Anton's Blog: March 2013

Saturday 30 March 2013

Metal Magician's - 25th March

The cold weather continues here at the Marina, with a biting easterly.
Some snow remains, though we didn't have the heavy falls experienced over the hills and elsewhere.

When will it warm up?

I walked round to see what the boat engineers were doing to a hire boat that they had pulled out.

Oh dear! A very bent rudder!

Apparently it had got wedged under the counter when in hard reverse?!

The rudder stock flange is unbolted

The boat lifted up to release the rudder

How to flatten the rudder?

Some brilliant lateral thinking by the engineer – use the weight of the boat and trailer.

Final touches

Back into the water – and the holiday cruise can continue!

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Converging on Castleton - 28th Feb

Joining the Ramblers Society (never thought I would?!) has given me links to the East Cheshire group who walk midweek – an advantage leaving weekends free for other things.

This walk was the first of three longer ones I have done recently – the others were mostly misty so no pics!

An early start to drive over to Mam Tor NT car park was thoroughly rewarded with an interesting 10 mile walk over the southern side.

It was a very cold day though sunny.

X – marks the start of the walk

This is our descent looking west from Lord's Leap

Here looking north across to the Kinder plateau

As we descended south through Perrydale, the terrain is more White than Dark Peak.

Road sections were required to avoid a much longer circuit.

The curious long-necked black sheep?

Climbing back up to Eldon Hill, our leader showed us the 'Eldon Hole'. This limestone pothole is about 60 metres deep and was well known in the 17/18^th Century.

We peered into it from the safety of the fence.

Eldon Hole

Our walk then gained height to the reach the easterly track way-marked the Limestone Way. A tricky stony descent down Cave Dale saw us arrive at Castleton.

Ramblers – well wrapped up against the biting cold wind

Descending Cave Dale with some ice underfoot

After a tea break in the town, we headed west and climbed past the tourist Speedwell and Treak Cliff Caverns.

Being shadowed by the para-gliders

Uphill finish

Looking back east to Hope and the cement works.

I had visited here as a boy scout whilst camping at Hathersage.

It seemed a great adventure as an 11 year old from north London – 1962 I think?!

Happy memories!

Tuesday 5 March 2013

In June 2011, we got Adam from PB Mechanical to fit a Webasto Thermo Top E in the engine room, right up near the calorifier.
Until just recently, we have had good service from this boiler, including a cold period out on the towpath in the early winter of 2011.

In the last month, I noticed the boiler would cut out before the timer finished – so decided it was time for a service.

Simon the Engineer here at Overwater Marina used a laptop link to test the running under load. The diagnosis gave it was time for a service with the glow plug not efficient.

The Webasto was recorded as having done 1400 hours with a surprising 2030 start ups?

This could be due to the advice received to run the boiler in shorter full load periods.
Simon's advice was to let the boiler run constantly when heating the radiators and let the electronics cycle as programmed. We will have to see next service how it has fared.

Anyway, it needed a new complete burner unit which came with a fitting kit.

Webasto taken off for it's service

Burner unit extracted from the casing

Wonky burner tube (out of focus) with the carbon deposits in the burner chamber

Back fitted and running – all in an afternoon!

Saturday 2 March 2013

Waterless Wide-beam

A week or so ago, we heard that the Marina was to be host to an Elton Moss display boat.

This one being a wide-beam!

As we waited, we heard it had come over from Poland and hadn't set off from London until 9am, even though the crane had been 'booked' from mid-morning.

However, once the lorry eventually arrived, the offload was pretty efficient.