Engine and Some Sun

Finally I've been able to put the refurbished injection pump back on the engine. The background for this is that the exhaust seems to be leaking black 'gunge'. I suspect it may well be worn piston rings, but on the other hand, the engine always starts first time, even in freezing weather, so it can't be that bad. With that in mind, I took off the injector pump and had it refurbished at CJ Diesels in Isleworth. They found that the pump elements were sticking and the phasing was out. Sounds like I know what I'm talking about, but I'm just repeating what I was told. Here are all the parts cleaned up and ready to re-install.

Note the red painted governor lever, this runs on ball bearings and the originals on the left were pretty worn. I was able to get standard imperial sized replacements off eBay for about £3, so worth doing. They are a press fit into the lever.

The parts didn't take too long to replace, I finally had some peace and quiet time as Mary and Nate had gone into London to visit friends.  A new experience was 'spill timing' the engine to determine the point at which the injector should fire. This was actually a pretty straightforward process once I'd got the hang of it. With the injectors installed and bled, the engine started first time, which was more satisfying than it probably should've been.

Another little addition was a tachometer or rev counter. I'd got this from the Russell Newbery Diesel company, Nate helped me wire it up, a 20 minute job taking over an hour thanks to a lack of basic skills (well, he is only 27 months old). I was pleasantly surprised to see that it only read 50 RPM too high compared to the hand held laser tach that I have. Not enough to worry about.

For once the weather was on our side, as my sister and her family (and two dogs!) joined us for a trip on the bank holiday weekend. We went downstream to Shepperton and found a great mooring outside the Thames Court hotel.

Brother in law Steve settled into the life, and indeed as I walked back towards Misterton after seeing the others off on the ferry to Weybridge, I found him mooring up a much newer craft.

The crew were on their way upstream from Southampton and wanted to stop for lunch so Steve invited them alongside. We had a good chat with them and it was nice to see the old and new boats together.

I'll post of some pictures of the trip when I get them, but we all had a great time. Although they have visted Misterton many times, my sister and her family have never been out on her. Hopefully they'll want to come on another trip someday.

Normal service has been resumed

Ok, its been a while. We finally got back to our home mooring in Staines on sunday the 23rd of February. Typically, we had gone away to Suffolk for the weekend for a change of scene (or at least a change of hotel). On saturday Claire our landlady sent us a text saying that the river conditions were getting better, so on sunday morning Mary rang the lock keeper at Shepperton lock who confirmed this was the case.

 So we checked out of the hotel early and drove back to Weybridge, calling friends Hannah and Ed (and Harry) on the way for crew. Luckily they were free. We got to Misterton at about 2:30 in the afternoon and I fired up the engine straight away ready to go. As soon as the others arrived, we cast off into the flow of the Thames. Even though the river was on 'yellow' caution warning, there was still quite a strong current as we manoevered over to the lock. I nearly hit some pilings near the entrance but managed to narrowly avoid this through either skill or luck (I suspect the latter).

From then on the trip was fairly slow, I was a little worried about Chertsey bridge as it can be a little bit tricky getting through as this video shows. These guys are professionals, in much stronger flow, but even so, I was still a bit worried.

However, we managed to get through without any drama. As we entered Chertsey lock they took it off 'Red' and moved it to Yellow, so we could go through and onwards to Staines. Mary made a video of the journey home.

Finally we arriveed just as it was getting dark, it  was a great relief to be back and a huge thanks to all that helped over the last year!

Now that we're back, more normal activities such as rebuilding the injection pump for the engine can resume. Here is Nate with the rebuilt pump and injectors, now we just have to figure out how it all goes back together.

 

Weybridge

As those in the UK will know, its been a very wet winter. It rained heavily over the christmas period with the result that the Thames flooded again. Indeed, for the week that we were barge-sitting 'Rival' we had to wade through ankle deep water carrying Nate just to get to her.

The net result of all this was that Misterton stayed safely moored at Teddington. We went down to visit on christmas day, but it was too cold to do much.

Finally on the 12th January, almost a month after arriving at Teddington, the river levels dropped enough for us to make a move. This was critical, as the first lock above Teddington was due to shut on the 14th of January for two months, meaning we'd be stuck downstream of it.

It was a slow journey, even by our standards, but we made it as far as Weybridge, where we knew we could go no further - the river on the stretch beyond was still running too fast.

Mary made a short video (6 minutes) of our trip here.

Unfortunately, we've been unable to move ever since due to, you guessed it, more rain. Who would've thought that too much water would be a liabilty for living on a boat.

It also snowed, which was a nice change from the rain.

  Then of course it rained again, melting the snow, causing the river to flood. Not quite as bad as last time, but there was over a foot of water (30cm for colonial readers) flowing fast over the dock.

There is a lot of strain on that front rope, but the local Environment Agency office is on the other side of the river, and they kept an eye on her, even phoning up to check I'd used mooring rings rather than bollards. I think they were a bit worried about a 70 ton boat getting carried downstream on the current, but either way, its good customer service. I must say on the whole the Environment Agency people on the river are very good.

So, I'm writing this from yet another hotel, dreaming of the day when we can get back on board. It has to be soon, doesn't it?

Goodbye MSO

..and merry Christmas!

We are sadly, not spending christmas on Misterton, but in the next best thing, we are barge-sitting 'Rival', a similar sized Dutch barge for friends Brett and Sandy.

To go back about 10 days, I arrived on the morning of friday the 14th december at MSO at low tide.

    

There wasn't much to do at this point apart from go and have breakfast at a local cafe. High tide was at about 3:00pm, so I wanted to leave at about 1:30pm in order to get the last of the flow to help push us up to Teddington. Our friend Hannah was going to come with me, but needed to attend to something at the last minute, so Sandy once more agreed to accompany me on a trip. We left at about 2:00pm after saying goodbye to Jake and the MSO team. We'll miss going down there, the quality of the work was worth it, and Jake even made me a coffee on the day of departure.

I steered us out of the river Brent and onto the Thames, but then asked Sandy to take over steering so I was free to pace about the decks and fret about being out on the river in heavy rain. To that end I'd lit our old oil navigation lamps, which added a festive glow to the proceedings. I think Misterton was pleased to out on the water again, as she seemed to be moving along quite nicely. The half tide barrier at Richmond came up quickly, but the gates were lowered and we were straight through.

The tideway itself was quiet, we only saw two other boats on the way.

                   

It had rained most of the way up but as we approached Teddington the sky cleared a  little and the light looked very atmospheric with mist and shadows. I took over steering again as Sandy (an artist) wanted to get some photographs of this strange winter afternoon light.

As it was a spring tide, Teddington locks only needed to raise us about 2 inches to match the level of the non-tidal Thames and we were soon moored up just past the footbridge.

This, unfortunately, is where we still are as heavy rains mean the river is in flood and unsafe for navigation. We have 10 days for it to slow down, otherwise we won't be able to get back home due to winter lock closures.

A scheme that depends on the British weather - What could go wrong?

MSO #7

We went down to MSO as usual on saturday, but there was a difference this time - Misterton had been taken out of dry dock and was afloat for the first time in almost three months. She was tied up next to 'Captain Haddock', MSO's work flat.

There is still the lettering to go on the front, and some minor work inside, but that's about it.

 Because this part of the river is tidal, there was quite a drop down to the work flat. Mary and I decided that Nate might be better off spending an hour or so with her at the local soft play area while the tide came in.

While they did this, I ran the engine, which pleasingly started the first time, and set about charging the batteries. This took a little while to get going as they were completely flat. Hopefully they are not damaged, we'll see this weekend.

When Mary and Nate came back the tide had come in enough so that they could just step across. Nate was very excited to be back on board his home and was upset when we had to leave. Some potato wedges took the edge off the angst for him though.

We like the anchor painted silver, a nice touch.

Still waiting for the Thames to stop being in flood so we can get home, still hopeful of getting there for Christmas on board, but its going to be close!