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!
Wind, leaves and a loose boat
After a very quiet night on the Shenton mooring we dragged ourselves out of bed and had breakfast which in my case was this bacon and egg sandwich created by chef Susan.
Streaky bacon and a free range egg
Goody two shoes Sue had a vegetarian breakfast which I’m sure was very nice but didn’t warrant a photo. By ten o’clock we were ready to face the world and the first person that we saw was Rick on nb Auriga so we flagged him down and bought four bags of coal from him.
Rick, the friendly coalman.
With the coal safely stowed away, we untied and headed off in the direction of Sutton Cheney. This section of the Ashby is shallow and at the moment, like all canals is full of leaves which do their best to wrap themselves around the prop so with the strong wind thrown in for good measure, progress was slow. The water point was clear when we reached Sutton Cheney wharf so we pulled up and did the usual emptying and filling that we needed to do. Once serviced, we turned at the wharf and started our journey back to Market Bosworth. A boat moored on the towpath side of the battlefield mooring had come undone as an oncoming boat passed it and by the time we got there it had completely blocked the canal. Sue got off and helped the steerer from the oncoming boat to secure the wayward vessel. They soon discovered that the boat had been inadequately moored in the first place so it was hardly surprising that it had broken free. They soon had the situation under control and we were able to get underway again. Our escape from the scene was difficult, the wind pushed us into the shallows and the prop became clogged with leaves, the breakaway boat was still impeding our progress even though it was now securely tied. Eventually, after reversing until we were back alongside that bloody troublesome boat, we were able to get into the deepest part of the channel and then slowly make our escape. The rest of our journey was straightforward but by the time we reached the marina, the south westerly wind was blowing hard across the entrance with the result that no amount of bow thrusting, tiller or throttle could prevent us brushing the rubber buffer on the way into the basin. We were able to get on to our pontoon without any further trouble and were soon securely anchored in our berth.
A breath of fresh air
After a couple of weeks away from Caxton it was good to be back on board on Thursday evening. I went to work on Friday morning while Sue walked up to town and caught the bus to Woodlands nursery and did a bit of shopping. When I returned in the afternoon, we pondered over whether to venture out or stay put until Saturday. A heavy rain shower made the decision for us and we settled in for the night.
A clear blue sky greeted us on Saturday morning so we got showered, dressed and had breakfast before setting off just after ten. It was quite breezy when we left but there is so much space at Bosworth Marina that manouvering in and out is no problem. Thank you Helen, we are eternally grateful for the generous design.
We made the short trip down the ashby to Shenton aqueduct where we tied up to the armco on the offside.
Shenton Aqueduct
It was then a case of getting the walking boots on and striding out in the direction of Shenton station. We spent a bit of time in the glass blowing studio there, admiring the work of the resident craftsman before walking up to the battlefield centre at the top of Ambion hill. It was still bright and sunny when we reached the large Sundial memorial next to the huge flags of the houses of plantagenet and tudor.
Sundial
The Crown
Battle flags
We plodded on to the centre itself where we hoped to get a cup of tea. As it turned out, the cafe is licensed so while “goody two shoes” Sue had a pot of decaf tea, I availed myself of a nourishing pint of Stella Artois.
Well refreshed, we continued with our walk, this time skirting Ambion wood and eventually reaching the old track bed of the dismantled railway. We followed the path until we were back at Shenton station and then it was back on the road to the aqueduct and our mooring.
Caxton nestling on its mooring.
Despite the time of year, it was still pleasant enough to sit in the cratch in the afternoon with a lovely view along the tree lined canal, the section that used to be the battlefield mooring before the Stoke Golding discovery was made.
Tree lined Battlefield Moorings
After two weeks driving and spending hours in one office or another, it had been so good to get out and get some fresh air – the perfect tonic!
My head is an alarm clock
I was awakened on Friday morning by a slap on the head from my beloved hubby so either I had annoyed him very much or he thought that he was back at the house. When we sleep on the boat we sleep on the opposite sides of the bed to what we do at the house and I was sleeping with my head where his alarm clock usually is so when it went off on Friday morning he thought that he was back at the house…..or so he said. The slap on the head must have been good for me though because I got up at 6.45 after George had left for work, had my shower and walked up the hill to town by 9 o’clock. I caught the bus to the Woodlands nursery which is about three miles away, and did some shopping there. It has a variety of shops including Cotton Traders, Lakeland, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Hotter shoes and many others. There is also a superb butchers shop. The bus from Market Bosworth is only £3 for a return ticket so it is well worth a visit. When I arrived back at the boat I did some cleaning and made dinner of parmesan and pesto covered chicken breast with vegetable rice which George declared was delicious so maybe I won’t get a smack on the head tomorrow morning.
As long as he doesn’t try to put my head back an hour on Sunday morning I will be ok.
So much to do here
One of the principal reasons for moving to Market Bosworth was that we would have more to do than when we were at Braunston. This weekend kind of confirmed that we had done the right thing. We made our way to Bosworth Marina on Thursday evening as usual and settled in for the evening, the continuing warm weather makes one forget that autumn is upon us but the early sunset is a stark reminder that we are just ten weeks away from the shortest day of the year!
I went to work on Friday and left Sue to her own devices on what turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day. By the time I returned to Caxton, Sue had been up to town and shopped for dinner. The leg of lamb and the fresh veg made for an excellent meal eaten out on the front deck for maybe the last time this year.
It was a bit dull on Saturday morning so after a lazy start we walked up to town and paid a visit to the butcher, the fruit shop, the newsagent and then the bar of the Red Lion for a light refreshment. After we had returned to the boat we decided to drive the short distance to nearby Coalville and have a look around. I’ve never been to the town before and it’s been a few years since Sue has visited but it was a worthwhile trip because there is a good variety of shops there, plenty of parking and, most importantly, a Wetherspoons! After a good wander around, we drove back to the marina and decided to go out for a cruise. It was almost five o’clock when we emerged on to the cut and headed off in a northerthly direction. The sun was bright but was being dragged to the horizon like a giant circular kite being pulled in by a child after a day’s play. The journey was lovely, the sinking sun casting long shadows and picking out the yellow and orange leaves still clinging to the trees, the green leaves trying to convince us that winter is still a long way off. We encountered no boats on the way and were amazed to find the visitor moorings at Shackerstone completely empty. We tied up and then enjoyed the lamb chops that we had bought earlier in the day accompanied by the vegetables from the local fruit and veg shop.
It was misty when we awoke on Sunday morning so we decided to walk to the station at Shackerstone and have a bite to eat. The moorings to the north of the village bridge were almost empty but we noticed that our old friend Jim was tied up there so we resolved to drag him to the pub on our return.
We spent an hour at the station with a light lunch thrown in for good measure but by the time we reached the canal again, Jim had gone.
We returned to Caxton, cast off and headed to the winding hole before starting our return journey. We pretty much had the canal to ourselves again as we made our way back in the direction of Market Bosworth on yet another unseasonably lovely day. We found Jim moored between Congerstone and Market Bosworth, slowed, gave him a bottle of beer and had a chat. Not quite like going to the pub but the next best thing. We’ve made a tentative arrangement to meet in a couple of weeks time but we’ll have to see how that works out. Eventually we reached bridge 42 and pulled on to the water point and filled the water tank before we chugged into the marina and found our berth.
We decided to have another night on board so we walked up the hill to town and had dinner at the Red Lion. It was dark when we made our way homeward down the hill but we were soon in the comfort of the lounge of Caxton where we relaxed and watched some telly in front of the fire which was burning some Irish turf.
Lunch at Shenton
It was quite late on Friday when we arrived at Bosworth Marina and by the time we had unpacked our bags it was dark. We awoke on Saturday to the sound of rain on the roof and when we looked out, we saw that there was a strong wind blowing across the marina. After a lazy start, Sue made breakfast sandwiches for us both but the rain continued to lash against the outside of the boat so we amused ourselves indoors. Sue read and knitted while I wrote a blog post. When the rain eventually stopped in the early afternoon, we jumped in the car and visited the garden centre at nearby Stapleton where we bought a few bits and pieces for Caxton and some bacon and sausage from the butcher there.
After returning to Caxton, we awaited the arrival of Martin and Caroline who are currently on holiday, cruising the Leicester ring on a Napton narrowboat. They are having their own boat built next year and will moor in Bosworth Marina when it is ready but for now they will have to make do with a couple of nights there on holiday. They arrived just before four o’clock and despite the strong winds, pulled on to their berth just a few pontoons away from Caxton. Naturally we invited them on board and we spent the next few hours having a drink and chatting about all things boat related. It was after seven when we parted company, after which we had a light supper before turning in for the night.
It was a bit chilly on Sunday morning but once the hurricane had been fired up, that soon changed. We got up, showered and had breakfast of bacon and egg with Sue having mushroom as well. In stark contrast to the day before, the sun was out and it was quite warm so we decided to get out and take Caxton to Shenton. We topped the water up outside the marina and then got underway. It’s hard to believe that it was possible to go boating in short sleeves in October but that’s exactly what we did, enjoying the autumn sunshine. It was a very relaxing trip and after we had winded at the end of what used to be the Battlefield moorings, we returned and moored next to Shenton aqueduct. We then walked to the village and paid a visit to the Whitemoors antique centre and tearooms where we had lunch and very enjoyable it was too.
We strolled back to Caxton and started our return journey, a journey that ground to a halt ten minutes later when we got stuck in the shallows after meeting a boat as we both passed a moored narrowboat. It proved impossible to re float Caxton without the help of the long pole but a few minutes later we were underway again.
It was just before four when we got back into our berth and tied Caxton to the pontoon. After emptying the cassettes and packing our bits into the car, we said our goodbyes to Martin and Caroline, wishing them well for the rest of their holiday and the building of their boat.
All that remained was to drive home and prepare for the week ahead.
Time for a rant – Shopping bags
It’s raining so I thought that I would have a bit of a rant and today’s subject is “Shopping Bags”.
All boaters are different but we all have one thing in common, we’re all good at carrying things and one of the best bits of carrying equipment around is the supermarket ‘bag for life ‘. I have nothing against these bags but I do get annoyed when supermarkets claim how environmentally friendly they are. Sure, they are better than those nasty carrier bags that we are soon going to be paying for in an effort to deter us from using them but let’s look back to find out where they came from.
When I was growing up in the sixties, my mother went shopping almost every day, taking her trusty leatherette shopping bag with her. That’s not entirely true, growing up in Scotland, we didn’t go shopping, we went “for the messages” and we had a “message line” rather than a shopping list.
Anyway, it was all good for the consumer who only bought what they could carry home, on foot of course. Not much good for the retailer though having customers who restricted their own purchases. Providing free carrier bags solved that problem instantly with the consumer now able to take advantage of impulse buys and promotional items.
Two new problems arose as a result of this, the consumer had to get the food home and then store it. So the pedestrian became a motorist and increased pollution. The car needed to be parked so land was covered over which in turn encouraged flooding. The consumer walked less and ate more and so became obese. They bought a fridge to store the food that couldn’t be bought on the day of purchase but eventually they would outgrow it and get a bigger one. The old one would be dumped and its refrigerant gases would find their way into the atmosphere where they destroyed the ozone layer and triggered climate change.
Buying food every day and using it straight away keeps wastage down, again good for the consumer but not for the retailer! Luckily enough the kindly retailer started applying dates to the food so that the consumer knew when to use it. Nonsense! It was just an instruction to throw it away. This is why we now have so much food wasted each year.
So by introducing the free carrier bag, retailers have been responsible for obesity, pollution, climate change and food waste. So I’m afraid that there is no praise for the retailer who sells a bag for life on the pretext that it is better for the environment when in fact it was their greed tactics that created the problem in the first place.
Having said all of that though, the bags are pretty good for carrying stuff to and from the boat!
Settling in at Market Bosworth
We took the opportunity to visit the top of the Ashby a couple of weeks ago when we made our first trip out of Bosworth marina. Friday saw us easing out on to the cut and making our way to Shackerstone. After mooring near the aqueduct, we took a walk to the village and had a pre-dinner drink in the Rising Sun. We had passed by narrowboats Billie and Mister Pip tied up before the aqueduct so it came as no surprise to find their respective captains, Jim and Phil in the pub. We joined them for half an hour of catching up and talking nonsense before wandering back to Caxton for something to eat.
We got up and ready on yet another warm and sunny Saturday, Jim and Phil passed us as we were untying the ropes, we fell in behind them and headed for Snarestone. It really was a beautiful day for cruising, we took our time and gradually lost sight of the other two boats. Eventually we reached the tunnel and with nothing coming, entered the darkness. Emerging into the light we soon passed Jim who had turned and was now heading back through the tunnel, eager to claim a mooring close to the pub – a man on a mission! Phil was topping “Mister Pip” up with water when we reached the winding hole. We turned and moored up for the day in a beautiful sunny spot. We walked to the end of the navigation to inspect the extension work but some heras fencing protected the site so were unable to see where the canal now ends. We decided to inspect The Globe at Snarestone instead so walked along the towpath to the tunnel and then made our way up to the village. Passing through the village recreation ground, we saw the groundskeeper gassing moles with his car exhaust fumes. Very strange! Needless to say, Jim and Phil were settled in the bar by the time we reached the pub. We passed the time of day with them but went out to the garden soon after, the bar being warm and a bit noisy.
The groundskeeper was behaving more conventionally, cutting the grass as we passed by on our way back to Caxton a while later. Apart from eating our evening meal, we did nothing but laze around for the rest of the day.
Sunday dawned fair again so we had breakfast and then set off on our return journey. Through the tunnel and into the smell of bacon cooking, Jim was sorting his breakfast out too! Leaving Snarestone behind, we plodded back to the marina in the September sunshine. The wind had picked up by the time we reached Market Bosworth but the generous space in the marina meant that we slid on to our berth with ease. We were having such a good time that we decided to stay another night so we started with a walk up to town where we wandered around for a while before strolling back to Caxton in the early evening.
After almost a fortnight, we came back to Caxton on Thursday afternoon with the intention of spending the weekend in the marina. I went to work on Friday while Sue cleaned the inside of Caxton from end to end. After dinner we climbed the hill to town and did some exploring before popping in to the Dixie Arms for a refreshment.
Saturday seemed to be a busy day but in reality we just pottered around. We went for water but had to wait while nb Chardonnay filled their tank first. I waited with Caxton while Sue chatted with the crew, a couple who spend their summers here boating and their winters in New Zealand, very nice. By the time we had sorted ourselves out it was time for lunch, after which we walked into town again. The fabulous weather was still with us which made for a pleasant afternoon meandering around. It’s thirsty work of course so we sat outside the Black Horse with a (rather expensive) drink and watched the world go by for a while. On returning to Caxton, our thoughts had turned to dinner and eventually we decided to try the Italian restaurant at the Dixie Arms, so after a quick phone call our table was booked. It was still warm and sunny at five o’clock when we emerged on to the back deck and chatted to some of our new neighbours. One of them, who introduced himself as Pete Bytheway (strange surname ha ha!), took up our offer of a cold beer and we were soon joined by his wife, Pam who we quickly furnished with a glass of wine. Pete and Pam own nb Seventh Heaven which is about five berths away from ours. We spent the next hour or so, chatting and laughing together in the evening sun. We eventually had to say goodbye because we had our table booked for seven o’clock. It was great to meet Pete and Pam and we look forward to spending more time with them soon.
Our meal was excellent, the atmosphere was relaxed and the service was lovely. We will definitely be returning to that restaurant in future. It was half past nine when we got back on board and not too much later when we turned in for the night- well it had been an extremely busy day after all!
We didn’t get up until nine o’clock but we were soon ready and had breakfast before heading uptown to the monthly farmer’s market. Sue bought a piece of lamb as we wandered around but despite the sunshine and the fact that it was even warmer than the day before, we resisted the charms of the various hostelries that the town offers and skipped cold refreshments, electing instead to take coffee in the courtyard.
We then returned to the marina where we gathered our things and went home, we could have stayed longer but unfortunately there are too many jobs to be done around the house and we have spent so much time away from it this summer that we just have to start tackling them.