Stoke Bruerne Family Festival - New Moon Morris

(Boat Sickle & Flamingo - posted by Alan)

So far Stoke Bruerne Family Festival has been the only canal based event that has combined our dual interests not only in canals, but also in music and dance.  New Moon Morris, and also the New Moon Band were asked to perform at Stoke Bruerne in 2015, which was very well received, and we were therefore pleased to get an invite back for 2016.

New Moon Morris was not available to dance during the day on Saturday, as it was already committed to attending the St Albans Folk Festival, but like last year the New Moon Band were asked to play on Saturday evening.  This year, however, a professional band was also booked, so New Moon played a supporting set whilst that band took an interval.  Unusually it was easier to line ourselves up along the side of the museum's historic narrow boat "Sculptor", but whilst I felt sure pictures were taken of this, a search of various phones and camera memory cards has so far failed to locate any!

However on the Sunday we had a fairly good complement of dancers & musicians, (New Moon has grown a lot since 2015), and this time I have found the pictures.  Here is just a selection.

(A reminder I give from time to time, for anyone not familiar with Blogger - clicking on any image in any post in this blog should then display it as a larger size).

Stoke Bruerne Family Festival - Ian "Rosie" Rose

(Boat Sickle - posted by Alan)

(Very retrospective post for Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th June 2016)

Making our way own from the tunnel.

I'm firmly in "catch up" mode here, but am trying to at least record the various events we appeared at in 2016, in what has proved to be a difficult year, both for family reasons, but also because of difficulties with both boats, and a need to get work done on them.

Preparing to tie up at the museum.

Since we first owned "Sickle" we have never yet failed to put in an appearance at what has latterly been re-badged as the Stoke Bruerne Family Festival - a title that now gives a clue that it is as much about fun and fund-raising as it is about heritage, although a selection of historic boats is always guaranteed.

For the last two years we have been asked to provide "Sickle" as a platform for the entertainments,  and we have been a somewhat unconvincing Viking long boat for the last two years. 2014 Vikings here, 2015 Vikings here.  This year, we were told that the young men and women who had been very convincing Vikings were largely off doing other things, but would we carry an entertainer who is a Pearly King.  Well it's different, but of course we would!

Yes, we have no bananas.

Ian Rose, (aka "Rosie"), proved to be a popular entertainer well received by the crowds.  For all but one performance we were able to promenade him and his son-in-law, (who played spoons and banjo, and was his roadie and sound man), down the cut, but the usual conflicts between this and our involvement in New Moon Morris meant that for the final performance "Sickle" was simply left tied up outside the museum.


It was enormous fun actually, though I imagine our "street cred" in the world of historic boat ownership is now even more shattered than it was after the Vikings.

There's a video recorded by our son David here.

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts.

Oh, and when we quizzed "Rosie" about whether he was a genuine Londoner, he said "no, I come from Peterborough!...) 
Also, as already mentioned, Cath, David and I were also there as part of New Moon Morris.  More on this in my next posting.

 

Second Boat To Stoke Bruerne Family Festival

(Boat Sickle - posted by Alan)

(Very retrospective post for Friday 17th June 2016)

It used to be only Cath photographed doing this!

Alas, poor blog!.........

Is it really nearly 6 months since we wrote a blog post?  Well, we have had a lot happening.

Anyway, I've found a few photos relating to earlier in the year, so will try and remember what they relate to!

We always try to get both boats to the Stoke Bruerne Family Festival, but for several yeras now Sickle has had a role to play in it, so its attendance is expected.  By virtue of all our problems with "Flamingo" it had ended up there already, so today we just a simple trip to bring "Sickle" down as well.

I didn't play melodeon for the whole trip, though.

High House Wharf, Weedon to Stoke Bruerne
Miles: 10.0, Locks: 0

A Very VERY Short Day's Boating

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

Last lock of the flight - Museum beyond.

Had we not encountered the problems we did on the trip down to the Rickmansworth Festival, we would, of course, by now been long back on our home moorings.  However we now realised that although we could now carry on North through Stoke Bruerne, we in fact needed to be back there very soon for the Family Festival.  We therefore agreed with Kathryn, the harbour master for that event, that we could leave Flamingo on the museum moorings ready for it to move up to its allocated moorings for the event.

Two Yarwoods ("Northwich") boats together.

So today's trip was amongst our shortest ever, needing only to carry on the final two locks up the flight.  Our next boat moves would not involve "Flamingo", as "Sickle" was booked into the same event, and that would need to be worked down to Stoke Bruerne from Weedon.

Stoke Bruerne Long Pound to Stoke Bruerne "Tunnel" Pound
Miles: 0.5, Locks: 2
Total Trip Miles: 120.3, Locks: 138

Steady Progress Back North

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

Nothing to report really from this fine sunny day's boating.  The alternator problem finally appears to be full fixed.  The engine is clearly not in the best of health, but fortunately, if not driven hard, the smoke problem doesn't see any worse.

At the recently renovated Wolverton Trunk Aqueduct a disused gas supply main used  to cross the valley at a lower level than the aqueduct trough, and always spoiled any photos you tried to take.  This has now been removed, so we took the opportunity to photograph the newly painted aqueduct without this ugly thing in the background.

Crossing Wolverton Trunk Aqueduct.

 

Shortly afterwards in the shallow Cosgrove lock.

Ascending the Stoke Bruerne lock flight.

Fenny Stratford to Stoke Bruerne Long Pound
Miles: 17.3, Locks:6
Total Trip Miles: 119.8, Locks: 136

No New Issues, Thankfully.

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

Descending Seabrook Locks

Well other than the smokey engine, our troubles now seemed to be behind us.  The alternator fix was holding up, and we had a pleasant day's boating, albeit progressing a bit slower than usual, so as to hopefully not make engine problems any worse.

We are very pleased "Chalice" is clearly still much loved.

Once again we passed our former boat "Chalice" looking very well cared for as we arrived and looked for moorings at Fenny Stratford.  On a bad day, as I struggle with some of the current issues with "Flamingo" I do wonder what we were thinking of selling a nice "modern" 20 year old boat with few reliability problems, to replace it with an 80 year old boat needing lots of work.  On a more positive day, I realise we are both so bitten with the historic boat bug, that, for the moment at least, nothing else will ever quite satisfy in the same way.  "Flamingo" will eventually be very special, but we have some way to go!

Marsworth to Fenny Stratford
Miles: 16.1, Locks: 17
Total Trip Miles: 102.5, Locks: 130

Can We Fix It? - Yes, Possibly!

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

Approaching Marsworth top lock

So we had abandoned Flamingo temporarily whilst we contemplated the issue of the overcharging alternator.  By now the old external controller had been disabled, and the alternator's own regulator replaced, but it was still delivering too much voltage to the battery bank.  If it were easy, I would simply have swapped out the alternator with a more modern replacement, but the engine mountings were not suitable for this, and most cheaply available alternators come with a pulley suitable only for  smaller drive belt than that mandated by the pulley on our engine - so a swap wasn't going to be 100% straightforward.

Fortunately Canal World Discussion Forums are usually an excellent resource in matters like these, and the forum's expert on alternators and charging was on the case.  Jerry, (specialist guru in alternators and all things 12 or 24 volt), reckoned he had a fair idea what the problem might be, and offered to drive all the way up from Southampton to take a look.  This seemed generosity beyond belief, but he insisted on coming - unfortunately on what proved to be a miserably wet day, about which we felt rather guilty!  He quickly diagnosed the problem, but it was not what he had thought the most likely cause would be, as it was an internal intermittent short circuit on the rotor, (the moving part) of the alternator.  Although he had come with lots of bits, this is not something he could reasonably have been expected to have.

Approaching Marsworth bottom lock.

However we now knew the cause, and a bit of phoning around revealed that a nearby automotive electrical specialist could still source a rotor, even for this obsolete alternator.  It took a few days, but eventually we got back the whole unit ready to fit.

Once again we fired it up, and once again it seemed to be performing as it should - the batteries receiving some charge, but not too much.  It seemed we were finally there!

So once again we were ferried to the boat with dogs and supplies, and once again we set of North.  It was late in the day, so we would only go down the Marsworth flight, ready to put in much bigger mileages the next day, if all was OK.  Unexpectedly our friends Pete and Louise turned up, and helped us lock down the flight.

Cath was even able to get a lift to her regular practice dance session with New Moon Morris.  I however had to remain on board to dog sit!

Bulbourne to Marsworth 
Miles: 1.4, Locks:7
Total Trip Miles: 86.4, Locks: 113