Evening all ... A trip to remember. Arrived in Chagny in our
rented Alfa Romeo from Paris about 5 P.M. and after unloading the car
set off for Chalon to stock up on vitals etc, Returned to boat for
pick up dinner and had to run the engine for an hour to put some
voles in the batteries. Next morning Luther (son-in-law) and I
returned the car :-{ and taxied back to Chagny. Began the floating
part of our voyage at 12:30 and locked down thru the next eight locks
introducing Luther and daughter Candy to the canals of France and to
Dorney. Big locks on this canal and our first encounter with the
rising and descending bollards. I was standing on one when it began
it's descent. Interesting ...
Upon entering lock #30 I pulled the gearshifter to reverse
and felt nothing! Put shifter into forward ... nothing !! Now I
have been in this situation before on our narrowboat so knew exactly
what to do. PANIC !!! Quickly yelling to Candy to wrap the stern
line around the bollard ( which she did but only taking one turn) I
found it was necessary for me to jump off with the bow line and wrap
it around (twice) the last bollard before the gates. Dorney obeyed
and came to a screeching stop. OK ,,, Now what you ask ??? This
lock is an automatic lock and as soon as the boats are secure the
lock keeper pushes the button and the lock gates close and the lock
begins to empty. After a few shouts of STOP! the lock keeper pushes
the stop button and we can now make a decision about what to do.
Looking around, I decide to go down the lock and bow haul the boat
over to the bank thereby leaving the lock free for other boats to use
while we fix (fingers crossed ) the problem.
After Candy and Judy bow haul Dorney to shore ( well done
mates ... one round coming up) I looked up at the lock and saw we
have given the local population something to talk about for the next
few hours anyway. Cracking open the engine hatch which is under the
wheel house floor and asked luther to start the engine and put the
boat into reverse (reverse Sir) ... cable seems to be working he
mutters .. forward please ... (Forward .. Sir) ... cable seems to be
working he mutters again ... then taking a closer look I noticed a
gap between the transmission and the shock absorber thingy on the
prop shaft. Now when I say gap I mean a gap of about 8 inches.
Luther, WE have a problem!
Phoning Adam the mechanic results in an "interesting,
anything broken question" ... no... Q. can you move the shaft with
the thingy back onto the shaft that is protruding from the
transmission. .. yes ... O.K Move it and see how it works. end
phone call. Luther removes the lower drawer under the back cabin
bed and pulls/pushes the prop shaft toward the engine pinching the
captains hand because he was not ready and the keystones cops try
again this time with success. Now the question is ... How is IT
going to stay in position when the shaft is running. Since neither
of us knew the answer and We needed to get the boat to an area were
it could be worked on, we moved on down the canal until we reached
the town of Fragnes where there were moorings with electricity and
water and a restaurant (French of course). Approaching the moorings
the captain hear a loud sound from the engine room and carefully
drifted the boat to its berth on the bank for the night.
After mooring up the captain decided to give the situation a
more closed inspection and discovered not only a slipping prop shaft
but also two dry domestic batteries an another with one dry cell and
another with two dry cells. Can't keep them voles happy without their
drink can ya ! Upon even closer inspection it was discovered that
the starboard/forward engine mount bolt had sheared and the engine
had dropped about an 1/2 inch. ( After fixing engine mount bolt on
Monday we found it had sheared inside the lower adjusting nut and may
have sheared in the last year or so and this may have caused the nut
to slowly back off the shaft and cause the separation mentioned
above. )
Phoned Adam (the Mechanic) with this new info and after
giving him the size of the engine mounting bolt and the news about
the batteries we were informed that we would be there until monday
and have a nice day. Luther meanwhile having a much clearer head on
his shoulders, went over and made reservations for dinner at the
restaurant. Needless to say We had a wonderful meal and retired to
the boat after 11 and a much needed rest.
End of the first day on our three week voyage. Days two,
three, and four anon
Stan and Judy
--
Judy & Stan Voets, POB 103, San Geronimo, CA 94963
Tel: 415.488.0985
You may never know what results come from your action,
But if you do nothing, there will be no results - Gandhi
