We Knew it Would Come In Handy

We knew that one day us both learning how to drive and handle the boat would come in handy. We always said from day one that we should both have the skills and knowledge to get the boat home on our own should the need ever arise.

Well yesterday proved that point quite well. Liam had been complaining of feeling dizzy and having a loss of balance since Friday morning but had been thinking it would sort itself out by itself. Typical man thinking. Well needless to say it didn't so yesterday Liam was taken to the walk in centre by a friend leaving me to get the boat through Stamp End Lock single handed but with the help of friends who were in their boat. 

With the boat moored on the wall above the lock we assumed Liam would be back shortly with some medication and we would be on our way again. But no. A phone call later revealed Liam was being sent to Lincoln A&E for further assessment. Not really wanting to leave the boat alone at Stamp End, which for anyone that doesn't know the area isn't the most salubrious area of Lincoln, it was decided that I would get the boat back to Burton Waters and then head up to the hospital to meet Liam.

With the hoods up there is not a lot of room to thread Naughty-Cal through the bridges in Lincoln city centre but I managed to get through unscathed, not helped by the annoying little tug narrowboat trip boat which was just milling around going as slowly as possible, but that is a story for another day.

With the boat safely tucked up on its berth I was dropped off at A&E to find Liam, easier said then done as none of the staff knew where he was! After 15 minutes of tracking him down he was finally located in an interview room where he had been given some sedatives to try and bring his heart beat and blood pressure down to acceptable levels. 

Eventually they were happy with his readings and after checking his bloods decided there was little else they could do. They had reached the limitations of what they could do in A&E, so this morning Liam has been dropped off at home and will head to see his GP this morning to try and get more answers and hopefully a referal to someone who can do more conclusive tests. At least we now know that his heart is ok!

Just Chilling

We had a lovely day yesterday just chilling in Washingborough.

We all spent far too much at the farmers market buying fresh meat, vegetables,  bread and dried meats before heading back to the boats and setting off the first duck race of the year.

Only a few ducks made it back,  we still have about ten unaccounted for so we have a bit of rounding up to do this morning!

Did We Get Moored?

So did we get moorings at Washingborough last night?

Yes we did.

The pontoon was empty until we rocked up with four boats and there is still room for another on the end.

We had a nice,  short cruise here yesterday evening in the lessening light,  the nights are starting to draw in!

A Local Weekend

We plan to stay fairly local to the marina this weekend, and we plan to stay put on the 48 hour moorings in Washingborough for the duration as well so that we can visit the farmers market and music festival that The Ferryboat has kindly organised.

The plan is for us to head own tonight and try and secure a mooring for the weekend, but as a Plan B for if the moorings are already occupied we are dragging the dinghy don with us so that we can nose into the reeds just upstream and still get access to the pontoon. Or Plan C is to secure the stern of the boat to the end of the pontoon. Either way we will get to the farmers market!

Motornutz

Last night we went to a local classic and retro car meet organised by a South Yorkshire group called Motornutz. We have attend before the last time the XR4i was on the road. In the last few years there has been a change of venue to The Waverley at Catcliffe, and the new venue is far more suited to the needs of a group of car enthusiasts and the car park is the ideal spot to gather all of the cars together. So here are a few pictures I took throughout the evening.

Slow Cooking Again

With the battery charger fully functional again and no worries about recharging the domestic batteries we decided we could start to use the inverter again at the weekend.

No more waiting for the gas kettle to boil, which takes an age in comparison to the little 240v kettle and I could use the slow cooker again. This was the thing I had missed the most.

Usually whilst out cruising on holiday we would have cooked at least one or two meals in the slow cooker, but no, not a single one on our last holiday. 

So on Sunday it was time to change that and after a trip to the butchers we were slow cooking two huge lamb shanks in a leek, carrot, onion and mint gravy. I put these in at about 9.30am and we ate at about 8.30pm, so they had eleven hours in the pot and they were simply divine, the meat dropping off the bone. To keep thing simple I served them with a sweet potato and parsnip mash which was also really very nice.

Now what to rustle up in the slow cooker this weekend? The choice is endless.

Fixed Or Repaired Daily

You know how just a few short months ago we declared that everything was working on Naughty-Cal? Well we should have known it wouldn't have lasted too long!

Since arriving back from the Fens last week we have started making a new list of jobs that need sorting out.

The most important of which for our immediate needs was getting the battery charger working again. We had already proven it wasn't the charger at fault on Friday evening by connecting it directly to the batteries, so on Sunday Liam delved into the engine bay and set about finding the fault in the wiring. It took a good hour or so but eventually the fault was tracked down to some corroded wires and connections. Once replaced the charger sprang into life and set about recharging the batteries once more. Now we need to hope that the batteries have not suffered too badly from their month of not really being fully charged!

Another job on the list is replacing the seals on the raw water pump, again. This seems to be a reoccuring problem, so this time we are going to get a full rebuild kit for the pump instead of just the seals and hopefully this should cure the leak for a bit longer then 18 months this time. At present the leak is not bad enough to stop us using the boat, it is just a very slight drip over a few hours but it won't get any better on its own so it needs fixing.

And lastly, and most probably the most difficult of the jobs is taking the turbo charger off to send it away for refurbishment. We suffered a complete loss of power on our return journey across the Wash a couple of weeks ago and had to limp back at 5 knots, which in the conditions we had leaving Kings Lynn was less then pleasant to say the least. The only indication of anything amiss, apart from the sudden loss of power, is oil in the air box, which leads us to believe that the turbo is playing up. Getting it refurbished is not a difficult or expensive job, getting it off the engine in the tight confines of Cal's engine bay however could prove to be a tricky process. We have decided that as Cal is coming out of the water again for the winter for three months we will wait until she is ashore before trying to take the turbo off. We have no more big trips planned, so it is slow pottering around for us for a while!