January/February

Towards the end of January when the weather wasn’t particularly good, we decided to take a holiday somewhere in the sun, if we could find any. So off we went to Thomson’s and Thomas Cooks to see what we could find. We fancied doing some walking after seeing an advert in the Saturday Telegraph for the island in the Canaries called La Palma. It is one of the quieter islands in the group, quite mountainous by all accounts and recommended for walking by many of the readers. In the brochures and on the Internet, we found a hotel not too far from the airport, which had some good deals for half board accommodation. On a whim, we booked it there and then and bought our euros ready for a departure in only 2 weeks time. We couldn’t wait to get away into some nice warm weather. The flights were very early morning from Manchester so it seemed sensible to stay overnight near the airport, rather than have a middle of the night journey up the M6.

The flights were good, on time, and after 4 hours or so we were in La Palma just after lunch where it was nice and warm (about 70f) although a little hazy and a bit windy. The hotel was excellent and, over the following week, the food was plentiful and of a very good standard.

Walking on the island proved to be quite strenuous and vertiginous. Boots were essential particularly up in the mountains where it was quite cloudy, cool, damp and wet in places. Down near sea level was much warmer with a fairly consistent temperature, mostly around 70f for much of the time. We hired a car for the whole week, which enabled us to reach and see most of the island and its volcanoes.

After a week it was time to come back to England in early February to horribly cold and icy weather. In fact when we picked up the car at Manchester Airport, it was covered in ice and snow and we had a miserable journey back home to Burton upon Trent.

(PS Unfortunately and because of my computer crashing, I’ve lost all of the photographs taken whilst we were abroad so I’m not in a position to show any).

March

Virtually the whole month was extraordinarily warm and sunny making us feel that we really ought to be out on the boat and enjoying ourselves. But we had many jobs to do both at home and on the boat, so we had to put off trips out for the time being. The wooden roof hatch on the boat needed attention. Although it had been varnished several times, rain had got into the grain making it very unsightly and so the decision was made to paint it in enamel blue to match the other hatch cover which had had the same fate last year. They both now look much better than they did before.

April

Over the past three years, our boat batteries have taken a bit of a pasting and we’ve been told that they are not generally holding their charges very efficiently and are on their way out. During their early life, they became fully discharged several times and we don’t think that we have treated them very well. We feel that the time has come to replace all 4 domestic batteries and, following our discussion last year with Kevin from Onboard Energy at Nuneaton, we’ve decided to go for Victron AGM batteries which, although more expensive, will hopefully have a much longer life. We have also bought a Honda 2kw generator with a gas conversion (we don’t want petrol on board) so that when our batteries are low and if we are not cruising, we can more easily recharge them without constantly using our traditional slow-revving engine which takes hours to do. Kevin is coming over to the marina in early May to fit the batteries and some new heavier duty leads.

May

Kevin fitted the new Victron batteries and larger leads, and also tweaked the Victron inverter appropriately. The batteries are the AGM type so they will not need any maintenance. He also wired the engine battery so that it will take a trickle charge whilst on shoreline mains power.

Last autumn whilst travelling through a lock on the T&M, we unfortunately left our engine doors fully open. The lock wall was leaking badly and water poured in over the engine leaving unsightly mud stains all over the chrome and brass fittings. We have therefore spent a few hours polishing it back to its normal state, and it now looks nice and clean again. We’ve also done a service, changing the oil and filters, and so at last, we’re almost ready to go out cruising again probably from the 21st May, when we are told the weather will be turning much warmer.

We hope to be travelling towards Stourport-on-Severn down the Staffs-Worcester canal and on to the River Severn to Tewksbury, then up the Avon to Stratford-upon-Avon where there is a river festival taking place over a weekend at the end of June. We’ve obtained an Avon licence for 30 days so we should have plenty of time to explore the Avon, stay in Stratford for a few days, and maybe visit the Evesham festival, which also takes place the following week.

In August, we were due to join some friends and their boats for a trip down the Severn estuary and River Avon to Bristol and then along the Kennet & Avon canal to Reading. Unfortunately, the trip has had to be postponed to 2013 because of matters beyond our control, so now we hope to do the trip in late Spring next year.

Nb. Bardsey alongside Bardsey Bistro

It was very sunny and warm on Monday, the best day so far.  We had a little time to spare before returning home so decided to go a little further down the Oxford canal as far as Wigram Turn.  There we had lunch and met up again on the towpath with Jon and Judy of Nb. Ventus.  Later we moved up to Bridge 103 (Flecknoe) where we stayed the night and, next day, moved on up through Braunston to Barby Hill and on to moor at the top of Hillmorton Locks for the night.  Unfortunately the restaurant Bardsey Bistro, where we had planned to eat out, was closed for the evening (closed on Mondays and Tuesdays) and so we had to hurriedly gather together a few scraps and cook our own meal.

Next day it was on to Rugby for shopping at Tesco’s and an overnight stay north of Brinklow at Bridge 26.  We continued on through Hawkesbury Junction (for a water and lunch stop) and finally to the marina at Valley Cruisers where we were to meet up with Kevin, the Victron specialist, at Onboard Energy.  He was due back from holiday the next day so we stayed here overnight.

Kevin the Victron guy checked over our inverter and confirmed that it was set up properly although he did tweak the settings a little with his laptop software.  He confirmed that our leisure batteries were on their way out because they were not satisfactorily holding their voltage, and he could not see any reason why a 2kw Honda generator would not work on our system.  Next Spring, after we had bought a generator, we would call in again to have our batteries and their leads replaced and he would check the system over again.

On our final day on Friday, we arrived at Barry Hawkins boat yard and handed the boat over for the bow repairs to be done.  Over the next couple of days, Barry attempted to knock out the dent but it wasn’t entirely successful and so we agreed to have a section of the D bar cut out and replaced.  The job would then need repainting and so it would be next week before we could take it out again.

The weather over the last few days had been incredibly hot and sunny and it was a shame that we could not take full advantage of it by staying out cruising.  But never mind; we had had a nice couple of weeks out and we would be having a few more days out next week after picking up the boat after the repairs had been finished.

On Sunday, we departed south from Huddlesford along the Coventry canal along with quite a few other boats.  Fazeley was surprisingly and unusually quiet, and we moored up there without any problems to stay overnight, to fill up with water and to do a little shopping.  We have a back cabin wood burner but had never lit it until today despite the boat being 2½ years old.  The heat from it was amazing and we cooked baked potatoes and a meal on it without too much difficulty.

Our overnight stay on Monday was at Grendon, a little before Atherstone bottom lock.  The following morning, we discovered that our stern rope and pin was right next to a wasp’s nest on the bank side.  The wasps didn’t like our presence and, whilst trying to unhitch the rope, they went into attack mode, swarming all around us and chasing us up the canal side.  Dave got stung twice on the nose and the back of his head.  The people on the boat in front tried to assist but they too got attacked and had to move off.  We managed to loosen our rear rope a little, enough to pull our boat along into their space, leaving the wasps to themselves.  After half an hour or so, the question then was, how do we free the pin that was still in the piling right next to the wasp’s nest?  I had to put on a hooded coat and gloves and creep backwards, gingerly, towards the wasps to try to free the pin.  Fortunately this was successful (they obviously didn’t recognize me being a hoodie) and eventually we were able to cast off on our journey towards Atherstone.

There were restrictions on this stretch of canal, the locks at Atherstone being open only between 8am and 4pm., because of shortages of water.  The entrance to lock 9 was particularly difficult and we got stuck on the cill until we opened a lock paddle to let more water through.  After that, things weren’t too bad and we stopped the night above the top lock.

Hawkesbury Junction

Next morning (Wednesday) it was necessary to do the West Midlands final tune in of new digital channels on the TV, which went successfully.  Apparently the signals had also been boosted and our TV pictures were now noticeably better than before.  Traveling on through Nuneaton and Bedworth brought us to Hawkesbury Junction where moorings were scarce but it just happened that a space was available right next to but not on the 2 water points.  We decided to stay here for the night and I took the opportunity to top up all the batteries, which hadn’t been done for a while.  This is not easy to do on our boat because the battery leads are too short and they restrict access to the filler holes, which means that you have to undo some of the leads to do the job.  The batteries are about 3 years old and will probably need replacing in the not too distant future so the opportunity will then be taken to replace the leads as well.

On Thursday morning we turned through the stop lock at Hawkesbury onto the Oxford canal and it was immediately obvious that there was more depth of water compared with the Coventry canal.  After 4½ hours we reached Newbold on Avon and moored up for the night at Bridge 48 just before the tunnel.  It was here that we spotted a nice Barry Hawkins clothed up boat called “Hellena II travelling northwards to Hawkesbury.

Nb. Towcester

On Friday we travelled through the Newbold Tunnel, Hillmorton locks, Willoughby and on to Braunston where it was quite busy but we managed to find a mooring spot right opposite The Boathouse pub.  Over the weekend we filled up with 40 litres of diesel off Nb. Towcester who was passing by and also some smokeless fuel ready for those cool autumn evenings, which we could probably expect soon.  We had a nice evening meal at the pub on Saturday with Ray and Jane on Nb. No Direction, and we were back there again on Sunday lunchtime with Jon and Judy on Nb Ventus whom we had met at the boat gathering at Huddlesford.

For some time now we had been pondering whether to buy a portable generator (a Honda 2kw) as a backup for emergencies, or for extended stopovers, to save keep running the engine for lengthy periods.  Because our vintage engine has a slow tick over, it can take up to 4 hours or so before the batteries are fully charged.  We had tried some friends’ 1kw and 1.4kw generators but neither would input anything through our 3kw Victron Inverter and we couldn’t understand why.  Someone said that it was our Victron inverter that was the problem.  It just happened this weekend that the boat moored behind us at Braunston had a 2.6kw Kipor generator and hearing of our predicament the owner very kindly offered to try it with our inverter to see if it would work.  It certainly did and in fact was inputting about 90 amps.  On our return journey, we would be passing a Victron specialist at Onboard Energy near Nuneaton so we arranged to call in and get him to check over our Victron to make sure that it had been set up correctly.  We had been assured that a Honda 2kw generator should work efficiently.

We originally decided to go out last week on our autumn trip but postponed it because of the bad weather.  It had been wet and extremely windy, and the prospects for the following week weren’t much better either.  Nevertheless we set off on Thursday on a very sunny morning with no wind, so it was easy turning out of the marina towards Alrewas.

Our destination was a bit vague but we knew we had to drop the boat off at Barry Hawkins boatyard at Atherstone in October so as to have a dent repaired on the starboard bow, which arose from a bump on the Trent last year.  So we decided to take a very leisurely cruise initially to Braunston (with the possibility of going as far as Banbury) and then back, via the Coventry and North Oxford canals.

We bumped into Alan & Carol off Nb. Holly Hobble at Alrewas and we spent a very nice evening with them with a bottle of wine and demonstrating our wireless Internet set-up using the 3 network.  They hadn’t been able to get a very good Internet connection by other means.

We passed through Fradley without any problems, but on stretches along the Coventry canal, it became clear that the water levels were a bit low, particularly through Streethay and Brookhay.  Nb. President and Kildare had apparently just gone ahead of us.

Excavations for the Kings Orchard Marina

Over the coming weekend, there was to be a gathering of historic boats at Huddlesford on the Coventry canal so we decided to moor up on Friday evening just outside the new Kings Orchard Marina which was due to open sometime in 2012.  The moorings were only a short walk from the gathering and we couldn’t get any closer to Huddlesford because the pre-booked moorings were already full.

After rain over Friday night, Saturday dawned bright and sunny but rather windy again.  The boat gathering (arranged by Lichfield Cruising Club http://www.lichfieldcruisingclub.co.uk/) on Saturday went really well, and we met up there with several friends from earlier cruises.  It’s a shame that, considering such a lot of effort goes into organizing the event at Huddlesford, it doesn’t extend over the whole weekend instead of just the one-day.  Nevertheless, it was well worth the visit and we shall definitely try to attend again next time.

For details of our 7 week trip from May to July 2011, please click on the link to our web site page Journals or the following www.nbhyskeir.co.uk/journals20115_7.htm

We have just come back to the UK having had a great week in Mallorca walking with a group in the mountains. The weather there was fantastic and it was quite a shock to return here on Saturday evening to relatively cold damp wet weather.

Having now completed all our painting jobs and cleaned the boat, we now intend to leave the marina early next week for a holiday of about 5 weeks or so, and to incorporate a trip to Bugsworth Basin where a Gardner Engine Rally takes place on the weekend of the 11th and 12th June. We are looking forward to meeting up with a few friends we made at the last event 2 years ago. If you have a Gardner engine like we do, it is a great weekend to meet up to discuss all things “GARDNER”. The website of the Gardner Engine Forum is at www.gardnerengineforum.co.uk It exists to promote and foster interest in all Gardner Engines.

We’ve had a change of mind about going out over Easter. The weather is very hot and, having seen the dozens of boats going past the marina in both directions and hearing tales about the long queues at the locks, we have decided to stay put and do a few more jobs on the boat instead. The engine oil has now been changed and we’ve cleaned out the bilge area. Also the gunwales have been painted with raddle red and looking good. They were in dire need of a spot of paint and this was the first time they have been painted since the boat was new two years ago. The hull was blacked only a year ago but already, it is looking tired and a bit rusty near the water line and it may need a bit of Intertuff if time permits. We may now take the boat out after Easter when the Cut is a little quieter.

April 2011

We haven’t found a cause for the small amount of water found around the engine block but all the indications are that it may just be condensation over the cold weather period. After cleaning out the area, the problem hasn’t reappeared.

Much to our regret, we still haven’t managed to get out of the marina. We have been catching up on a few jobs such as repainting part of the front end where we lost paint trying to get up through the locks at Hurleston Junction on to the Llangollen canal last Autumn. We still haven’t done an oil change either, but all being well, we hope to take the boat out over Easter on a short trip to either Fradley Junction or, more likely, Sawley where it will probably be a bit quieter. Fradley, one of the busiest places on the network, can be quite a busy place over the Easter break and moorings there can be scarce.

Not a lot has been happening during this period mainly because of the weather, a lack of inertia and lots of other things to do. We had intended to take the boat out from Barton Marina for a few days over Christmas but the snow and ice before Christmas put paid to that. So we have been catching up on a few jobs such as re-painting the pigeon box and a few other odds and ends. A little water has accumulated in the engine area which is a bit puzzling, not knowing where it has come from. It doesn’t appear to be rain water, and it may just be condensation. We will have to investigate. We ran the engine for an hour or so to keep things ticking over and to see if any water was escaping from anywhere but there were no signs. Hmmmm? We have kept a small oil heater on during the worst periods of cold weather to try to keep the internal temperature above freezing.

There are a few engine things which need doing, such as an oil change, over the next couple of weeks and, all being well, we hope to take the boat out in March. More later………