Friday 13th.........Should have been yesterday!!

13/04/12
Bridge 45, Wrights Lane - Bridge 36, Bugsbrooke


3 miles - 0 Locks

Visitors at Bugsbrooke

Today was a far better day than the horrors of yesterday.  After a good nights sleep the world always looks better.  And today was no exception.  We were both up nice and early, the dog had been weed and pooed, I had had 2 cups of tea and a poo and Yog was in the engine bay tinkering with the engine to try and diagnose the diesel problem.  Boatyard Man was due at 10am and Yog wanted to make sure he had checked all the obvious things before he arrived.  He came in at about 9.00am still baffled though, we had a chat about it over another cup of tea and the only thing we could come up with was a problem with diesel we filled up with earlier. 
It might have had bug or when the man filled the tank he'd threw up a load of muck that had blocked up the pipes.  On Yogs request I called the boatyard man to ask him to bring some diesel treatment just in case as that was the only thing we could think of to solve it.  
Slight problem with that though, no answer on the number we had.  7 calls later and still no answer and it was nearly 10am so we couldn't see the point of trying to contact him any more as he was probably on his way.

Buster Overseeing Developments

10.40am A man in blue overalls, smoking a pipe wanders up to the boat with his dog.  Yog thought this was most unprofessional and started to rip into him about bringing his dog with him on a job whilst arriving 40 mins late.  Turns out it was a neighbouring boater who had seen us drift in last night and had come up to see if we wanted a hand!! lol - quickly overcoming that misunderstanding they then proceeded to get their heads together to work through the problem again.  They went through everything that Yog had already been through, with the addition of using the blow on the hoover to pressurise the system and blow any muck out of the pipe.  First attempt ended up with the hoover falling into the engine bay and splattering Yog in oil (lol very quietly at a safe distance).  Second attempt, achieved nothing out of the pipe? Took the tap off, tried again, BIG lump of black slime bursts out of the pipe. Problem Solved, man phoned and told not to bother, boat started, man and dog thanked, journey resumed. All before 11am :0)

As we were running low on supplies and were in the middle of nowhere we decided to head for the nearest village, which was Bugsbrooke.  Even though it was cold and a bit windy, it was a really nice cruise and boat was running beautifully.  The canal avoids most villages at this point and we needed to travel 3 miles through fields filled with horses, sheep and rape before we saw any kind of town or village!!  I also didn't need to cycle as there wouldn't be any locks today.

We arrived at Bugbrooke before noon and were both feeling pretty happy. Boat had run well and we had had a nice easy cruise, if a little cold.  
Yog got the bike off the roof and I  cycled into town to get supplies.
Using my trusty 'app' I set off along the towpath in search of bread and milk. At the bridge I turned right and traveled through leafy country lanes into the village which was straight out of the Vicar of Dibley!!  They had 1 local shop for local people and the smallest Post Office I had ever seen.  It looked as if it was a converted garden shed!! But it sold hand made fudge so I did my bit for the local economy and headed back to the boat.  For some unknown reason I still had energy to spare and started to T-cut the side of the boat!!  12 feet later I had run out of said energy and called it a day :0).