Bank Holiday Madness.

We arrived at our mooring place on Friday and discovered during our journey that the starter alternator fan belt had broken, we replaced it on Saturday morning, without too much fuss apart from the sheared alternator bolt, but had a spare handy fortunately. Not a difficult job except there are 4 fan belts in all, and this one was the rearmost of the 4, so the other 3 had to be removed first to be able to get the new one fitted, so both the domestic alternator and the engine water pump had to be slackened to remove the 3 belts, a pain but such is life. Keith obviously his strength back to be able to shear a bolt!

Whilst doing this task. I Wonder about the mentality of people who allow their dogs to roam the towpath, next to fields full of nursing Ewes and their Lambs. We were doing a repair on the starter battery alternator fan belt, when two heads appeared into the engine room. There was no sign of a boater or walker, so I got off the boat to see if I could see anyone. Across on the opposite bank was a farmer and his son feeding their Ewes and Lambs. I asked if they were his dogs and he said "No", I thought they maybe yours. Having explained that they just appeared from no where, the farmer was not at all impressed. I told him I was worried about his Ewes and Lambs with the dogs running loose. I come from a farming family and have seen first hand what dogs can do to livestock. We arranged that he would come over and get them. He had no idea whose dogs they were. The farmer duly arrived across the bridge and into the field by the towpath, where I handed him the two terriers. Whilst the dogs were friendly enough they both had dirty coats and looked unkempt. The farmer was very thankful that I had collared them both and kept them for him, he went on to tell me about the 120 sheep/lambs that were killed last year in two cases. The first was a pack of 4 chocolate labs and the second was 2 black labs. This happened to a farmer not far from him, which is completely horrifying. If a farmers stock is killed like this, the farmer has to foot the bill for destroying the stock and he therefore is left totally out of pocket. The insurance will not cover him for this kind of lose.
About half an hour after he had taken the dogs, he rang me to let me know he had found the owner of the dogs. The owner was off a boat. Please, Please if you see anyone's dogs running free near livestock, please ask the owners to secure their dogs. No farmer should have to lose his livestock because of irresponsible dog owners. It really made me quite mad. I then found out these two dogs had been on another boaters boat in the early hours, they got the shock of their lives to see the dogs sitting on their deck, but could not catch them. Another boater who then came past, said he had seen them running along the towpath. So they had been out for hours and yet the owner clearly did nothing about it grrrrrrrrrrr.

Sunday and another boat job to be tackled after breakfast and the other boat chores. This one was fun and games , this was not to be a restful Sunday.
Keith started the generator and after a few minutes it stopped. Had this in the past which then was a blocked fuel filter. New fuel filters fitted, but lift pump wouldn't pump fuel up so out comes the manual pump, still no fuel coming through both filters, so refitted manual pump above remote filter, still no joy. Filter off again and re-seated, worked this time. Decided that whilst he was in the vicinity he would bypass the small filter mounted on the engine as it is not needed (something he had discussed with BSS as the plastic bowl doesn't meet their safety standards). It also cuts down having to buy 2 types of filter when only 1 is necessary. Restarted generator and everything is hunky dory until it stops again! Changed the oil filter just in case it was blocked, but no joy, only left the cooling water. Undid the pressure cap on the top tank and topped up with water. All working fine again now grin emoticon. I did wonder of it was the water at the time. So that was Sunday done and dusted.

It is now Monday and we have already greased the nipples on the prop-shaft etc. Wonder what other delights are coming our way??