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In 1977 we hired our first narrowboat from Anglo Welsh at Market Harborough.From that moment our destiny was set. In 2006 we finally purchased our own brand new 57' narrowboat which we named 'Free Spirit'. Our aim is to travel the length and breadth of all the navigable rivers and canals of the UK. This will be our story as it unfolds.

Wednesday 7 August 2013

A bit of a list

Woke up this morning to a sever list to Starboard. The water had dropped by a good foot and as the water is exceptionally clear we could see that a shelf near the bottom was causing our problem. The photo of our boat didnt really show the whole picture so I walked along to find a better view of another boat.



The saga of our water pump continues. With Ian having removed the water pump last night we were unable to charge the batteries. Consequently last night we saved as much battery power as possible by only having one light on ( it is a LED light so more energy efficient ) and only putting the TV on so I could watch my Holby City! I was concerned my freezer would defrost overnight but thankfully it was still frozen this morning. So this morning Ian tried to remove the back plate of the pump and bu**ered up 2 screws. In the end drilling the screws out was the only solution. Anyway looking at the impellers they looked to be fine and after another phone call to Martin, confirmed the pump wasn't our problem! Ian still thought it might be the head casket but no water seems to be getting into the oil so the only other advice Martin gave Ian was to get the cylinders compression tested to see if air is leaking through the head casket. For now though, the pump has been restored and placed back in the engine. After a few false starts with water leaking from the hose fitting, it seems to be running okay. Only time will tell if air is getting into the system and the water gets blown out again but we have decided to continue along the Lee & Stort for now with a daily top up of water if necessary.



So not much to report today. Jade has been a bit of a worry as she really doesn't want to go for a long walk anymore and taking her up a flight of steps to the road this morning made her back legs give way. We have a pain killer called Rimadyl which we used for Judy and I'm going to try her on that for a few days to see if it helps. With Jade not wanting to go for a walk I took myself out instead. I would only have got in Ians way and I'm sure he was getting fed up with all the questions I was asking. Victoria park was full of cyclist, children and generally people enjoying this fine weather. Crossing one of the bridges I glanced over the side and found a very amusing small floating mattress that must have been  placed there by an irate council home owner.




I also found this amusing. None of the cyclist  slows down. ( and there are a considerable amount tearing along the towpath here ) We constantly get a ding ding of the bell and are expected to leap out of there way as the race past!


Dodging pedestrians and runners
Victoria Park.



We will leave early tomorrow if nothing untoward happens overnight with the engine. As the batteries need a good charge we will have to continue to run the engine up to 8pm.

And finally:-





Ladybird newly hatched ( if that is the correct word ) from its pupa.
Tufted duckling taking a dive.

Juvenile Herring gull



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