Good progress was made over the last weekend. We now have an 8 by 9 inch hatch in the top of the now perfectly clean diesel tank! Firstly, we had to drill a small pilot hole in each of the four corners for the hatch which we had previously marked out. We then used a slightly larger drill bit to make the holes big enough to enable us to get the jigsaw in to cut the steel. All went really well and alot quicker than I had originally thought but we were interupted by a quick trip to Wilkinsons for some supplies, such as nappies (this was probably the first and last time I’m going to buy nappies!), a double headed brush on a telescopic handle, and some marigolds! I’d picked up the tip for the nappies off The Forums, which were as good as reported. We went through one of the packs, leaving the last pack to be used under the engine. At this point we called it quits as the light was failing and we were getting tired.

We are now at the point where we have a clean tank, with a “hole in the top. We would like to get everything up and running again as soon as possible really, but with only having weekends to work on it we’re limited. A few suggestions have been thrown about for the new cover which we’ll have to either get fabricated or make ourselves, and we’re going through the motions of picking out the good and the bad points. Whether we use a weedhatch style approach or what I don’t know. Suggestions, anybody?

Not exactly a work of art, either, but it gives you the general idea. If you don’t know what I’m on about, check out the image below. It’s a plan of Longford, and how I think I am going to have it. It was pretty much like that when I bought it, except now it doesn’t have a rotten floor, or the huge double dinette stuck out near enough the width of the boat (where I’ll be putting my stove). For now, I’ve only got as far as painting the steel, relaying the ballast, laying the insulation and lining the boat completely with Pine tongue and groove. I need to recoupe money wise, and will probably be carrying on with the fitout in the new year hopefully. The main aim of this post, really, is to get an idea what people think about the proposed layout? Answers on a postcard please! (or via the “comment” button!).

Although, previously, the posts on this site were accesible via RSS, you had to know the direct link to add it to your favourite reader. I’ve now added a visual button/link into the footer at the bottom of this page which you’re able to click on.

Unfortunately, for one reason or another, Eddie who makes the Boatman Stove was unable to visit the boat this weekend as we had previously planned so he could check on the space we have available to make sure it’ll be safe. I hope he’ll be able to make it this weekend coming as, although with double the bed clothes, it still was rather chilly. We do have a radiator in the back cabin which runs off the hot water generated by the Squirrel stove in the lounge, and/or the engine, but because it’s not gravity fed, we need to run a small 12v pump to help the water along. We do run this pump but turn it off before going to bed. The radiator is always stone cold by the early hours! Bah!

Some of you will also have noticed that this website address has changed. It’s now officially liamswebsite.co.uk, which replaced waterways.ath.cx. The latter address is a “freebie” and was merely used for getting the main website up and tested before going live. If you have linked to me, could you please double check the address you have, and update it please, ta!

After checking my camera to retreive the picture of Stamford (below) I came across some other pictures that I had taken when we changed the rudder bearing on “Unity” a month or so ago. It wasn’t the easiest of jobs but wasn’t that much trouble as we had the right tools. The process is, remote the tiller from the bearing, unbolt the bearing and slide off the stock, pass rope under rudder and lift up, which exposed more of the stock to remove the collar of the old bearing, and then to drop the rudder back down again. To make sure the rudder sat correctly back in the skeg, it meant someone had to get into the water to check. Yours truly pulled the short straw, but with the rudder back in position, the new bearing was placed over the stock, guided into position and fixed. The good was a good ‘un!

Earlier today Trafford Rowing Club held it’s annual head race event on the Bridgewater Canal between Seamons Moss Bridge in Altrincham and Marsland Road Bridge in Sale. In an email received earlier from Mike Webb, delays of upto one hour may be experienced between the hours of 10am and 3pm. There certainly was! Quite a number of boats pass the moorings on the average weekend but only one came passed today, as our moorings end (or finish, whichever way you want to look at it) at Marsland Road Bridge. This boat was “Stamford” which I think was a Large Northwich built at Yarwoods and was semi converted. They had to hold back for around half an hour or so before continuing their journey southwards. After 4pm though, quite a number of boats started to pass but it was all quiet again, as usual, by around 5pm.

I had totally forgotten that I signed up to join the Runcorn Locks Restoration Society back in May of this year. I had originally planned to get in touch with Graeme Bridge about joining, but the society had a stall at the FBCC Rally in Runcorn so I took the oppurtunity to sign up there and then. It’s around 6 months later now, and I have just received the confirmation of me joining the society, along with my membership card and also my first newsletter which states that there are various things going on, such as Les Brown spreading word of the society as far as Congleton, Bolton and Bury, and that Steve Nicholls from Halton Borough Council will have to meet with the society to give an update on the Mersey Gateway so plans can be prepared for the eventual reopening.

It appears that my little website has grown in popularity overnight. I was trying to keep the website hush hush for the time being until I had the time to add a bit more content but thanks to Bones (who is my top referrer, and was the first to find me!), the hit counter has been creeping steadily up. So far today I’ve had 39 individual hits which although isn’t breaking any records, isn’t bad at all considering the website has only been live for around a week.

This weekend, if all goes well, we’ll be getting a visit from Eddie who makes the Boatman Stove which I mentioned in an earlier post. Hopefully we should be up and running before the really cold weather sets in after Christmas.

We have been toying with the idea for some time now to add a second sold/multi fuel stove into the back cabin of “Unity”. After checking out what’s on offer, we’ve decided to go for the Boatman Stove. The main reason is because of it’s size. It will be going in space where the stove originally was on working narrowboats but we’ve only chosen this spot as there’s currently nothing living there. The other reasons are that it’s very reasonably priced, the workshop where Eddie makes these stoves is only a 20 minute drive away, and finally, I’ve had experience of this particular stove in two seperate boats and they have proven ideal in both circumstances. There is of course a waiting list, but with a bit of luck, we will have the stove fitted and be using it by the time the really cold weather sets in, in January and February.

Today was mostly spent in removing the rest of the contaminated diesel. As I had previously thought, we had problems with trying to get the last remaining dregs from the bottom of the tank, so we then moved the operation into the boat. “Unity” has a central engine room, and the diesel tank is situated along the left hand side of the engine and by using the small dipstick hole, we were able to remove nearly all of the diesel which was left. The problem was again, that the pipe didn’t want to go straight to the bottom, so after one straightened out coat hanger stuck up the pipe, we were able to control how far the pipe went towards the bottom of the tank. This was quite efficient and there’s now only about 1/4 inch of diesel left in. We can now move onto the next stage which will be to cut into the top of the exposed tank to make some sort of inspection hatch. It’ll be quite interesting to see what’s in there but it will be peace of mind to know that, once it’s been funny cleaned out, we should hopefully have no further problems.

About a month ago, I had a week off so planned to have a cruise upto Nantwich with some friends. We did make it and had a wonderful time but on the way back, shortly after leaving on the last morning the engine started to race, and finally cut out due to contaminate diesel. I was able to swap the filter quickly, but also had to replace the fuel lift pump which was only 2 years old at the time! But at least it enabled us to get back to the moorings.

Today was spent planning how to remove god knows how many litres of the contaminate diesel into drums so we were able to clean the tank. After some deliberation, it was decided that the best course of action was to use a drill attached pump, with the pipe down the diesel filler hole. When we started the tank was half full, and by the end of the day, and 90L later, we were down to just under a quarter of a tank!