May 2010
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Archive for May 2010

A Lot of Cruising & Some Problems

2626/0505/2010201020102010 by admin.

Since my last post we have covered quite a bit of ground. Having come back up river after leaving Windsor we moored just above Boveney lock where I used my chain saw to stock up on wood. moving on to We then made our way up to Henley and stayed for a couple of nights, then on to Pangbourne whilst moving here our main bilge pump decided to malfunction and turned on despite there being no water in the bilge. ( It was fitted with a digital sensor) having ordered a new one from ME&C we waited here so a friend could drop it out to usas he was comming to take us to a food and craft fair. Fitted and tested new pump and moved on again to Dorchester. This is a very interesting place although a mile’s walk away from the river it was a Roman town built on the site of an Iron age settlement and has the best preserved remains of the type of fortifications in the UK. On leaving here we went back down to Gooring staying here for one night and then on to Thames and Kennet Marina where we left the boat for three days, hiring a car to travel back up to Staffordshire to visit our Dentist. On arrival back at the boat we went out and moored for the night at Sonning intending to go down the river to Hampton Court when we had a call from our friends on Narrowboat Hampshire Rose who were waiting for their Gold licence they were hoping to get out and move to Abbingdon so we decided to travel up river and try and meet up. We moved up to Gooring and moored for the night and the Following day left as soon as the locks opened during the trip on exiting Cullham cut we had a narrow-boat cut across our bow this was a very near miss as I just managed to avoid him. The boat behind me only just avoided my stearn, we arrived late afternoon in Abbingdon and only just managed to moor.the depth of water was down to 1ft under the keel at times and the going was slow. We stayed here a couple of days but our friends still had not had their licence so as we had to meet guests in Henley we left Abbingdon on the 17th May hoping to stay at Wallingford there were no moorings left so we continued to Gooring. The3 following day we moved to Henley and it is here whils waiting for our guests for the weekend that the Generator failed after running it for 10mins. Rang the Boat Builder, ME&C and Vetus to start the ball rolling for the Warranty claim and continued to ready ourselves for our visitors. The Weekend was great hot and sunny, clear skies and fantastic scenery. We took them to Windsor and back up to Henley but during the weekend we realised that the Alternator on the main engine that recharged the Domestic battery bank was not working further calls to Vetus! On realising that we were now in trouble and in danger of loosing all power to the boat we quickly arranged to pop into Thames and Kennet so that we could hook up to the Shore power and arranged for the Engineer to meet us there. 26th Engineer arrived Generator repaired, a wire had come adrift inside. and Alternator replaced so we are mobile again. Tomorow we are going to Pangbourne to finaly meet up with Hampshire Rose It is Geralds Birthday this weekend so we shall be partying a bit. More Photoes below.