Down the hill

Friday 2^nd August

We awoke this morning to discover we were still afloat, and indeed when I ran the bilge pumps nothing at all came out. That meant that there had been no leakage since I had greased the gland, but I was fairly sure that this was subject to change once we got under way, and the prop shaft started spinning. And indeed so it proved – when we had been going an hour or so, running the pump produced several squirts of water – nothing huge, but a clear sign that there was now some leakage where previously there had been none. This was not an issue while we were travelling – the pump will simply expel any excess – so I left it to be looked at once we were moored.

A fallen branch which has almost blocked the canal

The challenge for the day was simple – the rest of the locks on Heartbreak Hill, twenty left to do before we reached Wheelock. We got away from our moorings just before some people we had seen the day before, on NB Just Joe, which was good news – as I had explained before, following someone through a series of locks is irritating, as they are always against you.

As it was we found almost all of the locks set in our favour, so I only had to fill one chamber completely. Sometimes it worked perfectly so we met another boat coming up and could leave the lock open for them, while they did the same for us. Although they are mostly quite deep the locks are fast and well maintained, and also well designed, with a single gate at the top end and bridges or walkways at both ends, which means you never have to walk twice the length of the lock to work the gates. We met quite a few boats coming up, exchanging a few words as we worked the locks and then said goodbye.

Seems some cows like paddling in the floods

We essentially kept going all the way down. We planned to stop at one point, but there was a boat coming out of the lock, leaving the gate open for us, and we couldn’t resist. We let the girls off for a tiddle just above a lock, and they disgraced themselves, racing off down to the lock and carting about. Minnie even jumped into the water and had to be hauled out before the boat coming up could go past. I got the bicycle off, which meant that I could finish working a lock and close the gates, and still be down at the next lock ready to let Loulie in. We stayed ahead of Just Joe all the way, though they had two people working the locks. Quite a few of the sets on this flight are duplicated, but this didn’t help them, as they were typically finding both locks set against them after we had passed through. It was a nice warm days with plenty of sun and only high clouds – all in all very pleasant.

We finished lock 66 at about 16:00, and we were immediately in wheelock. I dropped Loulie off at the Barchatta restaurant to make a booking, and sailed on a few hundred yards to moor. There are plenty of boats around us (Just Joe is right behind) and houses with dogs opposite but for some reason the dogs have been very quiet all evening.

Once we had moored Loulie took them for a long walk (all except Ruby) while I stayed with the boat. I opened the engine hatch and it was immediately obvious that the stern gland was dripping fast, almost trickling, so I needed to grease it again. Last night I sat on the engine to get down to the gland, but now it was hot after a day’s sailing, but I discovered I could lie on the deck and reach down far enough to get at the greasing screw – helped of course by the fact that it was daylight and I didn’t have to work by the light of my head torch. I put in more grease and happily the dripping stopped dead. So the grease will solve the problem, but only until we turn the prop shaft – presumably the motion and heat drives the grease out of the gaps in the gland and allows the water through. That means I will need to make greasing a part of my end of day routine every day, until we can get it fixed.

We decided to leave the dogs on the boat when we went for a meal at the Barchetta, which allowed us to eat without worrying that they were bothering the other diners. They were quite happy sleeping down below until we came back. It was a very nice meal – the restaurant is in an old canal-side warehouse with floors at various different levels and gaps to allow goods to be hoisted in and out of boats. Back to the boat, and a nice quiet end to the evening.

Moorings at Wheelock 2-8-19

Map at 2-8-19

TODAY: 5:30 HOURS. 5.5 MILES. 20 LOCKS. 0 BRIDGE.

VOYAGE: 74:40 HOURS. 87.3 MILES. 82 LOCKS. 8 BRIDGES