Monthly Archives: December 2014
On the move again
We were resigned to yet another day iced in at the Lime Kilns when we went to bed last night. During the day I had carried a cassette to the elsan at Trinity marina and the prospect of making the two mile round trip again today didn’t exactly fill me with enthusiasm. At eight o’clock, everything changed when a convoy of five boats crunched through the ice heading north. It seems that they had smashed their way off the Coventry canal yesterday before mooring on the other side of the A5 for the night. It seemed a bit pointless to resume our journey towards Marston junction since we would only have the benefit of the broken ice for less than half a mile. The two remaining options were to stay put or to reverse Caxton all the way back to Nutts lane and attempt to wind in the entrance to the brick wharf. I decided to try the latter with Sue walking ahead to warn of any oncoming boats. In the event, there weren’t any and the trip was fairly easy. Turning around wasn’t so easy because the entrance to the wharf was frozen still but with a bit of manouvering, the ice broke and Caxton was pointing in the right direction again. We stopped at Trinity marina where we emptied the rubbish and the cassettes but failed to fill the water up because the supply was either turned off or frozen. The shop was shut so I wasn’t able to buy gas. As we were about to get underway again, I was approached by another boater who had seen me lift the empty gas cylinder out of the locker and then put it back. He told me that if we were desperate for gas, he had a full spare that we could have and he would buy another when the shop opened on Friday – how kind! The great boating camaraderie is alive and well and living on the Ashby canal. We have enough gas but I thanked him for the offer anyway and we restarted our journey. We met a couple of boats along the way but it was otherwise a lonely cruise in the sunshine. At duck corner, I could see the five members of the ice breaking convoy tied up but facing south. When I questioned the captain of the lead boat, Sextans, he told me that they had turned at Sutton Cheney because the ice was too thick to carry on. We reached the wharf about an hour later and could see that they had given up just after the water point. We struggled a bit to get alongside but eventually made it and filled the water tank before reversing on to the visitor moorings and tying up for the night.
The temperature is predicted to keep rising through the night until reaching 12 degrees tomorrow afternoon, what we don’t know is whether it will be sufficient to melt the ice. With the temperature set to drop again on Friday, we will have to pick our time well for the short hop back to Bosworth marina.
Still iced in at The Lime Kilns
Still frozen!
A frosty start
We had deliberately loaded the fire lightly last night so that it would have gone out by morning in order that we could give it a good clean out before relighting it. The cabin was cool when we we awoke so I switched the heating on as I lit the gas under the kettle for our first coffee of the day. A quick peek out of the window revealed a hard frost and a frozen canal. When questioned by Sue a couple of days ago about whether or not the canal might freeze, I confidently stated that at minus one, it would remain ice free. I mentioned the frost but neglected to mention the ice on the cut, hoping that by the time we were up and about, the sunshine might have worked its magic and melted it. A short while later with the cabin warming up and the coffee going down nicely, Sue’s ears pricked up and asked if I could hear a crackling noise. I couldn’t but her hearing is better than mine so I guessed what it would be and sure enough, a minute later and I too could hear the unmistakable sound of a boat breaking ice. I didn’t panic and figured that if I took a matter-of-fact approach, I might just get away with my poor prediction. “It’s probably just a boat breaking up the ice”, I said in a disinterested sort of way. “ICE!”, came the immediate reply, “What do you mean, ICE? You assured me that couldn’t happen at these temperatures!”. I hadn’t got away with it, there was only one thing to do. “It’s that bloody BBC, they never get things right and it obviously must have been colder than they predicted and by quite some distance!” I declared before looking out to see nb Hector smashing through the ice which was only about 4mm thick, now if only he’d lain in bed anouther hour, I might have been alright there. Of course it was all a bit of a laugh really so be assured that the atmosphere inside the boat didn’t turn frosty to match the outside!
We decided to stay put outside the Lime Kilns for the day, even though the ice was melting quickly. By the time we were ready and the fire was lit, the sun was blazing through the windows making the inside of Caxton really hot, even the cratch was warming up!
We got our walking boots on and headed off into Hinckley using a path which runs from just south of the Limekilns, parallel to the Sketchley brook, emerging beside the railway bridge next to Lidl at the bottom of Sketchley hill. Once in town, we had a coffee before doing a bit of shopping in Dunelm and at B&Q. Sue has suspended some light muslin cloth below the Houdini hatches to catch condensation drips preventing them landing on us and the floor. Absorbed by the cloth, the moisture soon evaporates with the heat of the cabin. It was pretty cold by the time we walked back to our mooring but the inside of the boat was warm thanks to the fire and the fact that Caxton was still basking in full sunshine.
Caxton basks in the winter sunshine.
After running the engine for a couple of hours to replenish the batteries, we settled in for the evening. Ice was already forming on the canal surface by 8pm so there can be no surprises in the morning!
Lessons Learned
I don’t mind mistakes as long as lessons are learned.
The sky was blue and the sun was shining, there were odd patches of snow but in essence the day had the makings of being a good one for cruising. The first thing I did was to wrap up warmly from the outset, adding yet another layer than I had had on the day before, this was lesson one! With the usual checks done, we were off into the sunshine once more. Sue was working away inside Caxton and soon produced a sausage sandwich for me and a mug of tea to wash it down with.
The entire Ashby fleet was present when we passed through Stoke Golding wharf and we only passed two boats travelling in the opposite direction before we reached Trinity Marina at Hinckley. Every so often in a boater’s life, there comes that dreaded day and today was that day, yes the filling of the diesel tank! We took the opportunity to do the other services while we were there in the hope that it would take my mind off the fuel bill but 220 litres of diesel is 220 litres regardless of the price of a barrel of Brent crude!
Everything done, we pootled on to the mooring opposite the Lime Kilns, passing Stu and Treena on Carpe Diem along the way. Jim was tied up outside the Brewers Fayre but was nowhere to be seen.
Once secured, I remembered my second lesson and sorted out the satellite dish before fixing the canvas cover over the rear deck of Caxton.
Boxing day before the storm
The fire had stayed in overnight so the inside of Caxton was filled with a gentle heat. The Met office had issued a yellow weather warning but admitted that they weren’t sure where snow might fall or even how much there might be – what use is that? Market Bosworth sat under blue skies so we decided to untie and venture out. Except for the boat that appeared behind us minutes after we had emerged from the marina, we saw nothing else on the move. The boat behind pulled over at Sutton Cheney, probably for the services and we were alone again, except for those trying to walk off the excesses of Christmas Day.
We pulled over at “Duck Corner” near Stoke Golding and I tried to get warm in front of the fire. Stupidly, I had not started the journey with enough layers of clothing on and despite the fact that I eventually added a big coat, a hat and gloves to my heavy golf jumper it was too late, I was chilled to the marrow!
The rain started within the hour, heavy and noisy but I didn’t care because the fire was doing a great job of thawing me out. The covers were all secure front and back and then I remembered that I hadn’t set up the satellite dish – Oh bugger! Eventually, the noise of the rain subsided so I decided to venture out into the cold, except that the rain hadn’t stopped, it had turned to snow – double bugger! Eventually, I did get out and made a hasty, half-hearted attempt at aligning the dish, getting a weak but watchable signal. After an hour, the signal went, probably due to the wind and rain which continued to batter us. Fortunately, I had swapped the television a couple of weeks ago so we had DVD capabilities and a few films that we hadn’t watched and that was it, we just dossed in front of the fire for the evening, listening to the storm and wondering what the landscape would look like in the morning.
Blokey Stuff – Mastervolt
Despite the fact that we haven’t been out on Caxton, I have been checking the good ship out when possible. Four weeks ago I arrived at the marina to discover that the shore power had tripped out. In actual fact, the incoming MCB had tripped even though the one on the pontoon post hadn’t. When I reset the onboard MCB there was still no power and the display on the post showed an error. I sent a text to Chris, the marina manager who promised to investigate for me. I returned to the marina a couple of days later and met Chris who told me that there was no credit left on the meter, whatever the fault was it had managed to discharge around 99kWh. Chris topped the meter up again and all seemed well until I checked the Masterview display which showed all sorts of errors.
Caxton has a Mastervolt system on board which comprises of a Mass Combi (an inverter/ charger), a Mastershunt which monitors the batteries and a display screen. Up until this moment everything had worked well but now the display was flicking all over the place, showing alarms and suggesting that the batteries were at 25 volts!
Being a bit of a geek on the side, I decided to buy a Mastervolt USB interface rather than call for a technician and try to diagnose the problem myself. It cost me £120 but it has turned out to be a good investment. Sadly, the display had been damaged by the power surge problem but I was able to verify that the Mass Combi was unaffected. The Mastershunt needed to be reset but was otherwise alright. The beauty of the Mastervolt system is that the components are connected using CAT5 network cables so fiddling and playing with the bits is a geek’s dream.
A new Masterview Easy unit costs over £200 but I was able to buy one off Ebay for just over £60 and what’s more, being the MkII version, it can display more information than the one which had been originally installed.
I spent a happy (or sad, depending on your gender) programming the new Masterview display unit and I am happy to report that everything is back in good order again.
The geek in me is left with three projects now.
1. Can I refurbish the old Masterview display unit?
2. Can I create a new program and display on a tablet or mobile phone?
3. Can I offer my services as a Mastervolt system technician?
Obviously, I’ll report back here if I make any progress with the above.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
I don’t know why I sleep as well as I do on a boat, maybe it’s the movement or the lack of light or the quietness, maybe it’s knowing that there is no work to go to or just a combination of all of those factors but whatever the reason, I didn’t wake up until almost eight o’clock today. The kettle went on and the heating went on before we drank coffee and opened our presents in bed. It was half past nine when we eventually tumbled out of bed before getting showered and dressed. Poor old neglected Caxton needs to be warmed up and dried out so we lit the fire and wiped up the condensation before walking up the hill to Market Bosworth. Sadly, the only establishments open were the pubs so we interrupted our walk with a visit to the Red Lion and the Dixie Arms before returning to the marina around half past one. Having phoned the various family members where we had mobile reception, we clambered back on board Caxton which was very toasty warm inside.
Sue prepared Christmas dinner and then we watched the Queen’s speech before settling down for the rest of the day.
Caxton is gradually coming back to life, the cupboard doors are shrinking back to normal and closing again, by tomorrow I expect that it will be as if we have never been away.
Tomorrow we are hoping to start our winter voyage with a short hop to Stoke Golding which is only a couple of hours away. We’re not too fussed about where we end up, we have two large boxes of fruit & veg thanks to my friend, Ronnie McCarten and enough coal and logs to see us through a nuclear winter so we don’t care about anything!
We also have the benefit of having Olly on board, Olly was made by my mum and given to Sue and he now travels everywhere with us.
Olly is guarding the Christmas Tree
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Winter Escape
We’re back!
We returned to life on Caxton today after two months of leading a land based nomadic lifestyle. Work has dictated that I have had to spend a lot of time in Yorkshire doing what I do best, commissioning a banana ripening centre – not the most common of activities but it pays the mortgage!
Anyway, after finishing work today, I returned home to collect Sue and a boot full of essentials before setting off for Market Bosworth. We paid a visit to Sue’s mum on the way and then we were there, back on board and ready for an eleven day break afloat. We have no hard and fast plans so watch this space!