Once more Into the yard

13th & 14th November

On a damp and windy morning, I winded Sanity in the mouth of the Middle Basin Arm at Bugsworth and took her round to the water point. Whilst I was filling the tank, Sheila went on to Tesco to get bread and a paper.

During this time, I had a phone call from Maria at Braidbar to pass on the diagnosis from Cox’s on the TravelPower. Both the alternator and the control box need attention, but the bill will be much less than replacing the units, so using Cox’s was well worth it.

After finishing watering, I set off towards the junction, collecting Sheila walking back when about half way there. We boated steadily on towards Marple, with the weather slowly improving. We stopped in Marple for lunch, tied next to Hiraethlyn, then plodded on to Poynton, arriving there at about three o’clock. I winded at the far end of the Deeps, and then we tied on the towpath to strip the roof. Maria had said in her phone call this morning that there was room in the yard for us now, but we can’t get under the towpath bridge with much on top.

Having made a pair of good demos of boat handling with my two windings, I promptly mucked up the final manoeuvre, overshooting the hole slightly, so that She had to do some energetic shafting to recover the situation.

This morning we had a meeting with Maria and Ian Grindrod to discuss what we needed doing. Main tasks, in addition to the TravelPower repair already in hand, are to reseal the roof prisms, check the state of the engine mounts and the alignment of the domestic alternator, and make a cot side for the side berth for when Graeme, Cathy and Daniel come to stay.

Things started with Ian checking the mounts, which, although a little worn, seem to be fine for a good while yet. The alternator alignment was another matter. Part of the cause of the belt dust sprayed around the front of the engine compartment is the fact that the drive pulleys are out of line by about 3 millimetres, but only when the belt is tensioned. Further investigation showed that the pivot bolts are a loose fit in their holes on the alternator body, so consultations are in progress with Beta Marine about the best way to fix them.

Meantime, Reg the joiner had agreed a design with us for a panel to act as a cot side, and made a start on creating it.

After lunch, Ian took the prisms out of the roof and sealed the holes with gaffer tape (however did we manage before gaffer tape?) They are leaking between the brass surround and the glass prism, probably as a result of the incredibly hot summer last year, when the metal just expanded more than the sealant could cope with – it’s unusual for SikaFlex to give up like that, but it can happen.

Main challenge after they’ve been resealed will be to spot another dry day to put them back in – it could be a while.

After this, I took a spray can of industrial strength cleaner and did what I could to clean the belt dust, oil and gunge from the face of the engine.

Tomorrow should be a quieter day, except that we may be shuffling boats in the yard again; always good for a laugh, as some of them can’t move under their own power, so have to be shafted out through the bridge. We just have to hope that it’s not too windy tomorrow.