davel

Cheers Colin Ange's contract has been extended so will still be here in March, let us know when your here it will be great to meet up. Dave

When you click on the icons on the map does more than one come up as Iona or Riverside Bar. The blue tab points are places of interest listed on the left hand side, click on them for descriptions. If you look at the satellite view Riverside Bar has Cars parked beside ans behind it. Edited because of rubbish england

Beeston is the nearest Dan, almost next door to the Rockaway. Beeston Banter Map Also another nearby Hotel I noticed this morning Hylands Hotel. I'll add it to the map.

Cheers Stuart, here's to the Saga years. Thankyou folks see you at the weekend.

Hi all I thought I'd better make a contribution to the thread as it is my Birthday after all. Looking forward to seeing you all next month and can I re-iterate to everybody, but especially to newbies guests and lurkers, that anybody is welcome to come along. It is my birthday but that is just a good excuse for a CWDF banter. Click this Beeston Banter Info Map for my google map of the area. The visitor moorings are below the lock but if you are coming from Cranfleet Cut direction post your eta and there will be folk to lockwheel for you. See you on the 18th.

Especially if Uncle Richard is there. then there will be CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIPS!

Oooh this keeps getting better, just accepted an offer from Wriggly to crew as well. Whilst I am quite capable of single handing it's always better with company, especially of the good variety. Thankyou both of you.

I walked up the 21 to Wolverhampton Station mid afternoon yesterday, halfway up there was a EA Landrover on the offside which appeared to be pumping stuff into the canal. At the lock entrance there were a bunch of guys one with a hand held machine with a probe in the water taking some sort of reading and another taking a sample of water. I had not noticed anything up till that point but could see the water was milky with foam on the surface and loads of dead fish at the lock mouth as per Laurence's photo. Edited to remove duplicate and to add --- There was a similar amount of dead fish at all the locks I walked pass until I reached the Station. We cruised past Aldersley Junction on the Staffs and Worcs this morning at about 10.30 and there was no evidence of the pollution at that point, so hopefully it is contained.

When we first had Iona the fuel filters got clogged with bug and water very quickly after I had changed them. I used an oil extractor and removed at least two gallons of water. The diesel that came out was cloudy and there was a layer of fairly clear water then a layer of gloopy water which I assumed to be bug. I treated the tank with Marine 16.

I had P.F. Jones http://www.dieseljones.co.uk refurbish the injectors on our engine, very helpful and they were done the next day. Still not exactly local to you but nearer and I believe they do a postal service. Ours were £35.00 each. Dave

I had a good look at her when we made the crossing over last year and agree with you, the owner looked a bit of a character as well. We left the link basin on the Lanky at 10.15 am ish, arrived at the pontoon upstream of the Rotating sea lock on the Savick Brook soon after 12.30 am and were held there until the sea lock opened at about 1.20. We entered the Ribble at 1.26 and photo five shows how far back the flow pushed us. We entered the Douglas at 2.30 ish and arrived at Tarleton lock at 3.05. High tide was at 2.09 according to BW.

Hi Dave We are booked on our return crossing this Thursday. When we came over last July Ange started this topic http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=31194&st=0&p=547769&fromsearch=1entry547769 on the subject as she was concerned about it. We got an awful lot of great advice and there are links to other peoples experiences. We also posted photos of our journey which will give you an idea of what to expect. We had a very calm day for our crossing and we all enjoyed the day. We went to Preston Marina to get flares, as recommended in the guide, but the guy there said nobody bothers and even if you got swept out of the estuary you would just end up on the sands at low tide (and become a tourist attraction for the day). Read the skippers guide have a full tank of fuel and water so that if the engine gets hot you can run the hot water to provide extra cooling, that's assuming you have a calorifier. Enjoy the day, take some photos and post about your experiences on here please. Hope this helps Dave

I'll email them and see what they have to offer. Thanks guys

I will shortly be looking for a fairly secure mooring for 3-4 weeks on the western end of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal or the northern reaches of the Trent & Mersey. Does anyone have a mooring that they're not using that I could rent from them, or know of any clubs / marinas in this area that offer a reasonable weekly rate. I have found one marina that asked for £72 per week for temporary mooring, which I thought seemed a bit pricey. Is this the going rate? Do private cruising clubs allow temporary mooring for non-members? I've found Crooke Cruising Club and Douglas Valley Cruising Club via the AWCC site but there are no contact details. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

No it was the Goat Shed Cider.

Thanks Tony I was looking at the diagram on the Johnson website and saw the wear plate, but after speaking to the guy at Aquafax the model I have does not have one. I gathered all the remains together and there are no large pieces missing, but I'll see if I can check that water flows through tomorrow. The inlet does not appear to be blocked, I started opening the sea cock with the pump off and water flowed in freely enough. I am convinced now that there is a too much wear on the end faces for the pump to work and am steeling myself to buying a new pump tomorrow. Cheers for the advice Dave

Thanks Robin I have found that there are a couple of replacement pumps available and I would be happier with a new pump as we are doing the Ribble link in a couple of weeks time. Dave

The raw water pump on Iona started dripping a while ago. I took the pump apart and found that the seals had worn a groove in the shaft. After finding that the pump and shaft are obsolete I replaced the seals knowing it would only be a temporary fix and on our recent visit to Kent I took the pump off and had a local engineering firm turn down the part of the shaft where the seals sit from 16mm dia to 15mm dia to remove the groove (after checking that I could get 15mm ID seals). When I stripped down the pump two of the impeller vanes were damaged but I figured some debris had got into the pump at some point. On our return to the boat I replaced the pump and fired up the engine and took the dog for a walk only to notice on my return that there was no water coming out with the exhaust. I stripped the pump again to find that all the vanes on the impeller were completely destroyed. I put my last spare impeller on and tried again this time watching to make sure that the pump was pumping, but still no water with the exhaust. I stripped the pump again and realised that there is a lot of wear at the back of the pump chamber and a small amount of wear to the faceplate. It appears to me that there is now a gap at each end of the impeller and water can get around the impeller my feeling is that this is the problem but my neighbour were we are moored reckons that I should use gasket goo to make sure the faceplate is sealed properly. On Johnson's parts list there is a wear plate available for this pump which appears to be held in place by a pin but I cannot see a pin in the chamber. Has anybody used one of these wear plates? The back of the chamber has ridges in it and no wear where the cam is, would I have to have the back of the chamber machined level so the wear plate is level? Any advice?

Voted

I thought that was the mounting bolt, what a dolt. I have started a diagram of the wiring. How do you post a document?

Iona has a 50w resistor and also a 32amp fuse link in line from the alternator to each battery bank. I want to upgrade the alternator from the existing 45 amp unit to a 100 amp unit and change the wiring so the output from the alternator takes a more direct route to the batteries. Are the resistors and fuse links essential or can I do away with them? Resistors. Fuse Links above and to the right of resistors. Cheers Dave