More engine problems

 Sept 1st

We couldn't believe it this morning when Ian went to start FS and nothing happened! What was going on with the engine? Ian discovered the glow plugs were not heating up, so out came the test meter and the discovery made no volts were getting to those plugs. To cut a long story short, the fault lay with the connecting block plug and socket on the wiring harness, which was at the back of the control panel. It had a bad contact, causing it to overheat. His solution was to remove the wire and make a separate connection away from the block. It worked a treat, thank goodness for my man that can! So we got away much later than planned, but still hoped to be moored by early afternoon.

 

The river was very low, rain would be very welcome at the moment. At Derwent Mouth lock, Ian had a bit of a scramble to get onto the landing. The only way was to clamber onto the cabin top and step off. I would have got him off at the ladder, but bringing FS in a bit sharp, had to put the power on to avoid hitting the side. Ian never said a word! A massive amount of Pennywort had also made the channel narrower, I blamed trying to avoid it as my excuse. A big clump had also broken off and a large carpet of the stuff blocked the entrance to the lock. There was no avoiding the mat, and I just hoped I wouldn't drag it in with me.

 

Shardlow was getting ready for the Inland Port festival. Moorings are to be restricted from Wednesday and although spaces were available, there was no point in grabbing one of them. Eventually we found somewhere above the lock, on pins, so not ideal but good enough for the foreseeable future.