Ocean Greyhounds

Real boats at Gunwharf Quay in Portsmouth.

Rescued and revived, these World War 2 craft still look fast and mean on the waterfront in Pompey.

Caval Canalcade - Little Venice 2010

We had to pop home this weekend and leave the boat in the wildlands.

As we were near London anyway, we decided to visit the IWA Cavalcade at Little Venice on Sunday afternoon.

After studying the weather forecast, we discovered that the rain would stop after lunch and it was pretty much, spot on.

N.B Kandahar has all the war medals...

N.B Aqua Vitae has a full set of cans.

This is "Middlesex" passing the real present day working boats as she heads towards Paddington Basin.

The remainder are just blowing bubbles in the air.

There are a few more pictures on the Just Canals Forum here:

http://www.justcanals.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=5949

Forth & Clyde

I find myself fascinated by the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland.

It is effectively a trans-Scotia canal.

You can travel from the River Clyde on the west coast of Scotland (Irish Sea) to the River Forth on the east coast (North Sea).

This means that a small enough craft can get from the Irish Sea to the North Sea without going round the Northern and much exposed tip of Scotland or through the Caledonian Canal which is also further North.

However, in saying that, there seems to be very little interest in the canal from boaters or the authorities. It appears very low key.

The entrance from the tidal Clyde into the canal at Bowling, near Glasgow is a very pretty and popular spot.

Situated just up the river from where the Cutty Sark was built at Dumbarton, Bowling was once a railhead and all kinds of cargoes were transhipped from puffers (remember Para Handy and Vital Spark ???).

The canal keeps a low profile as it skirts the centre of Glasgow before shooting off cross country towards Falkirk and the tidal River Carron.

I managed to try the chips at the famous "floating" McMonagles fish and chip shop on the canal at Clydebank. Note the "cruise through" serving hatch in the side, where boaters can place their orders as they cruise past.

I think this bridge near Mc Monagles is meant to resemble a swan in flight.



The evocatively-sounding Port Dundas in Glasgow is a big disappointment.

It seems as if a city like Glasgow that has the mighty and famous Clyde just couldn't summon any enthusiasm for its poor relation, the Forth and Clyde canal.

The Glasgow arm heads south from the canal, towards the centre of the city.

The terminus is Port Dundas - a dead end, in more than one sense of the phrase.





Once a thriving industrial scene containing textile mills, chemical works, granaries, distilleries, glassworks, iron foundries, power stations and engineering works, it is now a ghost town.

They even have to invent people !!!

Old photographs reveal its been very run down for much of the late 20th century.

Now, yuppie flats are starting to spring up amongst the tumbleweeds of a former Glasgow.

The last bastion of industry, the Port Dundas Grain Distillery closed down last year.

Until then, it produced whisky used in the Johnnie Walker, J&B, Bell's, Black & White, Vat 69, Haig and White Horse blended whisky brands owned by the last owner of the distillery, Diageo.

Now, there is just smaller businesses housed in industrial units and the Cormorants drying their wings.

Pigs Squidge

Nifty Mi-Fi

Loosely referred to as the "dongle", dongles are small cellular transmitter-receivers, about the size of a computer USB memory stick, which when shoved into the USB port on your computer, allows said computer to access the Internet, without the use of wires.

One of the greatest problems with using dongles on boats is that you invariably have to sit in strange places around the boat, in order to get a signal.

If you ever see a boater sitting on the roof of their narrowboat, holding a laptop, in the middle of the winter, there's a good chance its because he has a temperamental dongle.

Most cellular networks in the UK are geared towards highly populated areas, motorways etc.

There isn't much mileage for these operators, in putting masts up near the canals.

This usually means that the signal strength on the cut is from middling to non-existent.

As a direct result of this rule, boaters have experimented with everything from external aerials to putting their dongles in freezer bags and hanging them from broomsticks on the roof.

The extra height can often improve reception.

Unfortunately, you still need to sit attached to the dongle by a USB cable.

Today I purchased a new solution.

Its the Huawei E5830 Mi-Fi Dongle.

Essentially, its a normal dongle, which works on the Hutchinson Telecom "3" network.
Its difference is that it contains a wireless (Wi-Fi) transmitter, so once it has acquired its signal through the cell, it then transmits to any wireless device in range.

This means that a wireless ready laptop, netbook or iPod Touch will suddenly be the lucky recipient of internet access, without the use of wired routers.

So, to cut an already long story, short, I now have wireless on my boat, which works anywhere I can get "3" coverage.

As we chug our way around Englands green and pleasant canals, I take my own personal Wi-Fi "cloud" with me.

The Mi-Fi fits nicely in the cratch, where it is protected from the rain, but permanently powered by a mini USB port (which is currently supplied from the boats AC inverter supply).

It means that I can use my laptop or my iPod anywhere in the saloon. I can sit comfortably, with my feet up, on the sofa or sit at the table on the dinette.

Whats more, as the Mi-Fi allows more than one user to access its wares, the first mate can use her laptop while I'm surfing on my iPod.

Its a bit early for a full road test report, but one little niggle so far; if you don't refresh a web page for a while, the Mi-Fi disconnects itself from the service, which means a trip to the cratch for a reset (you have to push a button on the side of the Huawei unit).

Also, it would be nice if you can see what the Mi-Fi signal strength is, from the laptop.

Well you can't have everything and I think Mi-Fi is "sci-fi".

My Boat Has Just Sent Me a TEXT

One of the little projects that I am currently working on, is remote control of boats by SMS.

Now, before you all starting writing to your M.P's, I'm not talking about moving the boat by SMS (that would be silly !!).

No, I'm talking about switching on items of equipment on the boat, remotely, by sending it a text.

Just Imagine - you only use your boat at the weekend !!

It's Thursday lunchtime and its going to be a nippy Easter Bank Holiday.

You plan to drive up to the boat this evening after a hard week at work.

The journey to the marina is going to take an hour or two in the traffic.

You'll arrive to a cold boat and spend the next couple of hours trying to warm it up.

BUT: you can text the boat with your mobile and tell it to turn the heating on !!!

Really ?

Well, to be precise, you can text the boat's SMS Portal and it will recognise its you and switch the diesel heater on for whatever duration you tell it.





What's more it will text you back and confirm that it's done it.

You start your drive to the marina and you've got all the food for the weekend in the boot of the car.

However, you don't have a shore line, so the fridge will be off and it's going to take a while to chill down and get the beer/wine cool.

No problem, text the boat and tell it to turn the fridge on.

MUCH LATER

You've have a great weekend, relaxing and cruising.

You finally get home on Monday night, worn out.

As you pull on to your drive, what you don't know is that you forgot to lubricate the stern gland after your trip.

Its been dripping away since you closed the boat up and drove away from the marina.

Water is slowly but surely building up in the bilge.

Its very slow, but it will be several weeks until you will return to the boat. Lets hope the bilge pump and the batteries are up to it.

Suddenly, your Bilge Alarm Monitor goes off - it's detected 5mm of water rising on your baseplate.

Nobody can hear it sounding inside the boat.

No problem - your mobile vibrates.

The boat has texted you and tells you there is a problem.

It's a long drive back to your boat when you are tired, but it's better than finding a flooded bilge in a fortnights time.

Shine On Harvest Moon

As part of my long term commitment to the owner of Harvest, my last task in the Harvest ECO boat project is to get the remote control installed and working.

Back in 2005, as an interesting theoretical challenge, I started designing Harvest with Paul.

The design brief was that the boat would be capable of being remote controlled.

In 2007, the agreement was made that no money would change hands, but I would be allowed to publish details of the project on the Just Canals forum, in exchange for my efforts.

The main problem is that everything was purchased in 2006 and has been sitting around on the boat ever since.

Luckily, I tend to keep copious notes and drawings.

The batteries in the remote control (transmitter) have been discharged for four years and Paul, the boat owner, couldn't find the key for the switch which is needed to switch it on.

No problem.

I managed to hot-wire the key switch and put the batteries on charge.

There are basically 3 steps to full remote control:

1. Bow Thruster
2. Propulsion
3. Rudder Steering

Paul is still busy getting the hydraulics bled and sorted, so we elected to leave the rudder steering for another day.

So, I installed the receiver unit to the 24VDC supply and got that to power up. The receiver was then connected to the thruster panel first. 

We had a little debate about whether the thruster arrows should indicate thrust or boat direction, but in the end, agreed to mimic the set-up on the hard wired control panel.

When all was powered up, it was quite amazing to stand on the towpath next to a securely moored boat, press the thruster buttons on the yellow transmitter box and watch the bow surge against its tethers.

The system appears to be quite safe. If the radio signal drops out or one of the buttons malfunctions, a microprocessor in the receiver unit senses this and drops an interlock relay so that nothing moves.

This was inadvertently tested because we have a teething problem with either the power of the transmitter or the aerial location.

The receiving aerial is currently inside the console and cannot stay there. Also, we are not sure if the rechargeable batteries are goosed as they have been sitting around for so long.

When you start to walk away down the towpath from the wheelhouse, the radio link is lost after about 3-4 metres. 

The contactor drops out in the receiver and all control is switched off so everything stops.

On my next visit, I will have to replace the batteries and try to rig up a remote aerial that can be seen at all times, in order to maintain the "line of sight" contact needed by radio systems.

Before I left the boat, I also managed to interface the remote control to the electrical propulsion.

So thats two out of three - to be continued....