By lunch time she had not made any progress so went back to base for further advice. She returned after a break and everyone concluded that there must have been a lot of condensation in the tank and the solution was to drain off a few litres, hoping to remove the contamination. Eventually the engine suddenly roared into life, over revving but dying again after a few seconds with no further response.
End of Day one - Mitch promised to return next morning with Chris. He discovered that there was no fuel to the injectors - although Mitch had managed to check this yesterday. By lunch time the general consensus was that the injector pump needed replacing. Back at base we found that a spare part could be obtained from Daventry - the only down-side was the price: around £600! We both set off to collect the part, plus new injectors and a couple of gaskets but by the time we had picked them up, Chris had decided that there was insufficient time to fit them today.
We did a little shopping (mostly unsuccessful!) in Banbury before returning to the boat and another evening on minimal lighting! Bring out the candle again . . .
Next morning, Chris set about fitting the spares. Whilst this was happening, a couple of elderly local men asked for help to get to the other side of the canal! They had hired a young civil engineer to take a few levels for some plans they wanted drawn up for a footbridge. They hope to persuade the local council to pay for it! They wanted to measure a level on the opposite bank as well as measure the width with a rope! Mike took one of them across, punting one end of the boat with the long pole!
After a couple of hours, Chris was ready to fire up the engine and it was with great relief all round when it started - and sounded smoother than before. There was a little fine tuning to do and a quick look to see where the rear leak is coming from, but that problem will have to wait until we are next back at base. By 12:30 we were on the move!
We continued down the Oxford canal - it was generally very pleasant and not quite as cold as it had been, although there was an occasional shower - just minutes after setting off there was even a quick hail storm!
Still hoping to make Reading for Sunday lunch time we had soup and sandwiches on the move and in between locks. Christine made a quick dash to the Co-Op at Kidlington Road Bridge for some milk and returned also with a reduced price chicken - change of menu for tonight!
It was half past five by the time we reached Duke's Cut but we could not find a mooring in that stretch before reaching the Thames itself. This meant going down Kings Lock and we were quickly entering twilight before we found a mooring just above Godstow Bridge, almost where we had planned. (The last time we moored here it was below the bridge)
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