I had planned to do a couple of small maintenance jobs on the boat for myself this time, well how hard can it be to change the oil and oil filter? I checked the manual and it was a simple 3 paragraph job - pump out the old oil using the built in sump pump, unscrew and replace the filter and refill with oil - Simple. I got a canister in place to collect the old oil, opened the stopcock as directed and stated pumping but when I got to 2 litres nothing else would come out (the sump capacity was 9.5 litres) Have I got the right pump? A hunt around the engine failed to reveal any other pumps and it fitted with the picture in the manual. So I phoned the manufacturer who was very helpful and said it sounded as though the pump had failed they would send me a new one, no charge but it wouldn't be in the post till Thursday so I should have it by Friday. In the meantime I spoke to our engineer and he assured me fitting the pump was simple - that word again - so I waited for Friday hoping that I could indeed fit it.
In the meantime we decided that having a bike on board would be a good idea so started to explore the possibility of a folding bike and eventually found a shop in Leamington Spa which had a selection in stock so went over there on Thursday and chose one which seemed to be adequate for our/my needs. We decided to have some more robust tyres fitted due to the hawthorn on the towpaths and arranged to go back the following day to pick up the bike which we did so I am now practicing for the Tour de France having managed about 5 miles the other day before my backside began to make itself felt.
Friday morning saw us get the boat provisioned with all the important victuals (see below) and Friday afternoon the new sump pump arrived.
I removed the old one very easily but when I looked at the new one it was obvious that all the old one had not come away from the engine and I could see no way of unscrewing the bit that was left, so another call to our engineer to plead stupidity and ask if he could do the job which he said he could but not for a few days so he suggested putting the old oil back in and starting on our trip and he would catch up with us. Great. So I put the oil back in and thought I'd just check the level on the dipstick to make sure it was OK and was somewhat surprised to see that it was way over the full mark by about an inch or so or say 2 litres! Had that oil I took out come from somewhere else? Another phone call and after some deliberation the engineer felt that if what came out went back in the level should be OK so go ahead anyway. I had some reservations about this but he's the expert so we agreed to leave the arrangement as it was and he would meet us in a few days.
Luckily however later that afternoon there was a tap on the boat and the engineer had arrived as his next job had been postponed so he could look at my problem. He quickly spotted that in fact that the pump had two stopcocks and I had managed to empty the gearbox and not the engine. Tucked away under loads of hoses was another stopcock which was the engine feed, the obvious one I had seen was for the gearbox. No mention of that fact in the manual of course! Anyway apparently I wouldn't have done any damage as if I had tried to put the boat in drive it would just have refused to turn the prop. So half an hour later and the oil in both engine and gearbox and filter were changed and we were good to go!
Its Wednesday as I write this and we are 9 locks down the 11 lock flight at Atherstone having had a lovely few days cruising in ideal weather, sunny but not too hot. We decided due to the dealys to change our planned route so that we would have time to get over to Llangollen so instead of going up through Leicester we have taken a slightly more direct route but are finding that we are on a very busy section of canal as there is a vintage boat rally at Alvecote over the August bank holiday and there are a lot of boats heading for it.
We moored up in the town before starting our decent and went shopping and in the local butchers. He asked if we were boating - yes we replied how could you tell? Well, he said all boating people who come in here are always so relaxed and unhurried! In spite of the problems of last week I think that sums it up.
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| At least we wont need to shop again for booze for a day or two! |
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| NB Tixall with a wood burning propulsion |
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| Interesting footbridge |
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