Day 27 - Thursday 20th July 2006 The night remained hot until about 01:00, by 02:30 it was raining and had to close the hatch. At 08:00 someone started their engine, and then put it gear, however the sound didn't get quieter. It was swishing about, and every now and again something would tangle around it, and make even more noise. Eventually, I'd had enough, so went to ask them (nicely) to turn it off. Thankfully one of the occupants did, but obviously didn't know much about boats, as he asked why it might be running anyway. I mentioned that it certainly should not be run in gear, as it's against BW regulations, but I'm not sure he understood.
At 9:00 the engine started again, but this time out of gear, so I nearly managed to get back off to sleep before they finally set off. He gave it a bit of umph as he left, but I don't know if it was on purpose or not. We left the moorings at 11:00, and had a good run down to Stenson, where a widebeam boat had just descended the lock. We shared the lock with a "waterbug", the bloke was taking it to Sawley to sell. He was going slowly and he let us past, saying he was going to moor up for tea. At the next lock a narrowboat was stuck across the canal, and as it moved towards the lock I could see the widebeam boat on the lock moorings ahead. The narrowboat went into the lock, and waved us on, so we went sailing into the full lock, and straight down. I let the other narrowboat out first, but he was going very slowly. At the next lock one top gate was already open, so he went straight in, and I dropped Dad off at the lock mooring to open the other gate. I was still in the lock first! :-)This time, I made sure I was out first, but it's funny how much faster people go when following you! Shardlow lock was full, and we waited a couple of minutes while the other boat got into the lock. They were stopping at Shardlow, and we continued down to the last lock. A canaltime boat was messing about, trying to wind paddles up without the pawl on, dropping paddles, lifting them again even though the gate was open, etc. I wish Canaltime would spend more time teaching these people how to use locks. Once on the river I opened it up a bit, and found the engine started to die. The fuel filter had not been changed for awhile, and so we swapped it over once we moored at Sawley at 19:30. It was not until after we got the new one on, that we realised no fuel came out when it was removed. Dad removed the pipe into the filter housing, and nothing but a little dribble came out. I blow into the vent pipe and suddenly a load of fuel started to flow. We reassembled it all, and hopefully it will keep going OK tomorrow. --- Mike Askin nb. Kismet http://shoestring.zapto.org/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> See what's inside the new Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/2pRQfA/bOaOAA/yQLSAA/ygtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
