Ooops!

Having been a whistle stop tour including going back to the house for a night and over to Aoiffe’s, I am back at the boat. The highlight of the trip away was making custard. I love custard, but haven’t made it in years as it’s not the sort of things to cook when cycle touring. I followed Aoiffe’s instructions but it didn’t work.

“I can’t work out what you have done wrong,” she called out form the lounge. All I

was getting was hot milk, so I took out the custard powder to read the instructions to discover I had been using powdered milk by mistake. Ooops!

Having taken the boat out with experienced boaters it was time to head out with the inexperienced, so Cathy volunteered and came over, kindly giving me a lift back. All went well until the 4th lock at Kidderminster. As I entered the deep lock her face appeared above me with a silly grin.

“I have done something incredibly stupid,” she told me. My first thought was she had dropped her camera in, but surely not, she wouldn’t have that silly grin. I was wrong, that’s exactly what she had done, unfortunately it was still around her neck at the time. In her attempt to get a perfect picture of reflection in the water she had stood on the top lock gate, but not one to settle for second best she thought the picture could be improved, so took a step to the left. For some strange reason she must have thought it would look better from under water as she completely submerged herself.

Having asked her to bring as little as possible she had no change of clothing.

“I’ll be alright,” she said, “they will dry out on me.” I insisted she had a shower before we continued and lent her a few clothes.

The camera and phone were a right off. Even if she thought the picture would look better from under water, why would she want to make a telephone call from down there? Still, lesson learned: Don’t go boating with Cathy unless she has kiddy reigns and inflatable arm bands on.

The remainder of the trip was thankfully uneventful by comparison. We moored near Wolverley for the first night away from the mooring in Stourport returning the following day.

Mally brought Frances down at the weekend and we did a similar trip turning around north of Kidderminster, thankfully neither decided to go for a swim. Mally had to remove some debris from Cathy’s lock gate and thought the water was so disgusting she washed her hands immediately.

Kiddy is notorious for having trouble whilst mooring for the night. I could believe it as there are plenty of good spots to moor and a not a single boat in sight. As we returned through the lock the local kids had fun by jumping across. A slip would have proved costly with 20 tons of boat bearing down on them, driven by a guy who doesn’t know how to stop the thing.

Having moored up I dumped the satellite dish on the roof. To get a good signal it needs to be manoeuvred by fractions of an inch, yet this time is was perfect without any adjustment. What are the chances of that? Incredibly I did the same again back at the basin. My luck was in, I should have entered the lottery!

Today has seen my first real problem on the boat with the water pump playing up. Oh joy! It pumps water perfectly but pulses when the water is turned off with water being pumped out of the boat by the calorifier (hot water tank). The guys on surrounding boats hadn’t seen such a problem before, so it was time to raise the question on canal forum. I was impressed. Within an hour I had suggestions and ran some diagnostics. It appears the pressure valve on the pump has failed so continues pumping with the water being pushed into the calorifier, then forced out through the pressure valve. So tomorrow I have to buy parts if I can get them or failing that, a new pump. I am useless at DIY so I will consider it successful if I don’t sink the boat!