[email protected] wrote:
> After the cold snap we were a tad anxious about what might have befallen
> the traditionally un-winterised Uncle Mort. With the ice now gone from
> Aqueduct Marina, though still in evidence towards Nanneys Bridge I felt
> brave enough to investigate.
>
> Since we have always relied on
>
> a) batteries staying charged from the shoreline in order to
> b) activate the Mikuni on the 5 deg C frost stat
>
> it is wise to leave the shore supply meter well topped up and the last
> thing one must do is to forget to give the Mikuni its winter tickle and
> scrub before pushing off for the festivities.
>
> Sure enough that was the last thing I forgot to do when leaving the boat
> in November.
>
> Arriving at the marina before 8am this morning it was a comfort to note
> that the shore power had not tripped and with still over a tenner on the
> meter, about £12 had been consumed hopefully maintaining a healthy battery
> charge.
>
> Down the steps into the saloon, no splashing or trickling sounds – good.
> Flick on a light – nice and bright – excellent. Turn up the stat on the
> Mikuni – dodo like.
>
> No power to the Mikuni, but also no signs of any damage due to the cold
> weather. Presumably things kept going through the worst of the cold spell
> and the burden of its exertions eventually overcame the Mikuni. The timing
> was presumably a chunk of luck.
>
> The JP3, being from Dursley, characteristically started within 3 lethargic
> spins of the flywheel and I looked around to find my box of heating
> spares, made a warm drink and waited 30 mins while the temperature in the
> engine room improved.
>
> The investigation was routine and the carbonised injector and gauze were
> scrubbed up. No parts were required, not even gaskets, except a
> replacement for the blown 30A fuse. The gizzmo then fired readily with a
> generous plume of diesel fumes and as I sit having a full breakfast in the
> marina café I have left the heating on full tilt
>
> Hopefully all will be well when I get back on board in half hour or so.
Not bad at all.
We visited Mintball at the weekend, in Market Drayton. We don't
normally winterise but do take a few precautions, but due to a great
assortment of various things hadn't even opened a tap when we left her
in October.
We have no heating at all when unoccupied.
So, what happened?
Well, the trivially bad news: A bottle of water left on board had
frozen and exploded.
Slightly worse news: One of the pipes had frozen and pushed a joint
apart under the back steps.
The worst news: The inline filter between the water tank and the
pump had frozen and then thawed so we had a bilge full of water. But
the tank was low and we'd wanted to drain it, and it all pumped out of
the cabin bilges beautifully clean so no rusting going on in there.
And the engine - from back when we dared to put the word "British" in
our company names, started in about 15 seconds. There was ice in the
engine bilges.
That was far and away the worst it's ever got. Considering we took no
precautions at all, it really wasn't bad at all.
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