I WANT SUNSHINE

A break in the weather gave me the chance to install my Solar panel but without Mr. Sun doing the brightness bit my batteries are getting little power at the moment. When i first installed it in the horizontal position with an absence of sun the control box was reading 0.27amps and the voltage from the panel wires read 13.38v so at least, i`m assured by other boaters, it works. All i need is sunshine to see the amp reading climb and it wasn`t long before i got my wish and with just a weak winter sunburst the amps hit first 3 then 4.
I don`t expect much this time of year but come the summer sun i can imagine a lot of power from the panel will result in less engine running.

Less diesel used will eventually pay for the panel but the green brigade will still complain of the Carbon Footprint left by it`s manufacture but to be honest my intention is to save diesel and wear on my engine. If i worried about Carbon footprint i wouldn`t have had a boat manufactured but that also applies to any purchase we make so where do we draw the line. Perhaps I/WE should be happy that the making of this panel will cut down on future pollution from my engine.

I do believe, and by all means have your say, that as a live aboard boater my footprint is a lot less than when i lived in a house.
I use logs for the majority of my heating, no gas boiler heating a big house.
Minimal lighting needed on a boat with no lights left on all over the house.
No electrical appliances left on standby.
No car so making better use of public transport.
No regular decorating which includes new carpets and furniture.
Engine generates not only electricity & hot water but moves me around the country, does a car do all 3.
The list is probably bigger but all the above not only cuts my footprint but more important in these times of recession drastically reduces my cost of living while giving me a wonderful stress free life.

The solar panel is mounted on this turntable that was made for me (sorry bit of footprint) by my good friend Alan. The large circular part is actually a pulley wheel as used in lift shafts and it
enables the panel to be turned through 360 degrees to face the sun. The top part enables the panel to be angled and i have bolted and riveted the panel into this section and the whole unit is bolted down on the roof. I have fixed two legs to support the panel from the rear all being folded flat when travelling.

Something i`ve not noticed before is the Little Grebe.

Recently had an e mail from one of the g`children, yes that`s me in the picture. I remember over Christmas being shown a present, "just sit and look at this" Jordan told me. My image was captured and suitably or perhaps not decorated with glasses and head gear and if you look closely eye shadow & lipstick. I wouldn`t mind but it`s not my usual colour.

4 = H2o 4ed = 3 dom

Thaw = ice thawed = freedom

When ice is melted by increasing its temperature, the open cage structure starts collapsing due to partial break down of the hydrogen bonds. H₂O molecules start to come closer; also the water molecules separated from ice structure fill the vacant spaces in open-cage structure. This results into concentration of volume. Hence, the density of water starts increasing on heating above the melting point of ice and becomes maximum at 4°C.

On further rise in temperature, the kinetic energy of molecules increases and they once again start moving away from one another. This causes expansion, which is much more than the concentration caused by breaking of hydrogen bonds. Therefore, above 4°C the density of water once again starts decreasing. Thus, the maximum density of water is at 4°C.

There now you know what happened to all the ice that stopped all the boating the last few weeks. It`s no good just saying the ice has melted you need to know what is happening so i`ve delved into my scientific brain( the internet) and now you know.


So nice to be cruising after being iced in and even though the southern Gd. Union Canal has
become so familiar over the years today it all seemed like virgin territory. Under the fancy stone bridge the Earl of Essex insisted was built before he would allow the canal to pass through his land.


On through Lady Capels lock alongside the wharf entrance of the same name. Lady capels wharf came about because of coal duties imposed by the Corporation of London on coal shipped by sea and when the canal was born a clause in the act that was granted to the canal company prohibited coal being transported into London. The wharf was set up to off load coal for shipment by horse and cart untill later when coal was allowed into London upon payment of fee`s paid on tonnage.
I took this through the gate at Lady Capel lock because i was so happy to see NB Valerie with no ice imprisoning her. You can see how the gate paddle has been wound up allowing the water to empty from the lock in case any non boaters are interested. The white plate that covers the hole is plastic as opposed to the originals that were wood.



On through Hunton Bridge locks and the old beast has been there for.....donkeys years....sorry.


During the freeze i decided to replace the hot power hungry Halogen bulbs with LEDs and after
a lot of searching on the webbernet came across a fellow boater running a cottage type industry from her boat. When sourcing led bulbs you will find some that seem cheap but be wary these tend to be only rated at 12v and as we boaters know when running the engine to charge our batteries voltages above 12v can be running through the wiring. In fact i have just put a meter on one of my sockets and got a 14.6 reading that could cause these cheaper bulbs to fail. The ones i have purchased are rated at 10-30v so this problem is avoided.
The picture above shows my spotlight above the dinette that has 12 LEDs and below the ceiling lights have 9LEDs.
The site you need if interested is HERE ask for Sarah and say Les sent you. I`m not on any commission and only give this link because of the 1st class service i recieved.
The 1.8w and 2.4w power of these bulbs is far less than the 10w Halogens i replaced with just one section of 4 ceiling lights amounting to 7.2w against the original 40w of the Halogens so you can see a lot less demand on your batteries.

SWEDISH BOYS TOYS

Bet the blog title got the guys attention. Sorry lads no pin ups.

Just recently being iced in has given me so much time on my hands that i have been reading more boaters blogs than usual some for the first time and some that have remained un-read for a considerable time which along with my usual list of regulars has left me somewhat Blog eyed.

It`s a bit like RPI (repetitive strain injury) but with Blog eye after switching off the laptop and say your looking out the window one eye will see the trees whilst the other will see a blog page. Maybe i should sue the bloggers or the blog administrators..................get a life Les just stop reading so many.

Anyway what i`m trying to tell you is that reading all these blogs it came to my attention that many were reporting the temperature or lack of it outside the boat and the abundance of it inside as recorded on many different electronic gizmo`s and i thought it was about time i up-graded my temperature device.
Now my present system requires no batteries, is fully portable and has no restriction on min/max temperatures that it will record. Unlike modern day gadgets it has no digital readout but a voice, as in the sat-nav boxes, which uses phrases like "blimey it`s hot" or "it`s ffffffffffffff freezing" so you have no need of digital technology. All sounds very 21st century so why up-grade i hear you say........well this gadget is 62yrs old not called a Wii but a Me.

So with all this time to use up i wandered around town and came across a newly opened branch of Clas Ohlson a company that originated in a small Swedish village back in 1918. It`s an IKEA type shop but on a smaller scale with just 7 shops in the UK so far selling not flat pack furniture but all sorts of small items, click the link and have a look. Hardware, electrical, home and in the drop down box under leisure you`ll find boating.

One of my purchases pictured below cost £3.99 and i thought why not have a "boys toy" as a back up to my old`Me`.
So toys are for playing with and my first playful experiment was to test the surface temperature of my recently carpeted lower half of the boat. Ignore the readings in the picture for now because what i did was to use the outside probe that comes with about 2 metres of cable and placed it on the carpeted wall near the floor for half an hour and for the same time on the one remaining section of wood panelled wall 3" to the left at the same height. OK too much info but this is a scientific test and we must be precise. The reading on the original wood panel fell 2.5 degrees so the carpet has made a big difference, Big deal! Holy smoke! Wow! I didn`t need this gizmo to tell me, my 62yrs old `Me` temperature device emitted a new phrase as i sat at the dinette "that`s a lot better" it said.

Next up is just how hot is it in the boat and for this the device was placed 2` above the floor roughly a 1/3 of the internal height of the boat sort of groin level.....Whoops can i say groin? after all this is a live broadcast worldwide and you know what happened to Johnathan wossi Ross, no it`s fine so say my behind the scenes production team.

Now before this experiment started my original `Me` device told me i was warm and comfy sitting in a short sleeved shirt. In the picture the device reads 20.0C at 19.27 and looking at it now a day later it reads 19.3 so my question is should this device rule my life, do i rush off now and put on a sweater as the gizmo says the temp. is dropping. No, no, no i will decide my own comfort level this is just a toy.

Another thought on these temp. thingy`s where do you site it, halfway up the wall or as in my scientific test a 1/3rd up. I`ve just hung it up on the top of the curtain rail and in the last 5mins it has climbed to 25C and rising but i still feel the same with no desire to start a narrow boat nudist colony. Yep my minds made up, just numbers take my advice and do the `Me` test.

Above another of my purchases at the Clas Ohlson store was this 60LED work lamp complete with not only a mains charger but for us boating folk a 12v charge plug. With 5hrs life between charges it is far from a toy and in fact had it`s first use today when down in the engine hole checking the battery levels. Normally £9,99 i picked it up at a sale price of £6.99.


Above one of the windows glazed with the Storm guard film and as i said in the last blog it looks just like a normal window but without the condensation.

Just a bit of fun this blog and i can assure all my timid readers no gizmo was harmed during testing.

INTO 2010

A happy new year to you all and if the cold and icy conditions are getting you down don`t despair the day`s are getting longer and summer is on the way. I always look on the Christmas break as being the summit level of winter and once it`s passed the view of spring and warmer weather can be seen from this high point in the not so far distance.

Well all good plans go wrong and this year wrong they went big time. After my trip to Paris the plan was to cruise north up the Gd. Union to Cow roast near Tring so as to be not only close to all the family but to also be in a better position to get through the stoppages at Stoke Bruerne and Braunston after Christmas.

It all went wrong a week before Christmas when the snow first fell but this didn`t put me off i decided to push on but after doing a few locks that were snowed in and walking across slippery lock gates i decided life was to precious and moored up for the holiday. After the snow came the frozen canal and more snow so i am now resigned to not getting past Braunston until the work there finishes on March 5th if BW finish on time.


The section i was moored remained slightly iced up owing to the River Gade flowing in but above the lock the ice had taken a strong hold. in the picture above i had come up in the lock to get water and left the boat in the lock and managed to stretch my hose to the water point that can just be seen on the far left of the snowy towpath. It was then just a case of going back down in the lock and reversing to my mooring. So i have water, coal, wood and diesel also local shops nearby and the town centre 25mins walk so let it do it`s worse i will survive.


Next month will mark 4yrs of being afloat and i can tell you this spell of cold weather is the worst i have had. Now inside a boat the whole of the living space is about 18" below the waterline and below knee level is usually where the cold will first be felt but over all the past winters this has not been a problem for me until now and the plunging temperatures have made the below knee
area uncomfortable. My solution was to add insulation to this area in the form of carpet with the top half of the walls left as oak panels, two days on and the difference is very noticeable.

Before the carpet solution having the fire belting out as much heat as possible led to an increase in condensation on the windows and so i decided to try a double glazing film that had been mentioned on a canal Internet forum and also by my friends Dot/Derek on NB Gypsy Rover.
The result was amazing with no more wet windows to constantly wipe and the cost of 2 packs a modest £8.30. All you do is apply double sided tape around the frame, cut the film to size and apply to the tape and apply gentle heat from a hairdryer all over and the film tightens making all the ripples disappear. Tried to take a picture but the film was so clear it didn`t properly show so you just get a pic of the pack.

So a couple of jobs have helped pass the time and the weather forcast that usually i`m not bothered about indicates rising daytime tempratures towards the w`end so perhaps a move might soon be possible.

TIME FOR A BREAK

Have a lovely Christmas and thanks for reading my blog.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FOLKS

THINGS TO DO BEFORE IT`S TO LATE

Well i`ve talked about it for long enough so being moored at Paddington was the ideal time to make my first trip on Eurostar to Paris.

So into the booking hall at St Pancras International and faced with several choices i chose the
package that gave me breakfast on the way out and dinner on the return trip, no expense spared this was a one off that would reduce my list of things to do before i die. Morbid, sad, spooky call it what you want but remember we`ve all got life but for sure it`s not forever.

The ticket came out of the machine at 7.16 and i was on board as the train departed at 7.27 with the aid of a personal escort to the head of passport control and the metal detector/bag search right to my own table seat in less than 11mins.

Took this pic on the way back as no time on the way out.

Gare Du Nord station.

This must be what Boris has planned for London.

One of the many trip boats on the R. Seine

Bridge decoration

Eiffel Tower had heavily armed police on patrol.

Arc de Triomphe

Looking from the Trocadero with Christmas stalls and ice skating stretching down to the Seine with the tower on the other side.

More Christmas stalls along both sides of the Champs Elysees. I consumed several cups of hot wine as i walked around to keep out the bitterly cold weather.

These vents must have been ventilation shafts from the Metro as many people gathered to take advantage of the warm air coming up.

A CRUISE OF CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

Turning off the main line at Bulls Bridge the Paddington Arm is lock free for 13 miles into Paddington basin. Now i was born in this area and so the cruise became a journey back to my childhood with memories coming back as more and more water passed under the boat. So i`ll just dig out a mince pie to go with my cup of tea before i share my memories with you.


This is the arm that went into the Gasworks at Kensal Green and as kids we swam in the canal here as the water was always warm. Must have been something to do with the works.


The Flora pub where Mum worked part time on top of her full time job elsewhere. Not until you grow up with a family of your own that you appreciate what your parents did to give you holidays and everything else that gave me a happy childhood.

On this site was Askey`s factory that made ice cream wafers and cornets and the doors would always be open because of the heat from the machinery so we would get the broken cornets from the ladies sitting at the packaging tables.


This was my local library where we as kids would go to not only get books but attend film shows. One memory was a tank of Tadpoles that everyone checked on each visit as they developed into frogs.




Behind the Library was Queens Park Estate comprising some 2000 plus terraced houses one of which was my home for 17yrs. There was about 100 homes in each street built around the 1870`s and you can see how big by the picture with just 2 up 2 down outside loo(they did get upgraded so a tin bath in front of the fire was bath night for quite some time) and a 20` rear garden. I remember i could just get my motorbike in the front garden and also remember when very young dad got told off for having his bike in the short narrow hall and almost divorced when mum found the engine in pieces in the back room.
Now they change hands for around £479.000 to young professionals and as the estate agents blurb says they are cottages with a village feel. I #######.........or words to that effect


Lets drift on now i`ve stopped laughing at the estate agents and this is halfpenny steps, well not the original. The old high sided girder twin walkway bridge has gone but they can take away the bridge but not my memories. The toll was long gone when i was a kid but on the right hand side was the Harrow Road and i used to sell the evening Standard and the Evening Star for pocket money mostly to people making their way by Trolley bus to White City greyhound track. The punters would wait by the stand for the latest edition to arrive so they could study form on the bus journey. Most nights the Standard and Star vans would come round the bend racing each other to get their paper on sale first the bundles would fly out the door with the vans hardly stopping.
The flats on the left replaced the public baths and swimming pool where i learnt to swim while at junior school. It was also on this side of the canal i did my morning paper round the last call i remember was a cafe where a hot breakfast was always ready for me on the house after which a short walk along Harrow road took me to school.
EDIT: Just remembered it was the Evening News not the Star.



On this site before these flats were built stood the Paddington General Hospital and my memory is being taken by mum on the Trolleybus from the doctors to the hospital where i spent 2 weeks in isolation suspected to have Polio. I remember visitors wore masks and i spent hours looking out the window as working boats went past on the canal. I got the all clear(false alarm) and got out just in time to go on holiday the same day. Must have been a Saturday as in those days everybody started holidays on a Saturday.
Just a bit further along and my old school still stands although nowadays it`s an Adult Education Centre. The small outbuilding in the centre of pic was the Woodwork classroom and we would queue on the steps and watch the boats waiting for Mr. Gibbons who on letting us in would shout "on your perches" meaning sit up on the wooden workbenches while he called our names to make sure none of us had dodged off the lesson.


Turning into the basin at Paddington the station platform canopies can be seen and memories of trainspotting all day long with drink and sandwiches in a duffle bag.


Further round into the main basin away from the trains but surrounded in this night time shot by office blocks this is the base for my trip abroad.

Different sort of blog to my usual but that last 2 miles of the Paddington Arm was a bit nostalgic so i hope you enjoyed me sharing a few memories with you.

SNOW

Below the snow started as i approached Rickmansworth yesterday on my way back from Paddington but soon stopped.

This morning i woke up to snow everywhere but i needed to move to be in my chosen location
for the Christmas break with the grandchildren. Only did 3 locks before deciding it was to dangerous on the lock sides plus the ropes were frozen making it hard to wrap them around bollards. If it snows much more all my plans are going to be changed so a bit of rain to wash this lot away will be welcome.
Have a couple of blogs in the pipeline including my venture abroad but thought i would just slip this one in between.

A DEDICATION

I was watching Question Time on the BBC the other night that was broadcast from Wootton Bassett a town who`s residents turn out and line the streets when an RAF plane lands bringing back not just bodies of soldiers but sons, daughters,dads, brothers.......................

I don`t personally know anyone involved in the conflicts of present or past and being born in1948 my dad had returned from WW2 thankfully alive never speaking of his years at war even into my adulthood but he would never ever buy anything Japanese made so i can only imagine.

Personally, and this is my view to which i am entitled so comment by all means but bear that in mind, i think dads war had more purpose it seemed clearer what was happening and what needed to be done to stop it. I listened to the politicians reasons for why our boys and girls are there but wasn`t convinced.

Perhaps we should just step back and defend our island from invaders use our soldiers to defend our sea and air ports, be a bit more inquisitive of the reasons of those that enter. We seem to have a good team routing out the bad apples already here.......oh i won`t go on as this video was meant to be a tribute to those fighting so far away from home but i got carried away to much time on my hands or maybe old age gives me time to think and reflect.

Play the video and listen to the words, no countries, no religion, living as one etc. All sounds great but would it work?

Anyway it`s dedicated to all the soldiers away from their loved ones.

RICKMANSWORTH ARM

The Rickmansworth Arm, Salters Cut, Gasworks Arm call it what you want but it still remains a canalised section of the River Chess starting at Batchworth Lock.
As Samuel Salter made it navigable in 1805 to reach his brewery perhaps he should have the honour of it being called after him after all he was the first as the Gasworks didn`t arrive until 1845 followed by the Railway (LNWR) in 1862. Don`t confuse this railway with the present day one that arrived in 1887 courtesy of the Metropolitan Rail Company. The line that was a branch from Watford to Church St. Rickmansworth was intended to connect to Uxbridge but this fell by the wayside with the result that goods were transshipped to canal boats for the journey.

The LNWR station in Church St now demolished.

Before we carry on with the walking cruise of this very short arm just double click the map below
and you can see just after the railway crosses the arm and before the gasworks another arm went further into the town centre and although i can`t be sure (still searching) it`s probable the brewery was located along or near this arm, sadly it seems to have been filled in

Also note Sabey`s Wharf, they used the lock constructed in 1903 to bring out gravel extracted from the meadows that stretched across to the main line.

It starts below with the arm entered by the left hand lock under the footbridge while the main line north is to the right. The building on the left was once two pubs and stables, canal side was
the Boat and in the same building but above on the roadside stood the Railway Tavern.


Use your imagination as taking the boat up here would i think have meant reversing out. So from the first and only lock just a short run to the first bend.

Around the bend and just the one lift bridge for access to a couple of houses.On through the lift bridge all along this left bank was Sabey`s wharf. The arm now goes right.

giving this view up through Chess Basin, up ahead a footbridge.


From the footbridge, the next bridge carried the railway into Rickmansworth

but is now a footpath(Ebury Trail) that crosses the canal mainline at Lot Mead lock. Makes a nice circular walk returning along the towpath at Lot Mead.

Looking back from the footbridge just by the bow of the boat was the lock that was used by Sabey`s to bring out gravel.

From the rail bridge the arm turns right past the now filled in Town Wharf and onto

the Gas Works.

All that remains are two gas holders. The Station and sidings, the Town Wharf all built on.

Looking back the Gas works site behind me and i would guess the Town Wharf arm went off to the right of picture. Still i enjoyed sourcing the map and information and walking around what must have been a very busy scene in working boat days.