Friday 28th August to Tuesday 1st September 2020
The engineer was due to be with us some time before ten, and we were hoping that he would be able to replace the starter motor fairly quickly, an hour or so. That would allow us to get up the remaining six locks and be at the entrance to the tunnel in time for our booking. He arrived in good time, and Loulie took the dogs off for a walk so that they would not be stuck on the boat – when the engine compartment is open it is very hard to get out of the door for a human, and impossible for a dog.
After some hard work, and returning to his van for a bigger spanner to release a difficult bolt, the engineer got the cover off and announced that we had a problem. The reason the starter motor wasn’t engaging with the engine was some bits of plastic which were obstructing the sprocket. The problem was that these bits were all that remained of our drive plate, or at least the plastic disk in the centre of it. That protects the metal “teeth” on the two plates when they engage to put the boat in gear – the plastic absorbs the shock as the drive starts up, by preventing metal-on-metal impact. Without the plastic disk the teeth will still engage, if you put it into gear with care, but you would be liable to snap them off and leave yourself crippled. We could limp somewhere carefully, though there was nowhere useful to go – we certainly could not continue our voyage, especially through the tunnel.
As Sod’s Law would have it this was the Friday before the Bank Holiday weekend. Clearly we would need a new drive plate; the engine would have to be raised a little to get the gearbox off, but apparently this could be done by the canal side using a jack. I spoke to the head guy at the NNC and he said they could not source the plate and get out to us before the Wednesday next week, so we agreed that would be the plan.
Church Lawton is a nice mooring, and Loulie had found some splendid dog walks; with the debris around the starter removed we had the engine running and could charge the batteries. However the idea of stopping here for the next five nights did not really appeal, so we rang Jonjo and asked if he could come and collect us. While we were waiting Loulie showed me the walks she had found, through lots of woodland and valleys, and Posie disappeared for a long time in a field of maize, like Bridget in previous years. We packed up and when Jonjo arrived we walked across the field to the church to load the van, and he took us home.
After an interesting weekend at home, which included a blocked and then cleared septic tank, Loulie brought me back to the boat on Tuesday evening, after supper. The idea was that I would sleep aboard so that I would be ready for the engineer arriving before ten. Assuming that he could fix the problem Jonjo would then bring Loulie, the dogs and all the luggage down to join me after lunch. It was very strange sleeping alone on the boat for the first time.
No dogs - too quiet
TODAY: 0:0 HOURS. 0 MILES. 0 LOCKS.
Voyage: 10:55 HOURS. 25.9 MILES. 10 LOCKS.
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