Shiralee: Crick Marina # 9

Monday 24^th February to Sunday 9^th March

 Monday 24^th February

 We drove over to Braunston this morning, with the express intention of buying a new water pump but, having explained the problem top the very nice lady there, we didn’t bother. Apparently she has experienced the same problems as we have; the pump running on after shutting down the tap; and suggested it may be our washing machine Solenoid Valve playing up.

 It seems that, if the SV doesn’t shut off properly and the inlet water valve is still open, this can cause a build-up of water in the washing machine, which is what is happening with our one.

 So, taking that information on board – pardon the pun – we turned off the inlet valve to the washing machine and, lo and behold, the water shut down straight away. Unfortunately this happy situation didn’t last because, the next time we used a tap the water pump went into its usual antics.

 So, we then tried adjusting the pressure in the Expansion Tank again, but this didn’t work either. We are now even more confused than we were before. However, when the local engineer deign to contact us to arrange a visit, we’ll bend his ear and see what he suggests.

 Tuesday 25^th February

 A cloudy start today, but turned out much brighter later.

 We drove up to the Co-op and were pretty glad we did, because it started raining soon after we left.

 I’ve now posted my licence off, complete with photo. Hopefully that will be an end to it and I’ll be able to relax for another three years.

 Friday 28^th February

 Today I’m going down to Harlow, Alan has secured a couple of tickets to the Cricket Club, which has a Jazz Night tonight.

This will be my last trip to Harlow before we set off on our travels again, except for the family bash on 23^rd of March.

 Our engineer will be along on Wednesday and will have quite a lot of work to carry out. This includes an engine service, checking our electrics and sorting out the heating system. We’ll also ask him about the water pump but we suspect we’ll have to buy a new one.

 We’re hoping that the weather will be good enough to take the boat out on Sunday, just for a couple of days. We want to see how the power is once the boat is taken off the mains. However, since these things never fix themselves, I’m pretty sure our engineer will have to make some adjustments. Hopefully it won’t entail buying new batteries, because that would be an expense too far.

 Sunday 2^nd March

 The trip down to Harlow on Friday was, to say the very least, a pretty slow affair. Due to the rain and the spray that would have been pretty bad on the M1, I decided to take the A5 down to Milton Keynes, pick up the A421 and then the A603 towards Bedford and then branch off onto the A507, which would take me to the A10 and straight down to Ware and then Harlow by the back lanes.

 So far so good, until I got to the A421 at MK, when I ran into a spot of bother, because, according to our atlas the A507 is almost immediately on the other side of the M1. Alas, this was not the case because, having traipsed along the A421 for what seemed an age, there was no sign of the A603. At this point I then decided to backtrack and continue my journey on the motorway.

 After what seemed another age of circling MK, I then saw the sign for Bedford and Cambridge which was, once again, taking me onto the A421. I then followed this and eventually found the A603. So, yippee, I was finally on the right road and knew where I was going. The whole trip took me 2½ hours, as opposed to the 1¾ by M1 and A414. Not too bad I think, but I’ll only take that route when the weather is bad or I’m travelling mid-week.

 We started our brotherly get-together with a cuppa and sarni, followed by a trip down to Maplin’s for a new TV aerial. I was looking for a high gain, small black thing which, as I’ve been advised by several boaters, is far superior to those that you fix to a mast, or pole.

 The nice man in the shop pointed me in the right direction and I settled for one that is good within nine miles of a transmitter. This was priced at £25 and came with 240 volt to 12 volt unit but, since I want to plug the aerial directly into a 12 volt socket, this same nice man then led me to a rack with jack plugs and cut off some suitable twin cable, with which to complete the job.

 Don’t you just love helpful shop staff?

 As for our planned trip to the Cricket Club and an evening of Jazz, well, that fell through as well. The Cricket Club lies at the bottom end of Chippingfield in Old Harlow and the whole area was full of parked cars. No parking there but, on the advice of Alan’s colleague, who lives close to the club, we drove around to the Fire Station and looked for parking there, but that wasn’t to be either, because the Fire Station is on a bend and I didn’t fancy leaving the car there for a long period.

 So, having failed to find suitable parking, we trotted off back to the White Admiral, which was fairly jumping and noisy.

 During the early part of May this year, we should be going on a cruise through Birmingham, accompanied by another 19 boats. Now, this seems rather a lot of boats and, due to the amount of locks we will all need to negotiate, every day could be rather long and tiring.

 Add to that the need to moor up overnight and, we suspect, we’ll be tying up alongside each other, i.e. double moored, which is not something we are too keen on.

 So, I have now emailed Stuart, the leader of this expedition, to find out just what will be expected of us. Had it been fewer boats; even only 10; we might not have been so concerned. But 20 boats seems an awful lot to contend with, especially if the weather is bad and we spend a lot of time cruising in rain and/or high winds, neither of which we would normally do.

 We will see what we will see.

 Tuesday 4^th March

We took the bus into Rugby yesterday, ostensibly to purchase a new printer. The one we are using at present was given to us by a fellow moorer at Mercia, but it’s rather heavy and we have to lift it out from under the bed whenever we need to use it.

 So, since it’s an HP printer and, since we already have most of the HP software on the laptop, we thought we’d get one of those. Looking through a slim-line Argos catalogue recently, we noticed a couple that were reduced in price. Unfortunately, when we visited the shop, they were out of stock.

 Back to the drawing board then and onto eBay for some inspiration. I’ve now found a few printers; all around the £40 mark; and, most importantly, the replacement cartridges don’t cost an arm and a leg. It only remains to decide which one to order. However, there can be a little catch with some things eBay, one of which is that some printers come without cartridges. These are usually refurbished printers, so we have to be careful here.

 Today, prior to buying the new printer, we’re going to print out everything we need on the old one, because we do have plenty of replacement cartridges for that one and will be dumping it before we leave here, Yes, it is that old and probably unsaleable.

 Tomorrow we are expecting our engineer to come and decide what needs doing to our electrics and heater.

 Wednesday 5^th March

 Our trip into Rugby was successful, I’m pleased to say. After a wee bit of shopping, we called into Ryman’s and, after much hemming and hawing finally bought an Epson XP 212 Printer. We then enjoyed our usual coffee and fruity scone, but the waitress there still refuses to give me a copy of the recipe. She says she would have to shoot me if she did! I’ve only got another few weeks to persuade her.

 After lunch we decided to get some printing done, using the old HP Printer, but that didn’t go too well. We wanted to get as much printing done with that one, rather than use up too much ink in the new one. The cartridges in the Epson are only slim and, since some of the ink in those is used for the set-up, we didn’t want to chance it.

 Alas, the HP played up something terrible; curling up corners and generally jamming up; and we decided instead to set the Epson up. What a palaver! This printer is a WiFi one and this meant setting that up too. While we’re at Crick Marina we use the site WiFi but, since we’ll be cruising soon, we really need the printer to recognise the unit we have with Three.

 Eventually, after much faffing about and waiting for the printer to sort itself out, all was done and all I then needed to do was register the machine. However, when I started filling in the online form, this model of printer was not on the list and so, without that information I was unable to register. Great! I’ll now have to try contacting Epson to find out why.

 Other than those quirks and foibles, the Epson seems to work just fine. I have had one success though, I found someone on eBay who does compatible cartridges; 4 x black and 2 each of colour, for just £6.99, a far cry from the Epson cartridges of 1 each for £26!! Don’t you just love eBay?

 Thursday 6^th March

 Just for a change, it’s chucking it down with rain this morning.

 We had the promised visit from our new engineer yesterday morning. His name is Simon Pollard and, after much discussion regarding the electrics, he seems to confirm our suspicions, that we don’t need six domestic batteries. Technically speaking; as we had already figured out; our alternator, even with the new Stirling Alternator to Battery Charger in situ, cannot maintain the batteries to their full potential. So, we’ll probably do away with two of them and, since the others are all at least two years old and not very well maintained, we’ll probably have to replace the other four. At around £100 each this an extra expense that we could well do without.

 If you are considering the easy and relaxed lifestyle of canal boat living, you might do well to remember that, as with the essential motor car, you will be dipping into your pocket quite a lot.

 Today, having purchased our nice, new printer, we’ll be taking a run over to the Daventry Civic Amenities Centre, or rubbish tip, to dispose of the old one. Sadly, it’s not even worth giving away because it keeps chewing paper up. Still, it’s lasted well, so we can’t complain.

 Sunday 9^th March

 Well, as with the previous printer; which we finally dumped at the Amenities site in Daventry; we found compatible ink cartridges for the Epson, on eBay and, at just £6.99 for 4 x black and two each of the three colours, pretty darn good value for money.

 Why does anybody pay full price for ink cartridges, when the compatible ones work just as well?

 We are now getting pretty close to our leaving day, only 23 days but, before that time we’ll be meeting up with Andy and Sandy – that’s next Sunday – and we’ll be driving down to Harlow on the 23^rd for the family do. We both hope for a dry and warm seven months.

 Thanks for reading our blog and take care

 Dave and Sheila