Archive for December 2003

Christmas Eve and the final night at Ocker Hill

24/12/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

In theory, this will be the last night at Ocker Hill. Having done the final Christmas shopping at Merry Hill and the fresh food shopping at Tesco, the car is now packed and ready for the journey home. A quick tidy of the boat and got it ready for the journey in the New Year to Tat Bank – secured items that could fall in transit!

During the colder times when I am using the Alde almost constantly in the evenings, and the stove for warming and cooking meals, it would seem that 1 x 13KG propane gas bottle lasts for 6 days. This works out at about £2.37 per day. Although not a great sum, I suspect that figure to greatly decrease when the Morso is installed, and the weather becomes warmer.

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Is it ready?

23/12/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

(lunchtime)

With only two days left in Kingswinford before going home for Christmas, I decided to visit Titford. The main reasons were; to check on the progress of the lock repairs at “The Crow”, ensure my BW key fitted the main gate at the Pump House and to see if anyone else had moved in yet. Although there had clearly been quite a lot of work done on the locks and the chambers, and with a couple of stacks of new bricks at the top lock (nest to the Pump House), it looked as though work had been stopped for the Christmas break. Fortunately, although the tow-path was cordoned off with a large ply-sheet board, it would appear that all the locks were functioning. My BW key worked the main gate padlock, but as the Pump House was already open, and I could hear voices within, I decided not to try the key in the building padlocks just yet. Other than a couple of steel butties, no other boats were moored up.

The drive from Kingswinford to Titford was relatively easy, with the majority of the route being the same as travelling to Ocker Hill.

Later on I decided to plan the canal route from Ocker Hill to Tat Bank (Titford).

Ocker Hill – Pudding Green Junction (4 miles 8 locks)
TR onto Birmingham Level Main Line (1/2 mile 0 locks)
TL onto Gower Branch (1/2 mile 2 locks)
TL onto Wolverhampton Level (2 1/4 miles 0 locks)
TR at Oldbury Junction onto Tat Bank (1/4 mile 6 locks)

7 1/2 miles 16 locks – max. 6 hours.

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The night the gas ran out

22/12/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Being in Newcastle last week meant a whole week without seeing the boat. With frosts and snow across the country, I was pleased to return to the boat to find no problems. Even the fridge was still running after 12 days on the batteries. Either these batteries are working properly (as they of course should do), or the weather has been so cold that the fridge has had nothing to do!

With Christmas presents and food for the Christmas period to bought this week (a 3-day week), I had not planned on doing any work on the boat. However, whilst waiting for Sunday lunch #1 to warm, I fitted the two 240v electric sockets opposite the galley and in the bedroom. I then showered in the Pump House, ate, phoned home and retired to bed for an early night.

In the middle of the night (post midnight) the gas ran out. I have now realised that when the gas runs out, the Alde pump, which in turn is controlled by the room thermostat, runs continuously trying to pump water round the radiators to reach the required temperature. This of course it will never do, but it doesn’t know any better, so just runs and runs. As I am relatively warm in bed, and I can hear the rain hammering down on the ‘tin can’, I presume there will not be a frost tonight, so I opt for just turning the thermostat right down(to stop the pump) and go back to bed.

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There’s no ‘P’ in our ool

10/12/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

In the evening I swam 40 lengths (of the Leisure Centre pool at Wednesbury not the canal!) With the pool only open to the public after 6pm, it was after 8pm that I got back to the boat. Too late to get down to any ‘real’ work, that together with blurred eyes from the chlorinated water of the ool (of course there’s no ‘p’ in there!) meant I would just have tea and settle down to watch TV. Today’s delight – the 2nd Sunday lunch with a very interesting program on the BBC about viruses (the crawly ones not the computer ones). Last week’s episode was about tapeworms, this week’s viruses. I wonder what they will find to put on at tea-time next week?

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A damp patch in the bedroom!

09/12/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Progress is required as I am fed up of tripping over the runs of cable by the engine room door! I managed to complete the trunking under the step, into the bottom of the wardrobe and vertically up the bulkhead. I then drilled my first hole in the steel through to the engine room. Unfortunately, the largest drill bit I had was 13mm and I needed a hole to accept a 15mm PVC pipe. It was getting late (for making too much noise) so I decided not to drill any more. I therefore opted for routing the cable into the wardrobe and put the covers on the trunking. That’ll do for tonight. Whilst packing up I noticed a damp patch on the floor of the bedroom, next to the bathroom bulkhead. I removed the bedside carpets and decided not to use the shower until the floor was dry (which just so happened to be the following day).

Time for tea. Today it ended up being bacon, eggs and beans, followed by a ‘proper’ shower (in the BW communal facility).

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A typical Monday evening

08/12/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Not feeling like doing much tonight (a typical Monday evening), I decided just to complete the remaining trunking behind the TV and attach the TV double plug socket. Although I had eaten a sirloin steak in Swindon (DBA Team lunch), I still managed to eat one of the three ‘Sunday lunches’ I had brought with me from home!

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Due to technical problems, we are closed until further notice

03/12/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

After several traffic problems, Bev eventually made it to Kingswinford. As neither of us had eaten, we decided to get some food at the Brewer’s Wharf at Merry Hill. The place was fine for a quick drink, but we were too early for food (we would have been the only ones in the restaurant!). Instead we decided to head down the road to the Merry Hill Centre and eat in at Harry Ramsden’s. Although there were some dinners sitting at tables, and a number of serving staff inside, a sign on the door read “Due to technical problems, we are closed until further notice”! In the end, we headed back to Ocker Hill to a local Fish ‘n Chip shop, where we picked up an excellent fish and chip supper which we ate on the boat.

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Progress WILL be made today!

02/12/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Progress WILL be made today! Left the office at 16:00 and went straight to B&Q in Wednesbury, where I picked up, among other things, additional 16A cable and yet more trunking. Got back to the boat at 17:30 and set straight to work (after a cup of coffee).

I decided that I would have to redo all the noggins holding the trunking as the double-sided tape was not holding as well as I had hoped. Indeed, having fixed most of the trunking last week, and started to feed the cables through, much of the trunking was now sagging. Decided to re-use the noggins, screwed upwards into the upper vertical batons, with the trunking, still upside down, now sitting on top of the noggins, rather than being suspended. To ensure the noggins would not protrude below the existing T&G, I had to cut about 4mm off the bottom of each baton.

This worked perfectly, and should not now fall down. Now why didn’t I think of this in the first place?

Having already decided to cut off at 21:00, and as it was now only 18:00, I needed something to eat now. As I had planned to eat my 2nd ‘Sunday Lunch’ at 22:00, I opted for heating up a tin of mushroom soup and sipped at it whilst carrying on with the trunking and cabling. No where near as good as the real thing, but it would at least tide me over until I ate later. I managed to fit over 12 noggins whilst sealing the cable (1×16A, 1x aerial and 2x telephone) into the trunking runs. All the trunking joints were sealed with strong tape.

With a completed run from the TV to the engine room door, it was time to finally decide how to route the cable into the engine room. With the objective of keeping as much of the cable and trunking hidden from view, a route downwards to floor level, behind the bulk head, then surface mounted behind the step (into the engine room) and through to the inside of the wardrobe. Here, surface mounted trunking upwards to the ceiling before entering the engine room behind the instrument panel and to where the RCB and fuse panel would be located.

During the remainder of the evening, I managed to get the cables, housed in the trunking behind the bulkhead to floor level. At 21:15 I downed tools and started to clear away.

Tomorrow, Bev would be coming to the boat, so the weekly putting away of tools and materials was brought forward by a day.

To finish off, I put another ‘Sunday Lunch’ in the oven, started to fill the water tank with the hose pipe (a very slow job), stowed the two full gas cylinders which had been chained to the foredeck last week, emptied the toilet (a job I still wish I didn’t have to do), took the rubbish to the bins, loaded the spare hose pipe and blue nylon rope in the car, showered (in luxury!) and shaved and set down to tea at 22:00.

I phoned Bev at 22:30 and was tucked up in bed by 23:00.

Better progress today than probably any other day (so far)!

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Another Sunday dinner

01/12/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Having had a late night on Sunday, I decided on doing nothing on the boat on Monday night other than have one of the prepared ‘Sunday dinners’ and watch TV.

In the end I decided to connect the TV aerial to the socket (by the TV) and run two sets of telephone cable the length of the boat (with ample to spare at either end).

Not a lot of progress, but at least it’s a move in the right direction.

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