In the meadows

Not Sumerton this time, more up toward King’s Sutton. Close to Banbury.

Close to the M40 as well. Constant sound of the motorway here. Still, it looks nice. There’s not many boaters around, as like the title says, it’s in the fields.

It’s a nice stop. It makes a change being almost completely on your own. The solar panels like it here also and with the lack of hedges or trees make the whole day a charging day.

Servicing BMC 1,800 marine

This last week, I serviced the engine on my boat. It’s a BMC 1800, the engine out of what used to be known in the 70’s as a Sherpa Van.

I used to take it in to get serviced. Someone suggested to me that this was a waste of money and I could do it all myself. After Calcutt boats attempted to blow Bonnie up, costing nearly £2k for what should have been a routine service, I took this servicing advice.

There’s a limited number of jobs:

• Change oil
• Change oil filter
• Change fuel filter
• Change air filter
• Check engine fittings and tighten if required
• Check tappet clearances
• Check fan belt tension

The sun was shining and I did the jobs over a number of days. The hardest job is the fuel system. I wrote a blog on this. Changing the filters is a case of removing the old ones, replacing the seals, and screwing the new ones in.

The total cost £35.76 for the materials. £32.99 for the oil. So, around £70 in total.

First wasp

Of the year.

Tiny little thing it is as well.

Noticing how few ducks there are around. Like all the other animals that are doing well or in their case, just surviving, they depend on human contact for their existence. Most of their natural food-source is falling off.

Pics

Here’s some pics I took walking around.