I hope our votes will have arrived at the post office.

Back on Jubilee after a week away

Last Friday Ally picked us up from Fenny Compton Wharf and took us back to Thrupp Wharf Marina so we could collect our car. Ally and Ben had a job for me and the Volvo - clearing their garage. It took three trips to the tip at New Bradwell to remove loads of scrap timber, unwanted plastic flowerpots, old carpet etc.

On Sunday, after going to church with Ally, Ben and Josiah, we went home to Norfolk to mow the lawn, trim the hedges and do other general gardening stuff. This was in the lovely warm and sunny weather; on the Tuesday it rained. Fortunately we'd just about finished what we'd planned to do. On Wednesday we drove to Essex to visit both sets of parents, then came up the M1 to MK again.

The next day we did a lot more M1, driving to Sheffield to visit Andrew (Becky was at work; we did see her briefly before we left). We had lunch at Endcliffe Park Café ...

... then walked along Porter Brook to Forge Dam and back. It was another warm and sunny day, perfect for our walk. On the way we saw the eighteenth century Shepherd Wheel, a water-powered grinding workshop. It wasn't actually open, but we could see part of the water wheel and an interesting set of steps made from millstones.

We did some more light gardening at Andrew and Becky's house - weeding the patio.

The roadworks on the M1 didn't hold us up as much on the way back as they had going, and we were back at Wolverton at 2000.

Ally brought us back to the boat this afternoon, and we have just had a good meal at the Wharf Inn with Peter and Fran of Sonflower. They drove up from Banbury for the occasion. A number of boats at the moorings have their stoves going as there is a chilly wind. Being hardy types we're holding out for now.

And tomorrow we can resume our trip south along the Oxford Canal. We might first just treat ourselves to a little lie-in in the morning.

Happy Birthday, Ma'am; alternator good, list bad

In honour of HM The Queen's 90th birthday today I put out the bunting on Jubilee.

Jan took this one

The bunting's a bit pathetic, really, but we made the effort. It's hardly noticeable from the back as we make our way to Market Harborough again, this time with Ally and Josiah on board.

What is it with this part of Leicestershire and interesting old cars? Walking back to the boat after shopping in Market Harborough this afternoon we came upon this lovely Riley sports car.

It was parked on its own on an unloved expanse of tarmac and concrete between a tool hire place and a bodywork shop.

On the way back to Foxton to drop Ally and Josiah back at their car - they'd come to visit for the day - I spotted this bird of prey above the really smelly factory (animal products?).

Considering I was steering and there was a bend coming up I was pleased to get this shot. I think the forked tail identifies it as a red kite. Not that you can see any colour in my silhouette photo.

Just before our visitors left I took this photo of proud Granny holding a contented Josiah.

Alternator update: Part of the reason for our there-and-back-in-a-day trip to Market Harborough was to give the reconfigured charging system a good run. I am very pleased to report that it all seems to work just fine. My ammeter hit the end stop (but only just) when I started the engine this morning, meaning that at least 110A were going into the domestic batteries. They won't know what's hit them! The charge rate quickly dropped to about 80A, then reduced, eventually to 10A, as the batteries charged. As another good sign that things were working as they should, when we put the electric toaster on (800W) with the engine on tickover (boat tied up), the engine note dropped and the current went up to 80A. Pretty much exactly what one would expect.

Listing update: Jubilee had developed a list to port when we had the water pump issue. I thought the list had gone when we pumped out the water from the cabin bilge, but now it seems to have returned. There appears to be slightly more water visible through the inspection hatch, but the water pump and surroundings are dry. Perhaps I merely need to reballast the boat to take account of the to bikes which are now on the port side. (But we're carrying about the same weight as in previous years, on the same side, and had no listing problems then. A mystery.)

No wonder our batteries never charged properly! and encountering a 108 year-old car

Before Jubilee was lifted back into the water this morning I managed to do all the black touching up of the gunnels (the vertical bit above the rubbing strake). I had hoped to repaint the red tunnel band but when I opened the tin - which came with the boat) I found that it had gone off. I need some International Fire Red.

I had mentioned to the boatyard that I had some charging problems, telling them about the Sterling AB12210 alternator to battery charger which I didn't think was working. So Jim came and had a look and went to consult Steve, the boss. Steve reckoned that the Sterling device was not designed to be able to combine the outputs of the engine and domestic alternators, which is what I was led to believe was supposed to happen. I have been convinced for some time that the device wasn't working anyway, so I requested that it be taken out of the loop altogether and that the engine alternator charge solely the starter battery and the domestic alternator charge the domestic batteries. This was a job which I could and should have done myself, but having had the "experts" in I let them get on with it - with my assistance. It was a fairly straightforward matter to configure the engine/starter side of things, but the domestic alternator proved trickier.

As well as having no faith in the Sterling ABC, I was not convinced that the (new) domestic alternator was working either. This was confirmed when we finished the wiring and started up. No output at all from the alternator. The alternator was fitted in January but had had only a couple of weeks' use since then. It had been wired up using the existing external Transpo regulator. We decided to dispense with this and rely purely on the alternator's own internal regulator, assuming that it hadn't been damaged by either the Sterling or the Transpo. After getting advice from the supplier of the alternator as to how it should be connected, we wired it up and it worked. I was very pleased to see my ammeter registering over 100A at one point! It had never shown any more than 40A before - current which I believe was being supplied by the engine alternator. There was one small issue: with the + terminal connected directly to the B+ terminal the alternator made a high-pitched whining noise at rest, i.e. when the engine was completely switched off. To solve this I connected a red lead coming from the control panel, which had gone to the Transpo regulator but was now apparently redundant, to the + terminal in place of the direct connection from the batteries. This seemed to do the trick.

With the cabin bilge water vacuumed out (and the bill paid!) we were now free to go. I'm really hoping now that our domestic batteries will get properly charged up while we're cruising - and that the 14.7V from the alternator won't overcook the sealed lead-acids. A project for the future: concoct a circuit which will detect overvolts and reduce the alternator output accordingly.

To celebrate all this we cruised to Foxton Junction, tied up and walked through a field of cows to the Bell Inn at Gumley where we participated in their steak night.

Here's Jubilee reflecting the sun at the junction.

At the pub we were astounded and delighted to see an amazing 1908 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost in fantastic condition.

It was certainly the weather to have the top down, having been wall-to-wall sunshine. The Sainsbury's bag of shopping in the back struck me as slightly incongruous.

Unfortunately we were ordering our food at the bar when it drove off.

Tomorrow we are expecting a visit from Ally and Josiah; I expect we'll cruise to Market Harborough and back. Then we can get our own shopping (but not in quite so much style as the owner of the car above!)

Two old Rollers in one day? Oh, and two kingfishers.

Yes, I know this is supposed to be a canal blog, but we saw two ancient cars today. One was in Gnosall, where we'd gone for a walk before lunch; the other was canalside in the Shebdon area.

Here's the Gnosall one, just after filling up at the Texaco garage.

Despite the lack of Pegasus the Spirit of Ecstasy (thanks KevinTOO) on the radiator filler cap I believe it's a Rolls Royce as there was an RR symbol was above the grille.

To start the car the driver (chauffeur?) fetched his starting handle and gave the engine the merest hint of a turn before getting back into the car. I don't know how he knew it had started; true to reputation it didn't make a sound.

We stopped at Norbury Junction to have a look round. Some of the boats in the wharf had intriguing markings on their hulls.

I have no idea what they are for. Anyone?

Everyone seems to take a photo of High Bridge with its old telegraph pole on a brick strut, so I'm not going to show you mine. Instead, here is the next bridge, Double Culvert Bridge. This carries a stream as well as a footpath.

I got Jan to drop me off in the bridge hole so I could nip up and take a look.

The stream was dry and overgrown where I could see it before it disappears under concrete covers as it crosses the bridge.

I saw two kingfishers today - the first since leaving Milton Keynes a month ago. One was the usual brilliant flash of electric blue streaking ahead of the boat before disappearing into the bushes.

Jan spotted the other. It was perching on a branch as we went by, just a few feet away. Amazingly it didn't fly off. I fumbled to get my camera out of its case; by the time I could take a photo it was becoming partially hidden.

Still, it's the best shot I've managed to get. Actually, I think it's the only shot.

And the other Roller? This was, incongruously, next to a fairly unkempt mooring among trees on the offside. This one does appear to have Pegasus the Sprit of Ecstasy flying from the filler cap.

Kingfishers and Rolls Royces are evidently not like buses. I'm still waiting for the third of each to come along.

This post was written and published using the free wi-fi of the Wharf Tavern, Goldstone. (Password provided at the bar - no "registering" needed.) Cost: a pint of Atlantic, which I enjoyed.

Repairing a water hose; the Amazon runs well

We were up early in order to drive up the M1 to Eastwood, Notts, for Jan to attend a committee meeting. Before we set off I gave the overdrive relay a few thwacks. This seems to have done the trick as it performed faultlessly the whole journey (more than 70 miles each way). I was a little concerned at the forecast of snow, but we arrived at 1100 having barely even used the wipers.

While the committee meeting was in progress I walked around Eastwood and, at one stage, became a walking snowman. I was glad of my overtrousers, and the coat from Aldi was very good at keeping the heat in and the snow out. My new Clarks waterproof shoes were warm and comfortable.

I bought a hose repair connector from B&Q (£1) and a double male hose connector from a small hardware shop in the town (60p - B&Q wanted £4 for the same thing!). Had I found the hardware shop first I wouldn't have bothered with B&Q, as all I wanted to do was to cut out a badly kinked section of the water hose and join the two ends together. I already had two female ends, so the double male connector was all I needed.

This shows the problem (the insulating tape was put on by the previous owner) ...

... and here are the various connectors. Centre top is the hose repairer; centre bottom is the male double-ender.

In the end, when we got back to Jubilee, I decided to cut out the kink and use the £1 hose repairer. Job done.

The repair is to the shortish length of hose I use if the bow is near the water tap. It saves the hassle of using the hose drum. Also, I don't need to run as much water through to remove the old stale water from the hose. At this time of year I keep it inside the cabin so it's reasonably flexible. At one recent fill up the hose resembled a stretched out Slinky across the towpath.

The drive back to the boat was, again, better than I had expected. No more snow fell, the spray from the traffic wasn't too bad and the 50 mph section for roadworks flowed smoothly. There were two or three slow bits but they soon passed. And the Amazon drove really well, happy to cruise at 60 mph. I think it likes the cold weather: the temperature gauge never moved from just below normal. (In warmer weather it tends to creep up into the hot region - sometimes I have to put the car heater on to dump some heat.) When I filled up in Eastwood I found it had dome 31 mpg. I'm pleased with that.  The car is 46 years old, after all.

Tomorrow is a "rest" day; no doubt I or Jan will find some jobs, though!

November boating; BCF AGM; conveniently running out of gas; and a non-starting Volvo

We've been to the boat again for another few days, using it as a base for visiting Ally and Ben and for driving up to the Boaters' Christian Fellowship AGM in Derbyshire. At Ally and Ben's we did some painting and saw progress on the utility room. Nice floor tiles, Ben, and it's good to see the downstairs loo installation almost complete!

On Saturday we drove up the M1 to J28 and arrived in good time to help with setting up for the highlight of the BCF year: the annual general meeting. After a bring-and-share lunch the business part of the meeting takes place. This doesn't take long and leaves plenty of time for entertainment and a period of worship before packing up before 7pm.

There is usually a sound operator supplied by the church whose facilities we were using, but a slight mix-up meant that he didn't appear for a while. I stepped into the breach and operated the mixer for the business meeting and the entertainment.

100 members attended, about 15% of the total membership, and it was good to meet old friends and make new ones. One couple we encountered for the first time was regular commenter Val Poore's brother and his wife.

On Sunday we took Jubilee out of the marina and went to The Galleon, stopping at the services block at Cosgrove on the way.

Then on Monday we cruised back the way we'd come, overshooting the marina to go to Baxter's to top up with diesel. As I was winding immediately after filling up Jan came to the back to report that the gas had just run out. How convenient! I pulled in again on the boatyard's mooring and got a new gas cylinder.

On our gentle cruise back to Thrupp Wharf Marina the light was good for a couple of photos.

We left on Tuesday morning having drained down the shower and leaving a heater on board which should kick in if it gets too cold. Oh, and I topped up the electricity point.

Unfortunately the car wouldn't start in the marina car park, so I had to enlist the help of a fellow moorer who came with a spare battery. The Volvo 240 has suffered from poor starting in cold damp conditions for a while. This time I managed to flatten the battery (on its last legs) trying to coax it into life. Today I bought a new distributor cap and rotor arm, and ordered a set of HT leads. These should help! I should have ordered a battery as well, but that will wait another day.

Winter scenes on the Grand Union Canal in Northamptonshire

29th December 2013

low sun and frost

trees and bridge

sun, trees and flooded field

****************

After my success with replacing the points on my old Volvo yesterday, on the way back from delivering the slightly less old Volvo for its MOT, the passenger side window suddenly fell down into the door. Oh dear. The wire cable - part of the winding mechanism - must have rusted and broken. I had to replace the one on the driver's side only last year.