Friday 6 April 2012

The Big One (1-6)

Friday 6th April 2012 Brighouse Bottom Lock to Brighouse Top Lock

07:00 A little overcast this morning and the Memsahib has woken up with a sore neck. This is not a good omen. From previous experience, the pain will soon transfer to another part of my anatomy. Then ultimately it will be transferred to my posterior. Today could easily become one of those "running, jumping, standing still" kind of days. You know, where you toil away for hours on end and seem to gain very little in the way of productivity.

Boredom Alert!

It seems to be one of those popular inland waterway boating pass times to record the number of various items including how many miles travelled and the number of locks operated. I am about to take it one stage further. I have been musing over a method to calculate rather than estimate the amount of diesel that we use for domestic -v- propulsion. When you pop your name on a certificate its a legal acknowledgement that you are undertaking. Just to ensure that you are paying the correct amount of fuel duty. I know that most places use the 60/40 split and it may be a good rule of thumb guestimate.

I have just topped up the diesel tank. Until I fill up the diesel tank to the top once more. I am going to record the amount of propulsion time as well as the total engine hours. If I take one from the other I should be able to calculate some idea of the fuel usage just for propulsion. I know its a bit unscientific unless I also measure the true fuel flow against time. But I want to get some idea of the average fuel consumption of Rosie when under way. For safety, we never turn the engine off when moored up on a lock landing or when inside the lock. I figure that any time we have a rope on a bollard - that constitutes non propulsion time.

Alert Over!


Running, jumping and standing still was the eventual outcome. The TFX controller on the boat broke a control cable. We were now stuck in the Brighouse Top lock. I managed with the aid of a bit of string to move the boat under her own power and then moor the boat up in the closest point. Then I set about sorting the problem. After stripping out the old cable, I could see that it was beyond doing a quick fix and a new part would be needed.


http://keypart.rtrk.co.uk
Tel 01923 883692
TEFLEX Control Cable (003300-0325 3169)
Keypart Part Number CC33210  X 2.
£40.85 inc VAT and delivery.


Ouch!


15:00 The "you can't moor here" jobsworth arrived. I explained that the boat was broken down and that I was waiting for a spare part being sourced and delivered. But he persisted in his "You can't moor here mantra." I said "do you expect me to push it out on the cut and let it drift about" at which point he just shrugged his shoulders. At the same time as I said "it is not going to happen." He then said "we rent the moorings round at the units" - whatever the units are. However, the area previously belonged to Sagar Marine (now in voluntary liquidation - Dec 2011) and the buildings are now empty and up for rent.

Daily Total
Miles: 0.5
Locks: 1
Swing / Lift Bridges: 0
Tunnels: 0
Pump Outs: 0
Engine Hours: 0.2

Rosie's Accumulated Totals
Distance 575.1 miles
Locks 600
Swing / Lift Bridges 100
Tunnels 6
Pump-outs 8
Engine Hours: 2038.6
Later...

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