Low water....

..... and no water.

When I arrived here at Apsley there was only one place to moor up, that was immediately after the lock I had just come down, it was ok but a bit shallow, the stern of the boat sits lower in the water than the bow so it meant I could not get the stern against the bank but it was no problem really and one of those things you just accept, but when I woke at 6am on Saturday I rolled out of bed, literally, the boat was listing quite badly as the water level in the pound has dropped overnight, I knew this might occour as I have been here before, the bottom paddles of the lock adjacent to me should be left up and the lock empty but whether out of laziness or just not reading/seeing the signs a lot of boats do not do this, so having had brekkie and sorted myself the first job was to run some water down through the lock leveling my boat.

What had actually happened was the water level had risen during the afternoon and so the stern of my boat had drifted in to the bank and the when the level had dropped again I was left high and dry, so I decided to employ a second bow line (called a 'spring') to keep the bow in and prevent the stern drifting in again, this is not their real purpose, there are meant to prevent the boat moving backwards and forwards as other boats pass by but I thought I'd try it anyway.

Black rope is the 'spring' line

I'm about 30" off the bank at the stern

This situation has also led to me being chief paddle raiser and lock monitor, before going to bed Saturday night I walked up to the lock and raised the paddles, Sunday I woke still level, however I have just had a cuppa on deck and the last boat up the lock not only ignored the signs but he has left the top gates open with the paddles raised, pure laziness and inconsiderate in this instance, I will sort it out later, partial rant over!

Back to the project, Saturday saw me remove the hot water cylinder, draining it and putting the water from it, by way of a 20ltr water can, into the cold water tank, this process along with the removal took roughly 3 hours, the next 4 hours was spent doubled up in the engine bay removing a heavy layer of rust from beneath the cylinder and a lighter layer elsewhere, by the end of it I was knackered filthy and my back was urging me to have a pint of beer, not yet though, first I had to get the area treated, then having done that, tidy up, then having done that a nice long hot shower.........would have been lovely........ but no hot water, so three kettles of boiling water and about a 30 minute process of washing my hair and then myself, it's blooming awkward stood in a bowl of hot water trying to get the grime off! Then I sat and had a bottle of London Pride beer, lovely.

That rust is no more !

The treatment takes 24 hours to dry so no work on it today, hopefully it will be dry along with the weather tomorrow and I can get two coats of Hammerite on, well hopefully, this is England!

Now I am off to sort the lock out, again.