From Brian.Holt@tesco.net Sun Aug 29 20:07:25 1999 Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 17:47:40 +0100 From: Brian Holt Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Trip Report part 3 The Chesterfield [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] We were now on the chesterfield and the lock keeper gave us our info on the cuckoo way and our application for a plaque if we reached the end of navigation. We moored for the night and had a good meal and a bit much wine with Hazel and Peter from K2 at the pub overlooking the basin. The next morning we set off before K2 and the working boat Bath caught up with us just as we entered the first lock. They told us that due to how close the top was to the bottom they would be very slow on the long pounds. The weed on the Chesterfield is a bit bad in places and it was on one of my trips down the weed hatch that my watch and I parted company, I stayed on the boat and it didn't. It wasn't an expensive watch but contained about 30 phone numbers and a list of important events like wedding anniversaries, so if your down the Chesterfield on the 18 of this month and hear an alarm watch going off underwater, think of Di and me. The next couple of days were quite uneventful, but I would love to know who's idea it was to put 24 hour moorings on a right angle bend at the exit of Drakehole tunnel. I made a right pigs ear of getting round that one, luckily all the mooring bollards were occupied by fishermen so there where no boats moored there. Even when boats where moored they all had the good sense to moor to the towpath just beyond the official 24 hour moorings. We had visitors for the Saturday afternoon that we took for a ride between winding holes, about 5 miles each way. Funny how the canal always looks different going the other way. We finally made the winding hole above Worksop, took photos of the boat so we could claim the plaque. Is this the first plaque claimed by a boat being a member of The Cutweb boat Club? We then started heading back. One of the locks on the upper half of the Chesterfield is quite interesting, the gate and the paddles are fitted with micro switches so that as soon as you draw the paddle or start to open the gate an air pump starts in an adjoining building. This pumps air to the canal bed just above the top gate which bubbles up to form an air curtain, just like an air stone in an aquarium. I was informed that this was to stop the fish migrating down the canal, apparently BW or the Environmental Agency have released some special carp into the upper stretch to eat all the blanket weed. From what we saw I think they must be on hunger strike. When we reached Retford Di needed a bit of shopping and I stayed on the boat. I noticed a lad coming along the tow path with a shopping trolley and when I next looked there was no trolley, I later found it in front of the lock gate. The same lad was joined by a friend who decided to jump over the canal where it narrows for the aqueduct, the friend made it ok but the lad with the trolley went home wet, it made me feel better. After I had removed the trolley so that Di could open the top gate we headed back towards the Trent. All was well for a time and then it happened, I lost all forward drive, reverse still worked but that wasn't much help, I didn't want to go that way. I bow hauled the boat to a pub called The Gate where we had had lunch on Sunday, by now it had turned nine at night and after the usual comments about quiet engine and a couple of pints of Adnams, the Land Lady asked if we would like to eat as time was getting on and if the chef had left she would cook for us herself. We sat down to two plates of first class fish and chips. The Landlord said he knew some one who may be able to help us and would look his phone number up for eight thirty in the morning. When we got back to the boat I read through Trevor's reports for Lady Elgar as he had experienced gearbox problems. With a bit of help from Nicholson's I found out who fixed his box but looking on the map he looked to be some distance from us. Next morning I was out and about at eight thirty, no sign of the Landlord, I decided to ring the BW lock keeper at West Stockwith and he suggest a chap called Arthur Eastwood on 01427728308. I gave him a ring and explained my problems. I had checked obvious things like cable adjustment and oil level, his reply was "I don't know much about gearboxes, can you get it out". I didn't feel confident with the tools I had, as I had never seen a box removed before. His next question was "have you got transport" to which I replied only a narrowboat with a bust box. At this point he offered to come and take the box out for me and we "would take it from there". He arrived within thirty minutes and set to pulling the box out, he was quite pleased that we have a reasonably clean engine hole. The box was passed up to me on the towpath; he then dived down again and came up with a handful of bits that were once the drive plate. At this point we had a bit of good luck, when Beta marine had put the unit together they had cut the edges off the drive plate. This meant it would come out of the hole where the gear box mounts, if this had not been the case we would have had to remove the rear engine mounting and the bell house. Thank you Beta Marine (I bet they only did it so they didn't have to take the back off when they built it). Arthur now loaded the box, old drive plate, Di and myself into his van and we went to his yard where he started ringing friends. He located a reconditioned box and a drive plate at Calcutt and suggested we went to fetch them. Back in the van and 150 miles down the M1, we were now within half a day's cruise from where we started our holiday over a week before. His van is a Vauxhall midi and I had just done 150 miles sitting on the engine cover, something was numb. At Calcutt they changed the bits of linkage from our box to the new one and we went off to the shed to get a drive plate. Their boast is that they try to have a plate for every engine/box combination in stock. While we were there I also bought a painted brass bell for the new boat; it was painted by Ray of course, so I now have something to keep. Back in the van and back up the M1 to Arthur's workshop to cut off the edges of the new drive flange so it would go in through the hole that the old one came out through. This was done with a plasma cutter; I had never seen one of these in action before and to be able to hold the steel as soon as it was cut without burning myself was quite amazing. Arthur had left his son fitting portholes and a hatch to a new hull that morning and as he intended to fit the box on his way home both his son and their alsation climbed into the back of the van. Back to The Gate car park and refit box and drive plate, I made myself useful and got 4 pints of bitter shandy in. At about seven o'clock Arthur was on his way with our thanks, I had expected us to be stuck for about three days, but the job was completed in a day. Thanks Arthur. That night we had another good meal at The Gate ready to leave in the morning. Next day we made our way back to West Stockwith and gave the lockkeeper a ring to ask about locking out on Wednesday morning. He told us to be there at 8.30. We also found out that the lock keepers sell the Trent Guide so we ordered a copy and also 20 gallons of diesel at a pound per gallon. --- The UK Waterways Network - http://www.ukwaterways.net/ * bringing the inland waterways community together * You are currently subscribed to canals as: george@adiva.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-canals-407N@ukwaterways.net