Author: Jeff

Susan and I flew from Toronto to Heathrow overnight and had no issues picking up our rental narrowboat.  This afternoon we headed north from Heyford on the Oxford Canal.  This canal dates back to the mid-eighteenth century.

Tonight we are stopped at Aynho Wharf, where we’ll eat supper out and get an early night.

The canal, bridges and locks are all just big enough for our boat, which is under 7 ft wide and 58 ft long.  Lots of fun maneuvering.

Addendum by Susan early Sunday a.m. – As I have found to be often the case, Jeff underplays his skills. On day 1 of our latest boating (canalling?) adventure, i was reminded of two things:

(1) while some days I have moderately severe anxiety caused a degenerative disease, I am, deep down in my soul, calm when I am on the water with Jeff. I think this is because I am fundamentally aware of the skills and wisdom he brings to each task.

(2) Jeff and I, and other members of our family, share a wildly practical, sometimes doggedly pragmatic, sometimes ‘unreasonably confident’, belief in our approach to problems.

Mid-afternoon, we encountered a narrowboat heading south. Its captain conveyed through barely understood words and gesticulations that they had turned around because the passage away ahead was blocked by a ‘stuck’ canal boat. Needless to say, we blithely carried on, me silently wondering when and how we would turn around in the narrow waterway, with Jeff opining that perhaps we (he) could help the boat become unstuck. When we encountered the boat a few minutes later. Jeff, with the help of a man biking along the canal, quickly realized that it was unoccupied, and that its position was likely the result of a failed stern line. With some careful maneuvering, they managed to reposition the boat so that the canal was clear. It probably took less than 10 minutes, and as usual, Jeff provided a simple, highly effective solution to a fairly pressing problem.

Here are some of our favourite photos in no particular order.

The trip is over, for me.  We made it.  Tomorrow Dean will drive me back to Ottawa IL in a rental car and pick up his incoming crew in St Louis. They’ll continue south in a week or so.

Yesterday we had a pleasant ride up to and through Kentucky Dam, and stopped at Lighthouse Marina.  Nice quiet spot with groceries and a decent restaurant close by. And hot showers. Today is sunny and warm, and I’m enjoying sitting out while addressing some minor issues on the boat.  The Marina is deserted.  It’s still winter here.  They turn the water on Wednesday on the docks.

That was a fun trip.  The boat did fine, and I’ve come away quite impressed with it.  At 35 years old it’s holding up very well, and all the original systems and interior details were very well done. 

The dogs were fun to travel with.  We had some concerns about denying them shore access for days at a time, but they did their business on deck when they had to.  No major fuss.

Dean’s food planning and cooking was first rate.  His promise of good food was a large part of my motivation to go, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The only real disappointment was discovering that we did some damage to the rudder in the ice.  We hit solid ice in reverse getting out of Ottawa, and I can see now that it wedged between the hull and the top of the rudder and peeled away the skin on the top of the rudder.  The top foot or so will need rebuilding.  Dean has plans to haul in Mobile.

Safe travels Seaquel!  I’ll be home for a day or two then off to the English Canals.

We had a nice relaxed run today.  Sunny and calm, chugging up the Ohio River at about 4 knots.  We’re tied up in Paducah and the dogs have had a good run ashore. 

This is very close to mile zero of the Tennessee River, where it flows into the Ohio.  Tomorrow we head up the Tennessee about 20 miles and through a lock to get to Kentucky Lake.

We traveled 110 miles today, and are anchored here close to Cairo. 

Not much to report.  We took a bit of spray in strong headwinds and now have a layer of Mississippi mud over everything. 

Tomorrow we climb the Ohio River to Paducah.

We stopped for the night here, tied to the floating lock wall.  Nice spot.  I haven’t stopped here before, but it’s popular with loopers.

Today was a nice day, sunny and warmer.  Weather looks great for the next few days. 

We stopped at Hoppy’s for fuel.  40 gallons to come from Ottawa, about 320 miles at 6.5 knots boat speed.  The current helped, but that’s decent mileage. 

The river is docile.  We hit a log below Mel Price  Lock that I missed with the sun in my eyes, but there is almost no debris.  Current in the middle is 2.5 – 3.0 knots.

Current plan is to arrive at Green Turtle Bay on Sunday, where I’ll disembark and Dean will carry on with a new crew.

We came into Alton Marina at the end of the day Tuesday.  3.5 days to cover the 265 miles from Ottawa.

Apart from a brief stop in Peoria to let the dogs ashore we were on the boat.  Anchored out on the river each night.

Today was very windy with snow and sleet this morning, so we stayed put.  Tomorrow we head down the Mississippi, and expect to make it to Green Turtle Bay Marina in four days.  Weather and river conditions look good.

We escaped Ottawa today with a bit of effort, and got underway down the Illinois River.  Tonight we’re anchored here, and tomorrow we’re planning to get to Peoria.

The ice cleared off the river a few days ago, but we still had concerns about the ice in Heritage Harbor, so Dean got 240 pounds of salt and seeded a path earlier this week. 

I don’t think we would have gotten out without that.  The ice was soft enough that we were able to bust out.

Today was pleasant, sunny and around freezing.  Nicer weather is here for a day or two, then rain forecast for Tuesday.  Making tracks.

My hope is to make it to Green Turtle Bay, where I’ll hop off in time to get back to Toronto before heading for England on March 14.  It’s looking doable.  Dean will do a crew change and continue from there.

More later.

I briefly mentioned a couple of years ago that I had received a ticket in Toronto for anchoring in a spot the local police didn’t like.  It was my intent to fight the case, and I was waiting for a meeting with prosecutors.  Susan was with me and had taken contemporaneous notes and consulted with some of her lawyer friends.  The whole event was disruptive and unpleasant for me, and I have no intention of returning to Toronto by boat.

I learned last week that charges have been dropped.  One less impediment to roaming widely this year, and a fair outcome IMO.

I’m curious to know how many successful prosecutions they’ve had.  Here’s the charge.

I was monitoring the weather and river conditions in Illinois, and decided that our best chance to get down the river in the next couple of weeks would be early this week.  I’d been watching temperature gauge data from the lock stations, and it looked like the major ice had cleared at least as far as Peoria, and the long term forecast looked benign.  There were several nice days with temperatures up to about 10c.  River temperatures were well above freezing.

I drove to Ottawa Sunday night, and Monday we had a refrigeration specialist in to recharge the refrigeration system and got it up and running.

After provisioning we prepared to get underway Tuesday and discovered a bad alternator belt, and also that we had no spare.  I should have had that on the check list.  It’s fortunate that we didn’t have a failure underway.  After some running around we sorted that.

This morning we got underway for real, and were stopped by the ice in the harbour.  Most of the slips were cleared by a couple of bubblers, and there was open water at the entrance, but in between was more solid than it had been coming in.  So we aborted the mission.

It’s probably for the best.  Friend Matt was driving up the river and reported heavy pack ice below Peoria.

I’m back home now, and Dean and the comfort dogs are happy spending another couple of weeks at Heritage Harbor.  We’ll look for another window closer to the end of the month.

In the meantime shore side life is quite pleasant.  Lots of snow here, and I’ve been enjoying time outside with Cheddar.  Here we are checking on the little boats last week.

Note:  I wrote this in December 2023, and am revisiting the idea.  Component parts have come down in price.  It might be time to do it.  Not much has changed in my thinking since I drafted this.  A thread on Trawler Forum helped me in my thinking.

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I’ve been thinking for the last year or so about my perfect boat.  I’ve got to say, Escapade feels pretty good on me.  But it’s not perfect.

It’s all use case dependent, of course.  And my boating budget is far from limitless.  But it’s fun to contemplate.

One idea that’s been simmering as an alternative to swapping boats is tinkering with Escapade.  And building out a solar powered hybrid power train has been on my mind for a while. 

What would it entail?  Basically installing as much solar capacity as possible, then harnessing the energy provided to reduce my fuel consumption.

I should say that in three years of cruising on Escapade I’ve only spent time on the top deck a handful of times.  I don’t want a flybridge or sunning space.  The sun is not my friend.  I’m happy with the open access to the outside in the pilothouse and shaded cockpit.

So here’s the basic proposal: build an aluminum cage structure from the deck up, and cover it with solar panels.  Panels would cover most of the length and breadth of the boat.  I think I could get about 500 square feet with good orientation and no shade.  That’s about 10kw in capacity.  My experience with my existing panels indicates I can expect 35-40 kwh per day yield on average. Maximum daily might be 60 kwh.

That energy can be stored in a 48v battery and used for any of the following:

• Existing house loads (2-5 kwh/day)
• Heat/hot water (3kw electric in hydronic system, also uses waste engine heat)
• Propulsion
• It could also be used for air conditioning, but I have none installed.  A 240v reverse cycle mini split might look attractive if I had the power, and would also work for heat at dockside.
• Powering stabilization system (in my dreams!)

For the time being I’m expecting the majority of the solar power will go into propulsion.  My working plan is to install two electric saildrive units, each about 6 kw. My plan would be to use some combination of diesel and electric when underway. I’m quite confident that I’ll be able to travel at 6 knots under electric only, which is often fast enough for me, but I’m also thinking that I can blend electric with diesel easily by using both to travel the same speed with less fuel.

There are a bunch of ancillary benefits for me. Limited get-home propulsion is really nice to have in a single engine boat. And the idea of having the boat under a permanent protective covering of panels doesn’t bother me a bit. Silent running at times would be nice.

So what’s the payback going to be in reduced fuel consumption? I just called up some numbers from my last full loop:

Distance Traveled: 10,007 NM / 18,500 km

Engine hours: 1,537 @ 1.4 gph 5.5 l/hr

Furnace hours: 958 @ 1.7 l/hr

Total fuel used: 10,050 l

I’ve used 1.0 l/NM as my standard estimate on both Mazurka and Escapade and it’s been remarkably consistent.

What might a repeat with solar/electric look like?