BCNS Explorer Cruise - the final leg

BCNS Explorer Cruise - the final leg

May 2016

What a difference a night makes. During the hours of darkness the rain had moved on and I was face with wall to wall sunshine, calm conditions and the towpath thronging with dog walkers and joggers.

Moorings in Walsall Wood

As often happens when things break down, I had been giving the cooker some serious thought and I had remembered that the failure to get gas to the burners may be due to the flame off device not working properly. I have seen this issue on the model elsewhere.

I decided to test the theory before setting off and disconnected the gas feed beneath the cooker before turning it on briefly. Gas emerged so the problem had to lie within the cooker. In recent days the gas supply had been fickle and sometime raising and lowering the glass lid did the trick - so the finger of suspicion pointed to the valve.

I quickly undid the six screws holding the cooker in place and heaved it up and out. Not an elegant or smooth maneuver, but one I undertook several times whilst building the galley. A quick inspection revealed a bent lever which was no longer activating the gas supply switch. The lever was only thin so I bent it straight with my fingers and we installed the whole thing and voila - we have gas!

The weather demanded thin trousers and a tee shirt and the last hour and a half through the leafy back end of Aldridge was nothing short of delightful. The sun shone, the birds sang and the herons fished. All was well with the world.

There was plenty of time to unpack the boats and attend to all the domestic activities on the car park side before poling the butty back into position followed by the motor boat. Somehow my three day trip had extended to four days and three nights, two which were lovely and two were pretty soggy but overall it was lovely to be afloat again at last - and by taking the butty I came back with considerably more money in my pocket than when I started.