Next week - Round the horn to St Ives

Over the last couple of weeks I retraced my journey back to Milton Keynes where I met up with Pete Billings in his boat Hyperion. We spent few days in MK before setting off up the Grand Union to Stoke Bruerne where we stopped overnight and enjoyed a rather good take away from the local Indian, the Spice of Bruerne.

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Pete with his dog Newfie setting off after a short break on the GU

Hyperion and Mr Bunbury at Gayton junction where we parted company as Pete continued up the GU to his marina while I headed down the Northampton Arm to join the river Nene.

After leaving Pete I had a steady run down the river, stopping for a couple of days at Oundle before reaching Peterborough on Friday. I've spent the weekend catching up with my eldest son and doing a few little jobs on the boat although to be honest it's been too hot to do much.

I'm booked through Stanground lock in the morning and will head across the Middle Levels and should be ready to pass through the Denver lock and into the Gt Ouse on Wednesday. A few more days gentle cruise up the river should see me in St Ives by next weekend. I then plan to spend a few weeks on the river between St Ives and Bedford and anyone in the area is very welcome to pop in to say hello.

Tring the summit of the Grand Union

Saturday morning started off with light rain which was forecast to clear by mid morning which it did. I headed up the canal towards Berkhamstead, only 5 miles away but with 12 locks to climb the trip would take 4 or 5 hours. After the first lock I met up with another boat heading the same way and we shared the locks thus sharing the workload.  Shortly after departing the sky clouded over and a heavy shower ensured I was soaked although at least the rain was warm. Contrary to the forecast the showers continued through the day making the journey damp but not unpleasantly so. The trip was fairly uneventful apart from passing this moored boat which I initially thought had been involved in an unusual accident until I realised that somebody has actually attached a car body to their boat as a cabin extension.  There are some unusual DIY alterations to boats but this is the most extreme I've seen so far.

We arrived in Berkhamstead mid afternoon, just in time for the rain to stop and the sun to reappear.  A quick visit to Waitrose ensured the larder and fridge were restocked ready for the next few days and I passed the early evening fishing - or at least dangling a fishing line in the canal but the fish weren't playing.  I realised that the mooring was close to the main west coat rail track with high speed trains passing frequently and nosily. Thankfully the rail traffic eased by midnight.  After an early start courtesy of the 5:10 to Paddington I decided that it was time to relocate to a quieter mooring. After an excellent, if not entirely healthy, breakfast in a local cafe I set off on the final stretch of 7 miles and 7 locks to reach the Tring summit and a quiet mooring at the end of the short Wendover Arm.

After reaching the summit at Cowroast I was treated to a 3 miles of tranquil treelined lock free canal before making the turn onto the Wendover Arm.

This arm was originally 5 miles long and led, not surprisingly, to Wendover.  Like many canals it fell into disrepair and is currently being restored by volunteers as and when funding is raised. Only the first 1.5 miles is currently open to navigation but it worth the detour. I found a spot at the very end of the canal with a stunning view over the Chiltern hills.

Reaching the Tring summit marks the end of the uphill locks although there are plenty on the down hill journey to Milton Keynes starting with a group of 7 in the first mile - that challenge will wait for a day or two while enjoy the peace and quiet. Who knows I might even get on with some much needed retouching of the paintwork.

Beginning the journey north

Time for a long overdue blog update.  After a brief shore leave I returned to Mr Bunbury at Hampton Court on 27 Jun when my brother ended his short break aboard.  As ever Dave took good care of her and I had lunch with the family before they hit the road back to the Isle of Man. During a brief shopping trip found a lovely two bottle tantalus in  local antique shop at the right price, for some reason these are usually very overpriced.  My shipmate Harley Bear was not impressed.

After seeing Dave on his way I had a short cruise down the river to Kingston to stock up the larder before heading through Teddington lock on Saturday and back onto the Grand Union Canal. On Sunday I moved onto the Paddington Arm and moored up near the infamous Wormwood Scrubs before heading on to Paddington on Monday. This is a lovely well maintained mooring next to Paddington Station and thus very handy for the city. 

Paddington Basin

Whilst walking along Praed Street I spotted a Tattooist's shop and having been thinking about getting a tattoo for a few months I decided to investigate.  The place turned out to be the Duda Tattoo studio, run by a Brazilian family who have worked in New York and Milan before moving to London this year. After chatting with the owner and checking out his previous work, I when ahead and after a couple of hours I left with a slightly sore arm carrying the phrase "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think". The title of one of my favourite songs by Jools Holland's big band and my mantra for life.

Having already spent time in London I spent the rest of the week cruising steadily back up the Grand Union canal and arrived today in Berkhamstead. This stretch begins the climb up the Chilterns and has many locks. The pst couple of days have been very hot and on Friday I covered only 5 miles but they included 12 locks. Today was even worse with 12 locks in only 4 miles but it was much cooled today with a few showers to keep me cool.  

Shortly after leaving Paddington I passed this beautiful maintained canal side garden with a row of conifers and decorated wall. A little oasis in the busy city.

The weeks journey passed through some peaceful countryside including Cassiopia Park near Watford and just further north Grove park. The weather was very hot and sunny so the shade of the trees was very welcome.

I plan to spend the weekend in Berkhamstead before continuing north towards Milton Keynes next week.  I gave the engine an early oil change this morning after only 50 hrs. Always wise after a rebuild.  

Re Engined and moblile

Hello again to anyone who reads this blog. Having been towed into Shepperton Marina 7 weeks ago I am pleased to say that the broken engine has now been fully stripped, deep cleaned, rebuilt and finally installed on Friday 20 Jun.  For the technically minded the following parts were replaced:

Crankshaft and bearings, one valve, valve stem and pushrod and new piston rings.  The head was deep cleaned and the bores were polished.  

Before

After

As it was late afternoon when we completed the installation I limited my first trip to a half mile cruise out of the marina and over the river to the pub opposite to treat myself to dinner.  Quite a growth of weed had built up on the hull while I've been stationary and the local swans treat it as mobile salad bar. While I'm happy for them to remove it the constant "Tap, Tap Tap" of beaks on hull can be annoying. 

Swan Salad Bar

On saturday I headed off around 7am to miss the midday sun and cruised very gently for a couple of hours to Staines where I refilled the larder and had a long overdue haircut.  By mid afternoon I realised that the mooring was quite noisy as it was close to a busy road and pub so I decided to continue an extra couple of miles to Runnymede. I spent the afternoon there but discovered I had no mobile phone signal and so I spent the early evening having a gentle cruise up to Windsor where I arrived around 8:30pm. Although very busy I managed to find a handy mooring in a nice shady spot under the trees. 

Ironically, having spent 7 weeks stranded in the marina I am no sooner on the move than I have a few days shore leave due as my brother is taking the boat for the next few days.  However, worry not I shall spend a fees days visiting an old friend who has kindly offered me a bed and I shall be back onboard by the coming weekend.

For the next couple of months I plan to retrace my steps back down the Thames to London and then gently back up the Grand Union before heading back onto the rivers of East Anglia in September.

 

Engine diagnosis

Today's update might be a bit boring for the non technically minded although I'm sure my old engineering buddies will be interested.

The nice man from Primrose engineering has stripped the engine and identified the fault as a failed crankshaft journal on the No. 3 cylinder. For those that understand this stuff this is a picture of the underside of the cylinder head and the faulty cylinder is the centre one which has clearly not been firing properly which is why it is so clean compared to the ones on either side which are in good condition.

The journal has been reduced from 50mm to 46mm which is a large enough gap to stop the cylinder firing due to lack of compression and also for the piston to hit the cylinder head on the exhaust stroke, you can make out the bright ring at the 11 o'clock position.

The crank is badley damaged and we cannot source a replacement at present. However, it can be recovered through a process called metal spraying where new metal is effectively added and this can then be machined to the original specification. This is extremely good news as I would be looking for a replacement engine otherwise.

Richard, the engineer, will now go ahead with repair of the crankshaft, check all the other components and replace what needs replacing before rebuilding the engine and refitting to Mr Bunbury. This should take a couple of weeks so I hope to able to continue my travels in early June.

 

Engine update

Having been towed 2 miles off the river into the local (bloody expensive) marina for a mere £360 and have not made much progress in the past 10 days.

Entering the Marina on Tow

 The engineer spent 4 hrs diagnosing the problems and decided that there was a faulty fuel injector pump which needed replacing.  This was not the only fault but he felt it best to start with the small stuff. He returned a few days later to spend another 5 hrs fitting the part and to be fair the engine run a bit smoother but when we took her up the river for a test it was quite clear all was not well as the oil pressure began to fall and there was a distinct big end knock.  Clearly the engine needed to be removed and stripped to identify and repair the fault. Having already run up a £1,500 bill with the prospect of a further £3000 for a rebuild at the Thames hourly rate of £80 I spent the weekend contemplating my next move as I could see this quickly becoming a money pit.

I had lots of advise from the canal forum but of course much of this was conflicting. I basically had 3 options: repair this engine, buy a new engine or buy a second hand engine.  I quickly discarded the new engine option as they are around £9,000 which is a bit outside my range. Used engines ranged from around £1,500 to £7,000 depending on age and model. The boat could be fitted with a range of engines but each would require some modification to the boat to match it up with the drive shaft which of course is more time and money.

I have opted to go ahead with the engine rebuild but instead of using the maria the engine has been collected by a  fellow boater who runs his own engineering business repairing Lister engines. The engine was collected today, as you can see it being lifted into the trailer below.

The engine sees the light of day 

The engine will be stripped over the next couple of days and I should have an idea of costs early next week when they have quantified the work required but I'm expecting it will be below £2000. I have the peace of mind of knowing that the engine is in good hands with a Lister specialist who will not rip me off and does not charge the earth.  I'll update again when I have news.

Engine Trouble

Sorry for the lack of updates but the good ship Mr Bunbury is not well. Coming up the Thames a couple of weeks ago the oil pressure dropped to virtualy zero and the engine became very smoky. I've been in the marina since and after changing a few bits the engineer has come to the conclusion that at least one big end has gone and it needs a full strip and rebuild.

This is something of a setback to say the least as it will take a few weeks and cost an arm and a leg. The blog will go on hold until I'm back on the move, probably by mid June.