Maintenance Day

Saturday 14th May

As Jannock was moored at Aynho where the towpath is on the Port side (heading North) and I had a replacement window to install I set off from home loaded with stuff to do maintenance.

I reversed back from the 14 day moorings to the wharf where I filled the diesel tank. 160 litres replaced the air, priced at £0.89p domestic and £1.40p for propulsion. Walker Services allow you to self declare whatever rate you want here.  I decided to do a ‘post Soddit’ pumpout as well. They have a small trailer, fitted to the back of a mini tractor, with a 45 gallon tank and an electric pump. When the tank is full it is driven to the workshop where it is emptied into the septic tank. I am amazed that they actually offer pumpouts considering they’re not on mains drainage. That would explain the above average price of £18.oop but at least they did both halves of Jannock’s split tank without quibbling that it requires double payment like some yards do. Several trips to empty the trailer later and both sides were declared empty.

I had hoped that one of the boats moored on the 48hr mooring opposite the wharf would have departed by now as it would be a better place to fit the replacement window, but no luck there so back onto the 14 day mooring with the dodgy, un-piled bank. Once the screws were removed I used a paint scraper to loosen the mastic sealing the window frame to the cabin side and the window unit came away quite easily. This surprised me as when she was repainted in 2004 the painters asked to leave the windows on as they tried, and could not remove, the lounge one. Maybe it’s the technique I used. Any way, I cleared up the surround and then offered up the replacement. It is slightly smaller but not enough to make a difference – apart from only having two original holes that lined up. This meant I needed 18 new fixing holes drilled through the steel cabin side. My battery drill gave up during the creation of the third hole and so I walked back to the wharf where I managed to borrow a mains electric drill for an hour as long as I put a donation into the charity box. What excellent service Walker Services provide!

The replacement window fitted a treat and all that was left was to clean up the mess on the inside window frame. Luckily I had left the secondary double glazing panel on inside the frame and so the magnetic strip on that caught all the metal swarf from the drilling. The rest was swept up and I then returned the drill and headed home feeling good.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk