What a day !!!

The weatherman said it was going to be sunny with showers,....he lied, as its raining again and cold,saying that it did brighten up in the afternoon. We attempted to set off but unusually the engine didn't start first time, so after a few attempts it eventually started,and off we go. Denise must open two lift bridges by winding them up the first is easy for her but the second is a struggle for her but she manages it and under the boat goes.

Denise operating the lift bridge :)

We go under the M42 and pass the village of Hockley Heath with its expensive butchers, then its the first four locks of the Lapworth flight and then its into the main flight of locks fifteen in all and no help today from volunteer lock keepers, but we get it a good rhythm and we are soon getting through them. We clear five more locks then disaster strike, the throttle won't work, it gets stuck in reverse so no forward motion, we right it he middle of the locks so the only option was to turn the engine off and drag the boat through the next five locks, like the old days but instead of a horse,it me doing the pulling.

So we mange to get the boat to a mooring area, I have a quick look in the engine compartment, but can't see anything that looks out of the normal, so we have to phone RCR (river canal rescue) the equivalent of the R.A.C and they send out an engineer.

About thirty minutes later a engineer, a young lad called Kerry turned up, we explained what happened and he proceed to fix the throttle, it was the same problem we had when we were on the Thames a little ball bearing had jumped out of where it normally sits.He fixed it in no time and then I explained that this morning I had a problem starting the engine, so he had a look and found that our fuel pump had packed in. Firstly we were going to stay put for a few days as he had to order a pump from the engine dealership, but luckily he had a spare on his van, so he replaced the fuel pump and we had to pay £50.00 excess but its worth it as we can be on our way again tomorrow.

 

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