Successful weekend with some drama - Rickmansworth to Tring

For the weekend I picked up my first crew, my friend Sabine, to make it all the way to the first "summit" of the GU in the Chilterns. There are lots of locks scattered in short distances in between all the way up. Sabine joined me early Friday afternoon and off we went - and got as far as the first lock ten minutes into the journey, when the engine cut out, just as I was in the middle of the lock entrance. Hm. Not good. We pulled the boat back out and tied up on the lock landing. On the first couple of attempts the engine wouldn't start again. Then it started OK, but cut out as soon as I put it into gear. I had no idea what the problem could be, let alone know how to fix it. Fortunately we were broken down just opposite a marina and found an engineer, who said that it's likely to be a fuel problem (water in the diesel) and that the fuel filter would need changing. But he said he had no time until possibly(!) later in the evening. Very encouraging, especially as this was Sabine's weekend away and it started to look like we'd spend it on a mooring just outside Cassiobury Park.

Armed with my new knowledge of "probably a fuel problem" I remembered the handbook I got from the one day course I did for diesel engine maintenance. The book said to drain the fuel pre-filter of water periodically. Water can accumulate in the tank from condensation especially in the winter months. I had never drained that filter of course. I managed to locate the drain plug and drained the equivalent of a full glass of water from the filter! We started the engine again and it did get back into gear fine this time. Also no white exhaust fumes, which would indicate water. We deliberated a bit, whether we should wait for the - possible - appearance of the engineer later or chance it. We chanced it. I hope I am not jinxing it by writing that the engine is running perfectly fine so far.

So we didn't make it as far as planned on Friday, and the Saturday overnight destination of Berkhamsted looked increasingly unrealistic now. However, on Saturday there were a few things in our favour. Sabine was very quick to grasp the lock operation and optimised the required work. Also most locks were in our favour.

So we actually whizzed through (if you can say that about a narrowboat journey) 20 locks in one day and reached Berkhamsted around 6.30pm. And this despite us not being able to share a single lock with anybody. It's strange how few boats were out and about even on the weekend.

We tied up for lunch at Fisheries Lock in Hemel Hampstead and just as we were in the lock my ex-colleague Lisa spotted us. What an amazing coincidence! We arranged to meet again in the evening at a canalside pub in Berkhamsted. So our evening in Berkhamsted was spent chatting to Lisa in the Rising Sun, having a great dinner at The Boat and going to bed at 10pm. It had been a record number of locks at least for my journeys and we were both knackered, although to be fair, Sabine had done almost all the work.

Sunday started with heavy rain early morning, which cleared by the time we were ready to go and it was going to be a beautiful sunny day. We had a fairly leisurely journey to the top lock at Cow Roast, where we stopped for lunch and tried out my brand new barbecue. We continued on to near Tring Station, where Sabine left me in the afternoon.

It was a fantastic weekend. We laughed so much, had good weather and made great progress. I am taking a little break today, before tackling the Marsworth locks down on my own again.