We're taking a break on work on Southam to get Hazel ready for the summer. There's a motorway bridge that makes excellent shelter for working on cabins, painting etc at Guide Bridge. We moved Hazel there so that we could work on the cabin.
Unfortunately, a day or two beforehand the pump on the central heating failed. I ordered two replacements, one as spare so that I could do a quick change if another failed. I get them from a company called Solar Project in Lancashire. https://solarproject.co.uk/ . I used to use Chinese made pumps which were about half the price, but noisy and used twice the amount of electricity. I was a bit disappointed that this one had only lasted two years though.
The pumps arrived and I fitted one, but struggled with leaks. Nessie fixed the leaks the following day. The downside of being under the bridge is that we need boatsitters every night to make sure nobody messes with the boat or our tools etc. Helen Kanes stayed for a couple of nights which was very helpful.
Part of the reason for staying under the bridge is the anticipated visit of Kira to repaint the name on Hazel's stern. She arrived on 25th March and immediately set to work. Like many of our volunteers, Kira is camera shy, so only her reverse side appears in the photos!
She did a magnificent job! I'm hoping she'll be able to return soon to do some more painting.
Life was getting complicated. We're short staffed at the shop after Mike left (he got a job driving executives around in posh cars (he says), but it always seems to be at night, Mona Lisa springs to mind). Anyway, the upshot is that I have to run the shop one day a week and do deliveries in the van another day.
Joe Hodgson is a tree surgeon from Cumbria. He helped us to get some of the oak for rejuvenating Hazel . Since then he's been trying to get established on the cut. After several false starts he bought the 1938 built Nurser motor Benevolence from Oxford. After a journey of several months, including sinking once and getting held up by stoppages, he finally arrived.
Benevolence seems to be pretty good but has an iffy plank on the waterline (hence the sinking). She had lots of work done on her in the 1980s by Martin Cox. If I remember rightly, Martin was ousted from the job by others who offered to do it cheaper. Being a generous spirited person, however, he told me they'd done a good job.
Joe had to return to Cumbria, but he left me the code to the lock and permission to use the boat for towing.
Meanwhile, back at the bridge, work began on renewing the electrical cupboard under
Hazel's foredeck. I was never happy with this area. It was put together under pressure to get the boat finished. Nessie was given one of his favourite jobs, ripping it apart. I was disappointed to find that many of the joints were not sealed. Even worse, where there was sealant, it was just squiggles, which tend to trap water and are basically just a waste of expensive sealant. This is why it had started to rot. At one time joints would be sealed with red lead and putty. Nowadays there are lots of less toxic sealants available, but, to be any use, they have to cover all the areas where pieces of wood touch. Otherwise water gets drawn in and lodges, creating ideal conditions for rot. Unfortunately most people think I'm just being awkward when I explain this and they skimp on the job when I'm not looking.
The reserve battery energy store that was fitted 10 years ago was 5 huge Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries. At the time we considered using Lithium, but their reputation for starting fires put us off. Those AGM batteries are still OK, but it's clear that they're past their best. We don't want them to suddenly die in the middle of a trip.
Battery technology has moved on and the replacements are Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (LiFePo). These have the advantages of lithium but without the risk of thermal runaway (which is a posh name for fire). We have to extract the old batteries, which will probably have further use on Southam, then insert the new ones and rebuild the woodwork around them, making it all rather more ergonomic (and properly sealed). Most of the wood used will be reclaimed mahogany rather than T&G. At present, changing a fuse or checking the state of charge is very awkward, so that needs to change,
One problem with being under the bridge is that if we need to work on the other side of the boat we have to take her to the winding hole, wind, then bring her back. One day, when I was working at the Knowl St boatyard, I asked Nessie and Aaron to do this. As Aaron shafted the boat under Hanover St bridge on the return trip, Nessie noticed that somebody was throwing our stuff into the canal. He made a death defying leap to the bank and ran round to confront the culprit, a man in his forties.
Nessie is no stranger to physical confrontation. He met the man at the top of the steep wooded slope that leads down to the canal side. He er, persuaded, the fellow to return to the scene of the crime and help to bring back our power tools and firewood from the bramble bushes where he'd stashed them. The man claimed that two others had run off with our generator (the good solid old fashioned one).
Over the decades Nessie has learned to moderate his anger, and so the man lived to steal another day. It was tempting to tie him up and throw him in the brambles, but, aware that false imprisonment is a serious offence, he was let go. It was then that Nessie spotted some yellow metal lurking in the water and managed to fish out the generator.
I stayed on the boat that night but, the following night, the boatsitter, hearing of the aforementioned incident, decided not to stay "in case he came back". I had to go there at short notice.
On Wednesday April 2nd I spent most of the day meeting potential new volunteers before returning to Hazel to boatsit. I cooked myself a nice meal then just fell asleep, exhausted. April 2nd 2025 would also have been the 40th birthday of my son Dylan. I had intended to spend a little time sitting in the woods remembering his short life, but it didn't happen.
Arranging boatsitting was becoming a bit of a pain. The weather had been dry and sunny, so we didn't really need the shelter. The forecast was good for another week. I decided to take up Joe's offer of using
Benevolence and had a pleasant evening trip towing
Hazel , after an exhausting day doing shop deliveries when I was not feeling well.
Benevolence turned out to be a very pleasant boat to steer.
Now, all the boats are back at Portland Basin. I have so many jobs on the go that I don't know whether I'm coming or going. I think some people imagine that when they can't see me I'm at home with my feet up. Chance would be a fine thing!