WORRYING TIMES

 

Captain in the hot seat

The river Witham is not as wide as the Trent and it is very straight,, which meant I quite enjoyed taking my turn at steering. When not steering I was taking in the beautiful scenery, bird life and insects. There were big dragonflies, little bright blue darters and Banded Demoiselle, with all types of butterfly and bees taking advantage of the flowers on the boat. If the Trent was the home of the little Egret, the Eygptian goose took that title on the Witham. We had Swallows, Sandmartins and common Terns performing acrobatics round the boat. We saw our first Great Crested Grebes on this trip, but the kingfisher remained elusive. But we heard loads more Cuckoo’s

Banded Demoiselle

Now on to the title. When we set off from Boston everything seemed normal, the Captain did his usual checks and topped the water up in the engine. We soon realised that the engine appeared to be over heating, as the header bottle, which normally only contains a little water, was filling up and water was coming out of the overflow pipe. We stopped at Lankridge moorings and the Captain checked the engine, but couldn’t see any obvious problems apart from a badly leaking stern gland. The Captain replaced the seals in the gland, topped the water up and off we went again. The same thing happened and the header bottle filled with water, it was very worrying but we made it to Dog Dyke for the night. The Captain mused over what could be the cause but couldn’t narrow it down, it could be the water pump, the heat exchange, or worse case the head gasket. There was no real way of knowing. Our other problem was we needed to get to Lincoln in a couple of days for a pump out.

To lighten the mood (only slightly) we had both a Spitfire and Hurricane flying over the boat.

Spitfire and Hurricane

After a fitful night we were woken by the Typhoon’s taking off for the days flying.

It was decided we would hop from visitor mooring to visitor mooring, this would ensure the engine didn’t lose to much water, and we could let it cool down and top it up as necessary. Our aim was Bardney for the night, it took longer what with stopping and not putting to much strain on the engine, but we made it. To cheer us up we spotted a Kingfisher just sitting on a branch as we cruised by.

We didn’t go to the pub, it was just to much effort. Our trip from Bardney to Lincoln was a rinse and repeat of the day before. However the Captain decided to see if pressurising the system would help with the water loss. He managed to stop up the overflow pipe with a drill wrapped with a rubber tape. It did seem to work, the header bottle was full, but we weren’t losing water and the engine wasn’t over heating. But we still took it steady. I was so happy to see Lincoln guillotine lock, and we moored in the same place as before, then headed to the pub, The Cardinals Hat of course. The Captain was very happy with a traditional Victorian Mild called Thunder Rat from Ossett brewery.

https://untappd.com/b/ossett-brewery-thunder-rat/6700839

But he wasn’t happy that we had found the underlying problem with the engine, and ordered a kit to try and check to see if the head gasket has gone to rule that out.

On our way back from the pub we stopped at the Guildhall, there had been a talk on and I wondered what it was about, we got talking to the gentleman, Chris, who was overseeing the event, and he told us if we were interested, the next day at 2pm there was a free guided tour of the Guildhall. Sounded fascinating and we decided to give it ago.Before we headed to the tour the toilet still needed pumping out, the pump out machine was the other side of Brayford Pools, so we made the short journey there and back before lunch.

The tour was amazing, Andrew our guide, was great and full of knowledge about Lincoln’s history, as well as the Guildhall itself. It was 2 hours well spent.

https://www.lincolnguildhall.com/

Lincoln Guildhall Treasures

Then off to the pub, yes the Cardinal Hat of course. Mena Dhu a Cornish stout for the Captain today.

https://www.staustellbrewery.co.uk/our-beers/mena-dhu

Back at the boat we were lucky to spot the wonderful Red Arrows as they flew above the boat.

RAF Red Arrows

The kit to check the head gasket was due the next day, so it was the day of reckoning.

We picked up the kit and did a bit of shopping. I wasn’t feeling great, (stress and maybe a little to much beer) so we decided to get lunch at the Greek Brothers cafe. It was really tasty and helped with my mood.

https://thegreekbrotherslincoln.com/

The Captain used the kit, and the result was not what we wanted. It definitely looked like there was a problem with the head gasket. So on to Facebook to ask the hive mind for recommendations for a reliable marine mechanic. A couple of names were put forward, and the Captain contacted them both. The first gentleman was in Coalville Leicestershire and couldn’t get to us until the end of June, but suggested it would be easier if we could move the boat back to Trent Lock. We did consider this, however the second gentleman, Darren Crouch, was in Boston, a little closer but was able to get to us the next week.

https://www.dhcrouchmarineltd.uk/

The Captain thought that this would be the best option.

But first he decided to do a little experiment. He filled the water to and measured it exactly, then we took the boat for a 3hr trip using the revs we would usually use on the river, about 1500rpm. The water came up in the header bottle but the engine didn’t overheat and it was a pleasant trip. We moored again in the same place and headed to the pub. He couldn’t check the water level until the next day when the engine had cooled down.

This little experiment didn’t end the way we hoped, and created more questions than answers. The water in the header bottle should have flowed back into the engine as it cooled, but it didn’t Don’t ask me why or the Captain, he couldn’t explain it either, but he didn’t think it was a good thing. The cooling system had remain pressurised which it really shouldn’t have done. But we didn’t lose any water. You couldn’t make this up.

He relayed this information to Darren the engineer in Boston, and organised for him to come out to the boat the following Wednesday.

But it was only Friday so this meant we had a few days to kill.

There are worse places to be stuck to be honest, but we just wanted to be on the move.

32 miles 2 locks 1 River and 1 canal.