A good day to get stuff done.

We moved out of Ellesmere yesterday, filling up with water at the wharf then moving only ¾ of a mile towards Frankton Junction. While the weather is fine I wanted to give the well deck a bit of attention, and I didn’t want to empty it on the towpath on the Ellesmere Arm.

More lambs about now…


I glanced out of the window at nine last night and had to try to get this shot…
Over exposed and just a little shaky, but I didn’t have time to set up properly if I wanted to catch the effect. Just down and to the right of the moon is Jupiter.

So, this morning I emptied the front well deck.It’s amazing how much clutter you accumulate over the course of a year, since I last did it.
The items were sorted into three stacks – keep, discard and PUT IT BACK WHERE IT BELONGS! The size of the discard pile was quite satisfying, actually.

Anyway, with everything out I could set to and scrape out several rust bubbles on the deck with an old wood chisel, then I scrubbed the area with hot water. With the weather being sunny and breezy it had dried out by the time I’d had a coffee, so I broke out the Trustan and treated the exposed rusty areas. They were then given a coat of Hammerite.

I left the paint to dry while I got on with another job I’ve been meaning to do for ages, but needed space in the well deck to complete.
The vent/overflow pipe from the water tank runs out through the hull, very close to the waterline. My concern has always been that when we’re laden with coal and wood (a common situation in the winter) the vent could be actually below the waterline and drawing water off the tank could cause a vacuum effect in the tank which could pull canal water into the tank through the vent pipe. Not an ideal situation, I‘m sure you’ll agree.

The vent on the top of the tank…


…piped to the hull outlet.


In the top picture I’ve removed the original pipe and connected a new one to the tank. This now leads up behind the front cabin bulkhead, accessed through a handy air vent.

A spider filter will prevent any foreign bodies from invading.
Of course, being now 18 inches above the top of the tank it’ll no longer act as an overflow, but that’s not a problem, if we overfill the water just runs across the deck and out of the scuttles anyway.
As I’d need to be an extremely thin contortionist to get to the hull fitting to disconnect the original pipe, and I’m not, I left it in situ, plugged and tucked up out of the way.

By mid-afternoon the paint on the deck had dried in the warm sun, so I got a coat of raddle red on as well.
Another coat will see that job finished. A lot quicker than  anticipated, thanks to the fine day. Same again tomorrow as well.

There’s been lots of boats up and down the cut today, mostly hirers I reckon, but with several private boats too. I think we’ve an early start to the season.

We’re meeting Brian, NB Alton, at Frankton on Friday, delivery diesel to us again. So we might move tomorrow afternoon if the second coat of paint has dried sufficiently for me to start reinstalling the side lockers. Otherwise it’ll be Friday morning. Then back to Ellesmere for the weekend again. The last time this winter.

Locks 0, miles ¾