Pillings Lock Marina-Winter 2009/10 Blog#1

Pilling’s Lock Marina
Winter 2009/10
Blog #1

Today is Thursday 1st of October 2009 and we have been here since Sunday afternoon, but we had to wait until Monday before we could book ourselves in as permanent residents. We mistakenly believed that, by signing up on a monthly payment basis, we would be obliged to continue with the moorings for at least the first year. However, much to our surprise, with just six weeks notice we can vacate the moorings and pay no more. In addition, should we wish to return at any time, they will always find a spot for us, thus saving us quite a bit of cash.

The marina has around 300 berths, of which about 60 are residential and, when we told Paul that most marinas only take a handful of residential boats, and some take none at all, he seemed not to believe us. But, just yesterday, while Wifey was perusing a magazine called Soundings, she discovered that the proposed marina in Roydon would only be taking three residential boats. When questioned by the magazine’s reporter they could not give an answer as to why this was so. We and the magazine suspect it has something to do with local Borough Council rulings.

On Monday afternoon my brother Alan turned up in our RAV 4, which we have sold to Jayne, the mother of his two grandchildren Aaron and Christopher. On Tuesday, with the cash from that sale, we drove over to Chesterfield to collect our 10 year old Alfa Romeo 146 T/Spark, of which we had a black model a few years ago when we were both still amongst the hoi-poloi. That was a very good and reliable machine but, on the last occasion that I left it with my regular mechanic for its MOT, the garage promptly dropped it onto a jack and damaged the floor pan under the driver’s feet. Of course, even after straightening it out as best he could, it never felt the same afterwards, so we traded it in for the Celica.

This particular car is dark blue and has a 1.8 engine, whereas the previous engine was 2 Litre. Now, since Chesterfield is just over 40 miles away I had ample time to test drive this little beauty and, I’m pleased to tell you, it drives perfectly. It has only had two previous owners and is in excellent condition and, with only 93,000 miles on the clock, has plenty of life left in her.

Our previous blog included a layout of the marina and, as I think I mentioned, we are moored on berth H3, which is a linear mooring and is a sub-let from the person who has paid for the leasehold of the berth. Apart from the nearby railway line and the equally nearby water treatment plant, this is a peaceful marina with loads of very friendly residents. Our immediate neighbours are Marion and Brian, both of whom are still working, I think! They very kindly picked up the necessary singing on forms from the Medical Centre in Quorn yesterday, so we’ll probably drop then off some time today. It will then be a case of persuading our new GP that my knees really do need replacing, after which I should be able to get around somewhat easier and go for a few longer walks with Wifey and Pooch.

The only disappointing thing about this marina is the so-called restaurant and bar, which is quite small considering the size of the marina and the amount of residential boaters here. It also does not have any draught beers, only offering bottled beers from the cold cabinet at about £1.90 per bottle. As residents we do get a 10% discount, but that is not incentive enough for us to use the place on a regular basis. The lack of draught beer may be as result of a local council ruling, or it may be from choice. Whatever the reason the marina is making nowhere near as much use, nor as much money, from this facility as they otherwise would have, which seems a great pity. It would also mean we would not have to drive into Quorn or Barrow for our Sunday drink.

The recent problems with our leaky calorifier seemed to have reared their ugly heads again but, with a little help from my most knowledgeable brother, the pump no longer sounds off at 90 second intervals. All we have to worry about now, at least until something else causes us distress on the boat, is the over-filling toilet bowl which, we have been assured, is simply a case of replacing the regulator, which we will attend to sometime next week.

Sunday 4th October and yesterday we enjoyed a visit from June and Keith, who called in on their way home from holiday in Yorkshire. Nice to see you, to see you, nice! You’ll be pleased to know that, after all that fierce wind but, thankfully, no rain, it has now calmed down. It is almost 7 am and, although it is lightening up out there, we still have a full moon quite low in the sky. It’s about 40 degrees off our starboard beam, which doesn’t tell us much about the actual direction. However, if I take a quick shufti at our Nicholson Guide, it will tell me……………ah yes, it is setting in a north westerly direction.
Also yesterday, just a couple of hours after June and Keith left for home, we experienced our first power cut. Now, we are due for a planned cut on the 13th, for what reason I haven’t a clue, so this one came as something of a surprise. All was well within about half an hour or so.

O.K., the ongoing saga of the calorifier, yeah, I know, thoroughly boring, yawn, yawn. But, we have had something of a result. Having emailed the parent company of this recalcitrant item, I received a very speedy answer, although it was not what I wanted to hear. Unfortunately the company are not able to help us financially, although, they did commiserate with our problem – don’t they all? The gentleman who replied, whose name escapes me at the moment, did suggest that, in order to avoid further troubles of this nature, we should fit an expansion bottle in the hot water pipe. Of course, this begs the question, why was this not fitted on installation of the system, but that’s another story? Anyway, I immediately asked how much one of these would cost, plus any accompanying bits and pieces, to which he replied £45 but, as we had had so much trouble, as a gesture of good will, he would send us one free, gratis and for nothing. What a nice man eh?

I now have several tasks to perform during our six months stay here, apart from having my knees sorted out of course. In order of importance they are, the building of a storage box on the stern deck, into which we can lock away all the heavy metal stuff that we need when cruising. They include the tiller arm, windlasses and mooring pins. I also need to raise the level of the timber surround on the stern and have it cushioned so that we can sit comfortably while we are on the move.

Next up will be a couple of panels for the back doors, which will be painted with castles and roses. I would have preferred castles and dragons, but we will probably stick with tradition.

Monday 5th October and, so far, we’ve had some pretty tasty weather and, although Saturday was a wee bit blustery, yesterday made up for it in spades, with beautiful sunshine all the way.

Now, forget what I said earlier about building a tool cupboard on the stern deck, because that has all changed. Instead we are going to raise the whole of the top rail by about four inches and cushion the whole lot. However, the centre section that runs along the back will have a hinged lid. We will then be able to store our tiller arm, mooring pins and hooks, along with our windlass’s, which we will be able to store at the corners. With all that in mind we will take a trip into B&Q in Loughborough today, just to get an idea of prices and what materials we will need for the job.

Tomorrow we’ll set about signing up with the NHS Clinic in Quorn.

Tomorrow, as promised, has finally turned and, at five minutes to seven am, on Tuesday 6th October, I am punching out the usual rubbish. Yesterday was not a good day for our doggy as she seemed decidedly unwell and not her usual annoying self. We’ve had days like this before with her, days where she goes off her food and tries to find somewhere to hide away. This time it was the bathroom, where she tried to make a nest in the little scatter-rug but, after chasing her out of there a few times, she wandered off to the blunt end and lay down at the foot of the bed, on the floor of course.

After a bit of shopping at Morrison’s, where we bought, among other things, a chicken, followed by a stop off at B&Q for a hook and eye for the bathroom door, we returned to the boat, at which time she was still moping around. This, we thought, might constitute a trip to the local vet, but we decided to leave it for later in the day, because she usually perks up after a few hours. By midday, when Sheila put the chicken on to roast, our pooch was still no better but, by the time the bird was done, having had her sense of smell stimulated, she was behaving almost like her normal self. By the time we sat down to dinner at about 2 pm she was positively salivating and, when I put down some skin and meat, along with some gravy, you could have been forgiven for believing that nothing untoward had happened.

This morning she is as bright as button, so no need to visit the vet. However, when it stops raining, and this is the first we’ve had in quite a while, we’ll pop in to Quorn and sign on with the local Health Centre.

The middle of the week has arrived and with it the rain. This Wednesday morning of the 7th of October, comes with a beautiful, clear sky. Last night however, it rained quite heavily for much of the time. With a bit of luck and a tail wind we might even get to sign on at the local Health Centre this morning. Yeah, I know, but we just seem to be putting it off! One thing is for sure though, on wet mornings I won’t be doing much walking because these pontoons are pretty lethal when wet. They are built of timber decking and, even though they are slotted and have gaps between each of them, I didn’t feel at all safe when I took Rusty out last night.

Yesterday afternoon we received a call from the marina office to say we had a parcel awaiting collection. It seems our expansion bottle has arrived and, when we opened the package up, we were a bit surprised to see the size of the wretched thing. Goodness knows where we’re going to mount it in that small cubby hole that the calorifier sits in. Still, that’s our Andy’s problem when he comes to sort out our toilet problem. Like somebody said recently about boats, they’re a big hole into which you continuously throw money. He wasn’t wrong. Whatever you might hear about how cheap it is to live on a boat, it ain’t true. Oh yes, certain things are but, overall, we not much better off than before, although we don’t have a mortgage to worry about.

Good morning to all on this Thursday 8th October which has started very foggy indeed although, compared to the stuff we used to endure during the 50’s and 60’s, ‘tis a mere summer mist. I suppose, after the heavy rain of the night before, followed by the sunny day yesterday, I should have expected it. Also, with the temperature dropping last night, the water and countryside are giving up their heat. I have to say, it’s a very pretty sight as a start to the day.

We have nothing much going on today, except to wait for the diesel/pump-out barge to come by. This really is a great idea when you consider what we had to do at Bulbourne, when topping up with diesel and pumping out our waste tank meant a three mile trip to Cowroast Marina, even in the worst of weather. Oh yes, you could say we like it here, and we’ve not even scratched the surface of what’s to see and do around here.

Winter draws on and this morning, although it looks as if it may dawn with some sunshine, there’s certainly a bit of a nip in the air. It’s Friday 9th October and the weekend is almost upon us.

A young fellow named Mark turned up yesterday with the diesel barge and did the necessary. Surprisingly we had only used 60 litres since our last fill up, which was on the 5th September, but then I remembered that we had emptied our reserve of 20 litres into the tank, and so the actual total was 80 litres. Usually, when someone at a boatyard carries out this service, I buy them a drink but, as this chap actually lives on a boat in the marina, it did not seem appropriate and I didn’t want to embarrass him. However, we’ve decide to give him a card at Christmas with a gift inside, which I’m sure he won’t complain about.

Yesterday morning, in a repeat of Tuesday morning, our wee pooch took it upon herself to ignore her food and we were at a loss as to why. But, as usual she rallied later in the day and devoured a doggy sausage with relish. No, not the stuff you put on burgers, perhaps I should have said gusto. Anyway, since this was the second time in just a few days, we had to give it some serious thought. Perhaps she has an intermittent problem with her tummy, or maybe she’s been picking things up on her walks with me or Wifey. Ah, but, then we gave some consideration to the scraps we give her from our plates after dinner, maybe they are upsetting her, although why that should be after all this time, we really can’t imagine. For a short while therefore, maybe a week or two, we’ll stop doing so then we’ll re-introduce them and see what happens.

A few days ago Sheila popped into the marina office to see if we had any post as we were expecting our new Insurance Certificate for the car. When she returned with the aforementioned item we found that the envelope had been written on with the words ‘left for 46 Ladyshot, Harlow, etc. This seemed a little strange since we had only just arrived. When I telephoned Jane she really could not explain why she had done this to our mail. It gave us both a bit of a chuckle but now, when any mail turns up, Jane gives us a call. Perhaps she feels that our mail should be disposed of a soon as possible, just in case she has another strange turn. This won’t be a problem when we get our own post box at the marina, which should be some time next week.

Yesterday afternoon, having nothing better with which to occupy my mind and body, I decide to give our nice, new, shiny Alfa a good polish. But first I thought, I’ll check the oil and water and windscreen washer, and found all to be O.K. Unfortunately, when I checked out the car polish, well, it wasn’t, it was a wash and wax and so I decided to leave it for another day, and besides, it’s not really that dirty yet. Anyway, I have a bit of a foible about tyre pressures; as my brother will tell you, since I’ve pestered him rotten to get the offside front of the Rav 4 sorted out; so, tyre pressure gauge in hand I first checked the suspiciously low offside front and found it to be down to 22lb.

From my vast experience of things mechanical I decided that this could not be right, surely it should be around 30lb or a little under that. Therefore, before going of half cocked to the nearest garage, I took out my trusty handbook and looked up tyre pressures and, sure enough, I discovered that they should be at 2.2 bar which, if memory serves me right, is equal to just about 30 psi. It gets worse! Imagine my surprise when I checked the other three tyres and found them all to be down by about 8 psi. Some silly clot had presumably read 2.2 bar as 22 psi and pumped them all up to that pressure.

It’s just as well we’re going to Tesco today for shopping, because I can correct the situation. You have to wonder just who these jokers are and who turned them loose on our car. You also have to wonder how many more tyres have been left with low pressures because of this idiot. I suppose I ought to text Simon about this, just in case he’s totally unaware of the problem. After all, under inflated tyres can be a bit of a problem and besides, if a plod were to stop and check my car and found them to all be low, he would be within his rights to charge me with some offence or other.

I have emailed Simon about the tyre pressures because, if his mechanic continues with his stupidity, Simon himself could find he’s in trouble with the law for selling cars with under inflated tyres. I do hope he is duly thankful.

Well, that’s it for this blog. Naturally I’ll try to keep them coming, unless of course I can find nothing worth writing about. So, here’s something for you all to read over the weekend. Enjoy!

Dave, Sheila and Rusty.