A varied day

Eckington Bridge and yes we are going back through it in the very misty morning.   When we came up this way our book told us there was an Elsan point a little way beyond Strensham Lock,  but when we arrived there   guess what.....

However when Geoff was out walking and investigated Strensham lock he found a very new looking Elsan point right on the upstream end of the lock.  We had missed seeing it as I picked him up in the lock when we left.   You are asked to leave the exit gates open when you depart.......

So that is the reason for the about turn.   The mist we felt would soon burn off as the forecast was for a warm sunny day..........well it did burn off but not completely until almost mid-day.........

As is my practise when we are travelling I had the washing machine on and was dismayed to discover water on the floor when I went down below..........do I dare tell Geoff or wait until we are at our destination..........

I cleaned out the filter in case it was blocked (it wasn't) and then did some further investigation and was not impressed to discover that it seemed to be coming from the bottom of the calorifier which is in the bottom of my airing cupboard just behind the washing machine.   Arghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!   or words to that effect!!!!

We eventually moored at the twin Bridges Moorings just before Pershore lock and Geoff's investigations seemed to corroborate my diagnosis.......

A hunt through the books ensued to find the closest boatyard with an engineer with no hope of anyone coming as it was Saturday.  How lucky we were.....I called Sankey marine who are situated just before Evesham and Doug was with us in 20 minutes...........brilliant service........

It took him about 1/4 of an hours investigation, which included moving the washing machine out of it's close fitting space........to discover that the culprit was the cold water feed to the washing machine.    A tap or somesuch thing had worked loose....all very wet and soggy under there and very difficult to get to anything BUT the big plus was that it was not the calorifier........

The day did improve after that....the sun was out...the mooring place has plenty of grass for Barney,  place for me to sit out in the sun and Gill and Geoff came for supper on board.....so we ended on a better note

Now we just have to wait for the floor to dry out and to see what happens when we next use the washing machine........tomorrow will be a test run!!!

My chimney is bigger than yours!!!!!!!