Still fixing disasters

A steady old evening at Newark. Luckily for me Joe and Christine take pity on those of a nomadic life style and invited me over to the farm for a meal. One decent meal, regularly, every six months is becoming the norm. Well stuffed by the end of it.

Yet again the world is put to rights and again it is proved that it is not us but the others that are making a mess of everything.

I left Newark fairly early the next morning. A really nice day with the sun out for the trip up to Hazelford.

It is not far to the Town Lock and as this is manned I am soon through and on my way.

My memory of the last trip did not include the amount of water that comes down the Trent and as soon as I was out in the flow the speed of the boat dropped considerably.

I was thinking of calling in at Farndon Marina to pick up some diesel and with the extra power needed to get anywhere it became a must.

It took an age to get there and I pulled into the self-service pump. There is a chandlery shop here so I wandered in to get a connection to attach to the sink outlet. Having found exactly the item I wanted and paid for it I asked about fuel. Sorry not till the delivery tomorrow. Ah well I have enough to get me back. I hope.

I got prepared to leave, cup of tea at the ready, and went astern to pull back out into the Trent. Almost straight away there was a bang and the prop stopped turning. Bugger. It was the shaft coming loose again.

Soon fixed and this time I went into the marina to turn around so that the astern wasn’t so important in the escape onto the Trent.

With the engine going somewhat faster than usual I plodded on up past Fiskerton and after what seemed like a positive age arrived at Hazelford Lock. It had taken me five hours to get here and the majority of those were in travel.

Hazelford Lock is an island with a weir on both sides. Although the book says that there are some facilities here it is a mistake and no sluice as the loo has a soak-away that won’t cope with extra use.

Abigail Jenna looks very small against the massive moorings that are here. These were of a standard that was needed by the commercial traffic.

If you are into blackberry jam then this is the place to stop for a while. All over the island are walks cut through the briars and every one is dripping with berries.

On the right of the lock gate is an old row boat that had been used for many years as the means by which the lock-keepers had got to work before the erection of the footbridge.

My lack of luck holds out

Looking to go out through Torksey lock on Monday morning I spent some time running the checks on the boat. Eventually I came to the engine. Dip the oil, water and gearbox etc. Funny smell. I thought I had fixed the fuel leaks. Mmmm

When the engine was being moved about a pipe from the fuel tank to the lift pump was bent and replaced. Problem was that it was a push fit and had vibrated loose.

Cancel the departure till I had managed to fix it.

Took the item off the engine and cleaned with degreaser. To attempt a fix the only thing I had was some Liquid Metal glue which I wiped around the pipe and replaced into the hole. Gave it half an hour to cure and ran up the engine. No leak. Hoo-bloody-ray. Just call me Jonah.

Look out Trent here I come.

The weather got progressively worse as the trip went on. As time went by there were various alterations in the engine tone from the waves that built up and changed the depth of water on the prop. Even though I was fairly sure that this was what was happening it was heart stopping with the Trent to contend with.

After three and half hours (I didn’t rush) reached Cromwell lock and went happily in and out and on to Newark.

Soon reached Newark Nether Lock and moored. It is a short walk to the controls and set the paddles to empty. As I turned around the water was gushing in at the other end. Some moron hadn’t bothered to close the single paddle that was working up –stream.

A very tight turn from the lock to the canal but was soon on my way after a longer than usual locking up. It is slow work as a singleton.

Just one mooring left on the BW side of the canal which I nabbed. This will do while I have a wander about Newark and maybe do some visiting.

Haven't checked my repair yet. Bob is on the look out for a replacement for me.

On the Move

Getting ready to leave Lincoln I went to the facilities to do some topping up and emptying and found a narrowboat moored up on the mooring set out for the exclusive use of the point. In front of it was a cruiser with the crew trying to use the pump-out. With the wind blowing and little room to manoeuvre I decided to turn with the bows to the facility side. The stern is deeper in the water than the bows but didn’t think this would be a problem. Wrong! As I got the stern to the other bank I found some rock or concrete which clobbered the prop and disengaged the propshaft. Bugger as they say in the trade. I managed to get the boat alongside by getting off the bows with the centre rope and pulling the boat in to the jetty. Luckily for me the prop was intact and only needed reclamping and after an hour or so was usable again. Something else to wonder about as I move.

I left the leaving of Lincoln to another day after checking things out to make sure and moved back to the Waterside mooring.

I am not saying that Lincoln is full of scumbags but from recent experience it does seem to have more than its fair share.

Near the mooring is a carpark with a railing around it. Three drunks came along. This was at about 1700 so either they can’t hold their drink or they started early. Seeing a part of the railing that was not fully secure they took it into their heads to remove it.

I have now moved with some relief to Torksey ready for the tide on Monday and a trip on the Trent.

Only Cormorants

Arrived back at Bardney Lock. There was a lot of wind today so it meant crabbing ones way along. Plenty of divers about with several Cormorants spotted. No Shags on the canal sadly.

The way that the Crested Grebe dive, no more like glides, its way under water is wonderful to watch. It is effortless the way that they just disappear.

Starboard side of the boat is getting the Tim treatment tomorrow.

Back to Bardney

Tim the sign-writer spent a lot of time lying down on the job. I wish I had the skill that he displayed. He works in the Bardney area so if you want your boat livery painted at an extremely good price just drop me a line.

The photo doesn't do the work justice with the light reflecting off the boat sides.

Stopping at Washingborough on the way back I found the owls on the mooring side making any number of crossings to catch meals for their young. Both male and female were out hunting tonight.

A number of successful sorties were made and the catch can be seen hanging in one talon.

That damn cat has been swimming again. The electric point at the mooring didn't accept my card and I was told that the one on the other end was OK. With Dash on board I moved up the pontoon. Later he went for a walk and as luck would have it another green boat moored in the previous mooring. The cat climbed in at the stern and wandered through and out of the front. Here he met the boat owner and he left the boat in a hurry and on the wrong side. Last seen swimming to shore. Found a bit later looking bedraggled and unhappy.

Further to the Lincoln booming sound. Caroline says "That is the source of the noise. When I was once a little girl, I'd ask my mamma, (sorry, broke into a bit of Dorris there) "what is that noise?" Twas my father who let me into the secret as he himself used to work at what was then called Smith, Clayton Forge, which is a little further down stamp end."

The buildings in the pic below show part of the Smith, Clayton Forge.

Just around the corner from there is Stamp End Lock and this is the view you will get as you go under a humped road bridge.

The next morning I was up very early and this was the view from the bow doors.

You don't know what you have till you say goodbye

A chaotic week that was brightened by an quick visit from Abz.

As usual I didn't have time to think and was run ragged by her unlimited energy.

To fill in time we visited the Arboretum in Lincoln. If you are visiting the city then this is a good place to chill out for a while. The cafe at the entrance to the park is very good value and no attempt at all is made to over-charge on drinks and ice cream. A new experience.

In the midst of the park is the maze which needs running around for ages to find the centre.



There is a large Victorian lion that is just too big to be climbed upon.



But on the steps up to the play area there are a couple that make a nice seat.



Don't fall in to what would have been a cooling dip on a rather hot day.



At the top of the Arboretum is the play area. Not a great deal for the eight almost nine year old but it is tiring getting there :-)



A trip afterwards through the lock at Stamp End and down to Washingborough. A quiet mooring that gives access to the Water Rail Way and the blackberry bushes along the route.



While we we here we had a visit from Syd and Heidi. Presents for Abz and Abz took the photo but didn't think Syd was photogenic enough to be recorded.



Heidi took time to make a tiara out of a head band that Abz had been bought.



OK I am off then.


Well maybe not.



Just getting ready for the trip back to Lincoln this afternoon. Abz took the opportunity to take loads of photos of me moving the boat.



We found a natural play area with what was named the Climbing Tree'



A lot of time was taken up with recording the winning of a race by Barbie with the race and presentation of the trophy recorded for posterity



And the end of the day gives visions of Lincoln that can't be beaten.

Where did that week go to?

What with one thing and another the past week or so has been hectic.

A visit from Mal and the run ashore certainly made a change. There were trips out to Pyewipe, a mini-pub crawl and afterwards I had a trip down to Bardney to see a sign-writer who is going to do the name on the boat properly.

During the stay at Bardney took the opportunity to get a better look at the statue that I had watched being working on months ago. It really is very good. The next one I must get to is the sheep. These are further south and made by the same person that did the cows.

On the walk to the statue it was impossible to miss the large number of dragonflies. These where anything up to 100mm long it seemed. We couldn’t get a decent picture of them as they would not land to order. The Red Damselfly was much more accommodating for me.

A very nice day was spent on Sunday with a trip to Pyewipe with Brian, Elaine, Sarah and Tracey. A straight forward chill-out session was had by all and the beer was rather good too. On the way back bumped into an apple tree and filled the fruit bowl up.

There was bit of excitement at the mooring the other day. I spotted the Air Ambulance circling and heading to where I had heard ambulance and police at Lindum Hill. There was no place to land so he landed in the car park right in front of me. Certainly gave the car park a good clean. One or two cars might have been pebble-dashed during the landing.

If that wasn't enough I was only just getting over the excitment watching the Morris Dancers at the Brayford Pool