Off with her head!

We finally managed to coax the Bowman heat exchanger away from the cylinder head and then remove the head. Our neighbour Bob off NB Puffin was kind enough to help us.

The inspection hatch, that I cut out while Freyja was in drydock, proved invaluable. Bob looked spookily ready for Halloween!

Just over twelve hours later I'd taken the head to Wales and Brian North had pressure tested the valves, checked the stem seals and re-faced the head (which was on the concave side!)

We've added an immersion heater ;o)

We decided to fit an immersion heater so that we could have hot water quickly, even when the engine was drained (it takes ages to heat the water using only the Jøtul's back boiler)
Tim, the hero that saved The Cock in Denford from closing, is also a plumber and he agreed to fit it for us, it's only a 1Kw version, so we'll be able to use it with our generator if, for any reason, we can't run our engine.

Glenda has been very busy

Glenda has started to experiment with the bedding, curtains and drapes, as we are trying to find suitable pashminas that suit the lovely bedding that Glenda found in a sale ;o)

 

We have a lovely and seemingly rare Jøtul 404 dual fuel range, but we've struggled to get the best out of it because it's Norwegian and all the controls were foreign to us!

After a few online searches we found a PDF version of the instruction manual here 

Our lovely Jøtul 404 has had it's legs shortened at some time.

Once we knew how to use it to it's best advantage there was no stopping Glenda. She was like a contestant for the Great British Bake-off!

We had lovely bread, pies and cake, Yum!

There's a Railroad running through the middle of our Marina!

We returned to boats on Saturday, as we both have some time off. 

There have been a few changes around here in the last few weeks. there is now a slipway complete with railway track and bogey.

The slipway with it's rail tracks laid and the bogey, which will be cable-winched to haul narrowboats and widebeams out.

The slipway, railway, bogey and Clive's dredger (looking towards the new cruiser moorings)

Looking from the cruiser moorings side.

 The cruiser and maintenance moorings have been almost completed.

There was a shortage of narrowboat moorings so Clive has added some shorter cruiser moorings to free up more of the 60 foot pontoons that are occupied by shorter cruisers etc.

Clive will also be moving his floating drydock from WillyWatts Marina (behind the Mill tearooms) around to a spot near the cruiser moorings and it will be under cover.

A lot of boats have moved pontoons and a fair few new boats and faces have arrived, the marina is getting fairly full now, as many people have moved from river moorings to our floating pontoons after all the flooding last Winter.

Birmingham Floating Market

This weekend I drove the Welsh band 'Kids in Glass Houses' to The Asylum venue in Snow Hill, Birmingham. Glenda drove her son Nick up to Harper Adams college, north of Birmingham.

This worked out great, as it coincided with the first floating market on the canals around the International Conference Centre, near Gas Street Basin. 

We wandered around the trade boats and met up with John Sloan who had organised it, then went for a pint and a gongoozle at the Canalside Cafe.

Later we took a ride in Victoria, one of the trip boats that run from Gas Street Basin

We came across a group of lunatic 'pirates' on surfboards!

These 'pirates' were paddling surfboards for charity

The girl on the left about to fall in, damn! wish I'd been videoing it. ;o)
In the evening we went The Prince of Wales pub where we met with fellow members of the fledgling Association of Continuous Cruisers and where I was able to put faces to people I talk to frequently on Canal World Discussion Forum

Hired a scabbler

After struggling to scrape the top layers of paint off Freyja, then attack what was left with a wire wheel mounted on an angle-grinder (with not the greatest of results) we decided to hire a scabbler.
This video does demonstrate how noisy it was, so turn the sound down a bit before you press play! (video by Jac)

We had picked the scabbler up from Brandon Hire in Northampton on Tuesday, but wasted a lot of time trying to fit the dust hood, due to a previously damaged thread. So I only got to use it for a half an hour (not supposed to do noisy work after 17.00 hrs) 
We then turned Freyja around so that we could scabble the other side.

My son Jac cleaning off the paint flakes after I'd done the front of the cabin roof the hard way!

On Wednesday I drove everyone crazy with the very noisy scabbler (glad we bought some ear defenders)
I was close to finishing scabbling off all the old paint when Glenda told me that they were forecasting rain for Thursday.

On Thursday I finished the roof and then attacked the side, above the rubbing strake, the stern and tunnel band.

We had treated the roof with Fertan, which had been left to work for 24 hours, this was washed off, suger-soaped and washed again, it was then a mad panic to get a coat of red oxide of the roof before the impending rain arrived, it was dark when I finished painting.

The roof after scabbling ;o)

The first coat of red oxide going on.

After two coats of red oxide, looking good and reasonably weatherproof.

At the same time Glenda & Jac were scraping all of the loose paint off Christina's wooden cabin.

Glenda scraping and rubbing down the loose paint on Christina so we could get some primer on her before Winter

After priming we changed which side of the moorings they are on so that we can get to the other side.

So, was it worth getting the scabbler?

We started out using two tungsten scrapers at £9.50 each =£18.00
6 x spare blades are £7.50                                                  =£45.00
2 x Bosch knotted wire cups at £27.50                              =£55.00
1 x knotted wire wheel at £12.00                                       =£12.00
1 x Bosch knotted wire wheel at £27.50                             =£27.50
Total                                                                                   =£112.50
And days with lot of sweat, aches, pains & blisters to do just a fraction of the total stripping!

Then hire a scabbler at £25.00 a day                                  =£25.00
1 pair of ear defenders @ £6.22                                        =£6.22 
Total                                                                                   =£31.22
To do the other 75% of the boat in one day!
              The results my dear Watson, are conclusive!               

On the move again, at last ;o)

We drove from Wales last night, and it took ages, with just about every road closed and diversions everywhere. Grrrr! We arrived at the marina just before midnight, and as we didn't know where Clive had moored Freyja, we slept on Christina.

This morning, we found Freyja, moored just outside the drydock :-

The floating drydock, ready for the next customer, with Freyja moored just outside. I took the photo from the garden of The Mill Tearooms

We found that the new rubber endcaps had not arrived, so I re-fitted the old, cracked ones and primed the raw water system, then cleaned out the calorifier, she started easily and, after a slow reverse down between the moored boats that can be seen in the photo, we steered her back to Blackthorn Lake.

We survived our first guillotine lock and, once in the marina, as usual, my crap reversing skills provided entertainment for our neighbours. With a little help, we got her moored and were very happy to have our boats re-united ;o) 
I had to flush the calorifier before we could get any hot water, but after flushing and priming the system, there was more than enough to give Glenda and I a nice shower, and one that didn't get pumped into our cabin bilge! (we've fitted a Whale gulper that pumps it straight out)