On a lovely sunny, if a bit chilly, morning we were back on our way. We are about five days behind my original plan but as I only planned for three hours cruising per day to allow for days off etc that isn't a problem.
However, we do have an "interesting" problem. I will give a bit of explanation for the uninitiated. Narrowboats, like cars, have gearboxes. They are much simpler than cars, forward, reverse or neutral. These are selected by a lever which is pushed forwards, backwards or positioned straight up. No prizes for guessing the system. There is also a button which can be pulled out when in neutral to make sure you dont accidentally knock the lever into gear.
About an hour into our trip Ray wanted to stop to make sure all was well with the cooling system, and that nothing was vibrating loose. So he attempted to moor, gear lever into neutral and "why are we still moving forward?". At the moment we have one gear - forward. It could be worse, it could be reverse. It does make life interesting as the normal system for stopping a boat is, slow down, get to your mooring spot, quick bit of reverse, which stops you, step off and moor up. I now have to step off a moving boat, with mooring line and be a human brake! Luckily at our slowest engine speed there isn't enough power to put a strain on our mooring lines when we do moor. However it does mean we can't really leave the engine running whilst moored.
Today's trip wasn't too much of a problem because there were no locks and only one swing bridge but I wouldn't fancy attempting a lock flight with the gearbox like this. So it looks like another day off to get this sorted, unless we need parts. We are virtually at Coventry which, I think, is where our gearbox was made so we might be lucky if we do need any bits. I have been doing a bit of internet searching to try and find the likely cause of the problem.
We are now at Sutton Stop, officially Hawkesbury Junction, but it's always been called Sutton Stop by boaters. When we carry on we have to go through the shallowest lock, about six inches! This is the dividing line between the Oxford Canal and the Coventry Canal. In the days of canals being operated by independant companies there was a toll office here, it also stopped the Coventry Canal from stealing the Oxford Canal's water!
Today's journey 12.6 miles, 1 swing bridge and 1 tunnel.
So far we have travelled 147.6 miles, 156 locks, 4 swing bridges, 2 lift bridges and 3 tunnels.
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