Basingstoke Assault 4.

We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning with thin ice on the water.

Moorings In Potter's Pool.

 I surfed the net for info on Morse controls and eventually found someone with the same problem on Canal World Discussion Forums. As usual, there were several possible solutions. One involved hanging a sou'wester on the lever and putting a bottle of beer in it. If the speed was too fast, drink some beer until the speed was right. Continue drinking the beer if tickover was required, then get another bottle from the fridge to continue cruising. A better suggestion was to fix a tension spring in place on the injector pump lever to counter the strong pull of the spring inside, which returned the lever to tickover speed. As I did not have any springs on board, a bungee cord had to do the job. Hopefully it will work when I go cruising tomorrow.

Blue Bungee Cord In Position.

Several boats left this morning and all the crews agreed to be back at Potter's for a final shindig on Thursday evening. Kathryn and I had a walk to see David and Jane Brixey on nb Rowan, who had an engine problem the day before and had to be towed the final leg of the journey. The four year old Russell Newbury engine had begun knocking and David wisely shut it down. The engineer was in attendance and thought it may well be a loose flywheel, but later discovered that the crankshaft had fractured and could be seen after a side cover was removed on the crankcase. No more motoring on this trip for them!
I discovered by chance, that there was a local beer festival on at Mytchett, so armed with my CAMRA card, I had to investigate. There were 30 ales on tap, but a man can only drink so much and I think I did my best. A little rest was now in order, as I had lost an hours sleep when the clocks were put forward overnight. The Friday start boats arrived and we repaired to the pub to put the world to rights and compare notes on the trip, so I had the chance to meet people whose boats I knew, but not their crews. One, Peter had been a member of the Narrow Boat Trust in the early days, when coal was shovelled out of the boats by hand. Yet again, it was another enjoyable evening, but in different company.