Monday 5th January 2009
Location: Banbury South, Oxfordshire, Oxford Canal
Today: 2 miles, 1 locks. Total distance: 1943 miles. Total locks: 1332
A cold morning today but not as cold as it has been. Still cold enough for half an inch or so of ice on the canal.
Decided to move to a slightly quieter spot. Last night, I was treated to a cacophony of noide from the 24/7 bakery, engines and generators running as everyone decide to watch TV and charge their batteries.
Pulled the pins and headed through Banbury and down the Banbury lock. The lock was a bit on the treacherous side after the over night frost and then a light shower of snow to top it off.
Pulled into the water point at the bottom of the lock to top up with water. The two outside taps were frozen up but one of the inside taps was OK. Connected up my hose and nothing happened – my hose was frozen. Spent 10 minutes defrosting the hoze before I could fill up with water.
Moved down to the winding hole where I had the challenge of winding in thick ice – always fun!! After winding, moved back towards Banbury and moored up just past the long term moorings. I have moored here before and it has always been relatively peaceful.
The whole journey took exactly two hours as I started the breadmaker just before pulling the pins and it beeped to let me know that it was finished just as I was mooring up - great timing.
Current Mooring
nb Hadar moored in Banbury
Banbury lock - a touch on the slippery side today
Another very cold night, it was minus 6 at 06:00 this morning.
Took Archie for a nice long walk along the towpath, some photos below.
The weather forecast is for continued heavy frosts, that’s the way it should be at this time of the year, much better than rain and fog!!.
This is a much more peaceful mooring spot than back at the north Banbury visitor’s moorings, I must have been mad to moor there in the first place as I knew what it was like from past experience.
I received an email asking me what a winding hole is - well, it's the wide bit of the canal to the left of the photo below - it's a turning place for boats. You stick the bow of the boat into the hole and power the stern around to turn. They are placed periodically along the canals. Sometimes you have to travel many miles to get to one so that you can turn to go back the way you came.
Winding hole - see left of photo
Some photos of the canal just soth of Banbury
A lift bridge, they onlt tend to be lowered along this stretch in the summer so that the farmers can get access to their fields across the canal
M40 - what a noise there is from it
Grant's Lock, quite deep at 9' 6"
Archie's new basket - it's for him to sit in when on the roof in this cold weather
I left the boat for a couple of days at the end of last week to travel down to Bath to visit my mother in hospital. My brother-in-law very kindly came and picked me up on Thursday morning and dropped me back at the boat on Saturday afternoon.
My mother, now 87, is suffering from osteoporosis. Her spine has crumbled and the end the result is paralysis from the waist down. The doctors at the hospital are trying to get the pain under control but after that there is nothing they can do. Once the pain management is sorted she will be moved to a nursing home. Six months ago, she was fit and healthy and walking her dog into town and back almost every day.
Before leaving the boat, I turned on the Alde gas central heating boiler and set the thermostat to a few degrees above frost protection. The header tank on the boiler has been leaking a small amount of water for a while now and I topped it right up before leaving the boat. On returning to the boat, the header tank was empty and the radiators were cold as the pump is in the base of the header tank and when it empties, the pump has nothing to circulate. The tank had not long emptied as the temperature in the bedroom beside the thermostat was around 8 degrees. Another night of heavy frost with the boat unoccupied would most likely have led to frozen pipes. Good job I returned when I did.
I tried sealing the base of the header tank with high temperature silicon sealant but it wouldn’t seal. I phoned the Alde importers this morning and they informed me that they had a tank in stock and they could have it to me by tomorrow - £50 including postage. Not cheap but no option but to buy it as I can’t do without the boiler for hot water when the engine hasn’t been running. I phoned Tooley’s boat yard in Banbury to see if they would accept delivery of the header tank for me as I need a delivery address. Tooley’s informed me that they had a second hand tank and that I could have it for a reasonable price. I walked up to Tooley’s with Archie only to find that the tank they had was a slightly different design and would not fit. Matt at Tooley’s kindly agreed to accept delivery of the new tank for me. Back to the boat and ordered the tank, it should arrive tomorrow.
The weather warmed up yesterday and the canal had mostly thawed out by lunch time today. Unfortunately, the nice cold dry weather has been replaced by wet miserable weather, it’s not been at all nice today. Two boats have passed by today, the first on the move for almost a week.
Alde gas heating boiler - minus header tank
Alde Boiler header tank - it's cracked just to the right of the opening
Another very cold night on Tuesday night, woke up on yesterday to find that the canal had frozen over again. By late yesterday afternoon, the canal had thawed but it was still very cold.
I phoned Tooley’s on Tuesday afternoon to see if the parts for the Alde boiler had arrived – they hadn’t, so much for next day delivery.
On Wednesday afternoon, I tried to phone Tooley’s to see if the parts had arrived but my t-mobile phone kept reporting that there was no network coverage, very strange. In the end I walked to Tooley’s with Archie and low and behold, the new header tank had been delivered a few minutes before I arrived.
Returned to the boat and fitted the new header tank along with new O-rings. Filled it up with water and was pleasantly surprised to find no leaks from any of the joints that had been disturbed. Fired up the boiler and everything was working fine. Checked the boiler first thing this morning and still no leaks, job done by the looks of it.
I needed a new pair of slippers as I stepped in a huge pile of dog pooh just outside the boat the other day while getting some logs off the roof. They were in such a state that I didn’t fancy trying to clean them. Thank you to the kind dog owner for letting their dog just crap anywhere it likes. I went into Banbury this morning and bought a new pair of slippers and while in town I did a complete tour of the charity shops in search of CDs and books but came back empty handed.
I added a new feature to the boating index page that tracks visits to that page (see bottom of the page). I was amazed to see that after just one day the page had received hits from all over the place – quite amazing. The only problem is that anyone visiting this site via an RSS feed link will not enter via the index page and will therefore not be counted/recorded. Thanks to Alex for pointing me to the web site that provides the functionality.
nb Epiphany looking very good after recent hull blacking at Tooley's
Winter pops back again for a day
Alde boiler all back together again and no leaks!!
