To cruise or not to cruise?

That was the question. It's been quite a while since I last posted on this blog, largely because our lives have been necessarily focused on our house and family, and our connection with Kantara has simply been an occasional quick visit to make sure she's okay. But I did say in that post that we had booked time provisionally for a cruise in September, and last week was the time we chose. The weather was extremely hot, the occasional rain was extreme, but we're boaters! Real boaters don't care about the weather, do they! Off we go then...

The day we arrived, we stepped off the pontoon down onto the well-deck, under the cratch cover. The thermometer there told us that the maximum temperature had been 56.4℃, and it was currently 31.9. Down in the cabin, the max was 35.8 and currently it was 23.7. Tolerable, but we opened doors front, back and centre, and allowed the gentle breeze of the through-draft to cool us. Time to look around to see what needed to be done.

The outside was the worst. Leaves, spiders alive and dead, and spider webs also full of leaves and spiders alive and dead were to be found in every nook and cranny. The roof was filthy.  When was the last time I'd washed it? July! It looked just the way I found it back then; sooty on top of stickiness. I feared for the condition of the paintwork under it.

"Hey!" I told myself. "At least she's still afloat!"

There were very few folk in the marina, and not many of the boats out on the cut. We put that down to the weather, and people still on holiday. The ducks and swans came to visit with their offspring, all of them almost ready to leave the family. I was surprised to see so many swallows fly-fishing as they swept low over the water. I would have thought that they'd be gone by now.

We were back and ready to cruise.

The heat continued through the day, and bed-time was uncomfortable, too. The early morning was rather cooler, however, and we hurried off to the local Co-op for provisions for our trip.

After the usual engine-check, and the checking of the diesel fuel for stickiness or diesel bug (all was well), we set off.

Cruising again after such a long time was brilliant. There were very few others on the water, the air wasn't too hot, and the canal was beautiful, as always. What a day we were having!

Until the bowthruster stopped working. And then the horn. We pulled over and moored to look into the problems. It didn't take us very long to decide that we had no idea why these failures had occurred. We could carry on without the bowthruster, though there's no denying that it can be very useful at times, but the horn was a different matter. They can be essential on bends or approaching bridges, and, equally importantly, it's illegal not to have one.

We turned around, skipper Grace demonstrating how to do that without a bowthruster, and we moored shortly afterwards. There was only one other boat on this lovely stretch of mooring, and we had a silent night there.

After a boaters' breakfast (fried egg, bacon and tomato sandwich) early the next morning, we set off again under a much cooler sky. We were in no hurry, we just soaked up the beauty of the scenery we were gliding through. Again, were were pretty much alone.

Back on our mooring, I phoned Simon, the guy who last dealt with our bowthruster battery some years ago, and told him our problems. He said he could look at it the following Tuesday.

Our own further investigations found that the horn was not working at all. It was defunct. A quick visit to Midland Chandlers resulted in a replacement, and we fitted it. We're legal now!

Then the battery monitoring system started to sound an alarm and show a red light, advising us of low voltage. The boat has six lead acid batteries. Which was/were faulty?? The 12v domestic devices - water pump, toilet flush, TV, shower pump, central heating, lights and fridge - were all working fine, so we just turned the alarm off and ignored the warning. There was nothing we could do about it, but the problem surely had to be the bowthruster battery.

To cut a long story short, Simon came on Tuesday afternoon and found that, indeed, the battery was dead; it was old, we'd had it right from the very start of our Kantara adventure. Then, when I started the engine for him to test a circuit, the starter battery died, too! Simon left with a promise to return within two weeks to replace the batteries. We're unlikely to be there at the time, so he'll do it in our absence.

The rain had poured heavily while Simon was with us, and carried on afterwards for hours. The next morning, I had a pleasant surprise. It had washed the roof clean for me!

We're back in the house now, looking at the garden and hoping the temperature falls soon. It'd be good to get all of these jobs done quickly enough to return to Kantara and do that cruise!

*******

The week before we cruise

While we were winding on the trip with Jill and Rod, the bowthruster stopped working. Grace was having to use it a lot, because the winding hole was exceptionally shallow at the bow, and she had to manoeuvre a lot more than usual, but it just stopped working. Fears that the motor itself had come to harm (it had sucked through a good deal of silt mud) were allayed when we saw that the pilot light, too, had gone out, suggesting a power supply failure.

Back at the marina the next day, however, there were no blown fuses, and I was at a loss as to what the problem could be. I contacted Simon, our usual electrician, but he couldn't assist until Friday, when we were returning to St Albans. No problem, though. We alerted the office that he would be asking for our keys, and he duly arrived in our absence and discovered that the battery isolator had overheated under load, and melted. He texted me to let me know that he would replace it Monday or Tuesday, just prior to our setting out on our next cruise.

Last Thursday, the weather was very windy, with squally, heavy showers - yet again! So we went to the cinema to see Pompeii, a film which has had very mixed reviews.

A slave-turned-gladiator finds himself in a race against time to save his true love, who has been betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts, he must fight to save his beloved as Pompeii crumbles around him.

It was, erm... entertaining at least, and dramatic, with good use of 3D. But the story was weak, the script poor and some of the acting wooden. But it was free, and out of the wind and rain!

Friday, we returned to St Albans for a friend's wedding on Saturday, which was a great occasion. And it was good that we were back at the house, because Jess had a nasty problem with Photoshop whilst finishing off the artwork for Said the Maiden's forthcoming CD. Grace spent many hours on this, putting things right.

Back to Kantara tomorrow, to get ready for our three-week cruise to Brentford.