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Welcome to Banbury!

When I went down to the car this morning, someone had parked very close behind me. Maybe 4-6 inches away. I moved the car to do my shopping, and parked it up again to unload and noticed the scratch damage on the bumper. This has appeared since I parked it yesterday at about 4pm.

There’s some real scumbags around. For sure.

Banbury’s newest edition

Are these under the bridge people.

They’ve set up camp next to the CRT waterpoint. During the course of the day, they drink and urinate and generally relax or look around in the bins.

I arrived on Sunday. They looked like regular churchgoers.

Had a brief conversation with the one pictured reading, as it happens, a communication from the Police. He read it aloud whilst I was eating my lunch. The other’s had gathered around to hear. Basically, they’d been told to move on, or they would be moved on. He didn’t go into the reasons, just read out that was the upshot and the dates.

When I was putting my glass in the recycling, one of the guys shuffled up and had a piss in the corner right next to me. Like it was a public cubicle. Didn’t even go under the bridge. Had his piss, went back and carried on with his stongbow super-strength.

So yeah, another great selling point to the attractions of Banbury!

I wouldn’t want to see them later on in their Sunday session, this was about 1pm, early in proceedings. After a whole day on the pop, it’s not really somewhere you’d want to be hanging around.

Stowe hall cycling trip

Whilst I was in Twyford, I took a little trip out cycling… It was to this stately home and garden called Stowe Hall.

It’s around 40m round trip. The weather wasn’t too healthy, certainly not on the way back, so I didn’t stop to go around the gardens, although they are well worth seeing. More impressive than Blenheim with more temples, pagodas, statues and features to wander around.

I had a slice of fruitcake and a small pot of ice-cream which cost me £6 from the cafe. Also, went into the shop and saw some National Trust jelly beans which I picked up for £3. Turns out they were foul. Looked great, tasted like sticky sand.

These are some pic’s of the village of Evenly you encounter on the way. On the borders of Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire.

Twyford

They had planted some maize in the field next to the motorway.

Whilst you were on the boat and below the canopy level of the corn, you could hear virtually no motorway at all! Which made a very pleasant change.

On one of the better mornings, I took this picture of the view over toward the old mill.

It was the night after the first frost of the year.

Bonnie Overheating

Due to the poor weather, I had to start Bonnie on one occasion to drum up some additional electricity.

Whilst I was relaxing after my dinner, the engine chugging away, I suddenly heard what sounded to be another boat scraping across the bows.

I went out toward the back hatch and opened it up expecting to see another vessel rammed into mine. To my shock, there was nothing there apart from the night air!

I went back to my relaxed state whilst pondering what the noise might have been and what might have caused it.

Casting my mind back many a year to the early days of my adventures down on the Kennet and Avon, I remember the engine making a rumbling noise accompanied by a vibration which you could both hear and feel, and general engine overheating which you couldn’t hear, but I knew was taking place. At the time I was doing some interviewing work and I met this guy who was something of an expert on the old BMC/Sherpa engines. He was a friend of the guy I was interviewing who we dropped in on to ask his opinion. First thing he said when I described the problem overheating/occasional rumbling noise was “water-pump”. I always remember it because there was so little doubt about what it might be.

Whist on the sofa I had a memory of this guys instant diagnoses and thought it might be a good idea to check the engine.

As I lifted the panel to the bay, a cloud of steam puffed out. There was water everywhere! Instantly, I turned the engine off. It was fairly late at night so there was no chance of me doing anything at that time.

It would have to wait.

The next day I took the panel away and cleaned the engine room and mopped away all the excess coolant which seemed to be everywhere! When I looked in the radiator, there was absolutely 0 water in there! None at all. This didn’t seem usual at all. Mostly, when it overheats, there’s still water in there, it’s just at a much lower level. This time, nothing, and it was all over the engine bay.

This is what my waterpump looked like from when I replaced it down on the K&A.

First thing I thought was it must have gone again, possibly… Not very likely, but I’ll have to look to confirm.

That’s what I did, disconnected the engine isolation switch. Took off the alternator and gave it a clean. Took off the fan belt. Took off the water-pump and had a look. Apart from being completely dry, it seemed just fine. Gave it a little filing down to get rid of some residue that had built into little pimples on the surfaces. Nothing wrong with it mechanically.

Took off the radiator thermostat. This regulates when the cooling pump is going to begin regulating the water flowing around the cooling system. If it is malfunctioning, it may not be allowing the water to pass through properly. I needed to check this as well.

I discovered it had been fitted the wrong way up! It was me that did this last time, so I only have myself to blame. On reading the forums, this may have the effect of introducing more air into the cooling system than should really be present. Also, the pressure of the flowing water is acting in the opposite direction of the open value, which over time, can’t be a good thing.

A replaced it with another one from ASAP supplied which cost about £24, along with the housing gasket. Although this was a potential cause of overheating in the past, which Bonnie has done a lot of, it doesn’t explain why water was all over the engine bay.

At this point was I was happy to start putting fluid back in the system and getting the engine going again.

Which I did. As I was pouring this blue anti-freeze in with the funnel, I could hear the water cascading out and into the engine sump-pan like a mini waterfall! I looked behind the gearbox, above which is the gear oil interchanger. The interchanger cools the hot, pressurised gearbox oil with the cooling system water.

The rubber had come completely off one side off this and was pouring from the radiator into the sump…

It must have blown off the other night!! The coolant exploding into the engine bay with it.

So, mystery solved…. The rumbling was from the waterpump, which had dried out completely and was running metal to metal against the engine casing, hence the ominous rumbling sound!

The rubber was simple to fix. Simply undid the jubilee clip and once it was back on, re-tightened it. No actual damage. It had just come loose.

All fixed now. Cost £31.

Took it down to Banbury which is around 5 miles in the boat. About 1 hour or two, all seemed fine.

Problem solved!

Kings Sutton pub (The Butchers Arms)

Has changed hands, so I went to see what’s what I guess, and a little walk in the fresh Saturday night air.

The pub was ok. They really aren’t what they used to be, you might get like 5-10 people in there on a Saturday now. What you probably used to get on a Tuesday afternoon back in the day.

Still, they’re always quite friendly in there, and the other one, the White Horse, was much more busy I guess because it has a good reputation for food. We’ve been there in the past. Again, not bad, a bit more pricey, but a nice place.

Here is my new spot.

Just on the North side of Banbury, a fairly peaceful setting just by the nature trail.

Until next time….