Thursday 23^rd April 2020

The French Grey paint had a ¾” skin on top. The paint beneath had gone off and was of a plastic consistency. Although thinned with white spirit, the finish is full of bits. The chandlery does not stock the make of paint, so the poles will have to wait although the coloured stripes can still be applied.

After our afternoon walk, we again sat out on the benches. The rabbit again, crossed the clearing and only ran when Harvey chased it. Obviously, we are disturbing his daily routine.

The first set of cabin strings were made and look quite smart hanging from the side of the boat. Like all rope work, it is repetition and once relearnt, they only took a few hours to make. 

Traditionally, these cabin strings were used when boats were pulled by horses and the towing ropes were hung from them to dry. Today they are largely decorative but will be used on Bridge Street to hold the back end in.

When the boat was built, a mistake was made with the engine bed plate, which meant the stern tube was too low and the standard propeller for the engine hit the skeg. The solution was to fit a smaller diameter propeller with a greater pitch, but this causes the back end to swing rapidly when in reverse gear. This makes Bridge Street extremely difficult to reverse and also causes the back end to go out into the middle of the canal when mooring. Hopefully, when coming alongside the bank to moor, and going into reverse to stop her, it should be possible to step off the boat, holding the centre line and using the cabin strings to stop her swinging out.

Also, because of her eyesight, Brenda finds it difficult to step onto the boat unless she is stationery and precisely positioned. This is not always possible at locks for example and hopefully, the cabin strings will give her more confidence to step aboard, holding onto them.

An upset occurred when Brenda came onto the boat to start dinner. After running the tap for water, the pump started to cut in every 30 seconds or so, indicating a possible leak. All the cupboards were emptied and the towel rack removed to check the piping but nothing untoward was found. The accumulator was topped up with air but this made no difference.

It would seem the non-return valves in the pump have got something stuck behind them causing water to leak back to the tank and dropping the pressure in the system. As with the electrics, Graeme Cunliffe’s plumbing installation is a mess. There are neither isolation valves for the pump or an inlet filter, both which would either prevent this from happening, or make replacement of the pump easier.

All we can do now is to wait and see if any leak does develop, or wait until the tank is empty and replace the pump.

Weather: another chilly start to a lovely hot sunny day.