GOBA moorings to Buckden Marina
0.25 mile, 0 locks
The usual morning job - a walk with Monty. This time along the Ouse Valley Way. It was all quite atmospheric with a mist rolling across the river.
What can I say about the walk? Well it was definitely trouser country to avoid the many nettles.
Other than that - not a lot apart from gates!
We discovered that the filter change had had no effect. The next option was that the fuel gauge had broken and they were out of fuel, so we gave the helmsman a lift to the marina where he hoped to get a 5 gallon can of petrol. As it turned out he was a godsend as it was far from obvious which way we had to go. His boat resides here, so he could direct us. A phone call was then needed to find out exactly where we were due to go - we knew it was H17, but this is another marina that only has the numbers at the non water end of the pontoon - absolutely useless for visiting craft!
Postscript to our friend's problem - the boat (in extremely good condition) is actually over 22 years old and it appears that the flexible fuel pipe (a form of rubber resistant to fuel) had eventually perished inside and this had prevented fuel from getting through - a new pipe will sort out the problem. Hopefully it will last for the next 22 years!
Safely moored, the first job was to empty our very large bow locker, so an engineer could look at our bow thruster. Maybe 15 half bags of coal is slight overkill, but they make good ballast (we ride high at the front) and we won't be caught out by a cold snap!
We arrived at 09:30. The service engineer arrived at 12:20 and the bow thruster man around 16:45! It was a long, boring and very hot day with nowhere to hide in the shade. We do, however, have the go ahead to stay here overnight, which is a blessing.
Update on the work - the service is done, but the bow thruster needs a new bearing which the engineer does not have, but he knows a man who does. He will return sometime tomorrow. The contents of the bow locker have been moved onto our pontoon (we are hoping our neighbour does not live aboard - he does and is happy to walk round our stuff!) and a power lead has just been delivered so we can if necessary (and it might well be) put the electric fan on.
Postscript no 2 which might raise a smile: Posted today on our C&RT volunteer website:
"A crew of Swedish tourists discover the delights of the Tardebigge flight on what must be the hottest day of the year so far. They were well prepared though, they’d brought along a full set of waterproofs......."
1 comment:
Love the misty photos Jennie. What a long wait you had to get the work done. Hopefully it will all be finished tomorrow. Good job you are staying there.
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