I moved Percy in the autumn of 2018 from Fradley to Shebdon as we were moving from our C&RT mooring we had held for over 10 years to a new adventure on the Shroppie. Due to me being retired (bliss) and Rachel still working it was a single handed cruise over 4 longish days.
I blogged about it and called it my heaven and hell cruise... well worth a read. I don't really have to as it is engrained in my head.... but click me for the full story and lovely pictures.
Now this cruise literally lifted and dented my love and enthusiasm for Percy and the canals in one four day period. We loved Fradley but wanted a change, it was on reflection absolutely the right thing to do and I thank my neighbour for the heads up on the mooring, the vacancy and help in moving around when we got there....
The denting was more deeply engrained than I think I expected. The head gasket on Percy has always weeped a little and this is more a feature of the listeroid version than the original CS2 - the original CS2 was lower powered but has two extra head studs that helps even the 'squish' on the head gasket. My version is bored out so does not have the extra studs as they would be too close to the cylinder walls - I guess. Anyway I digress, as my cruise progressed the temp gauge rose higher and higher. I was on a self imposed timescale so limped on resulting in the engine overheating just less than a mile short of my destination. I had limped Percy to this point with slow speed and frequent stops. Many many times I'd leave my tiller post to dash into the engine room and check pipes and pumps to see it I could identify the problem. It was very frustrating and an anxious time as I was on my own and trying to strike the balance between progress/timescales and possible engine damage.
I read around the Listeroid pages on the internet and confirmed my initial thoughts that the old cast iron lumps were very robust however there was an issue and it significantly impaired my joy of the cruise.
Ultimately I limped home and over a period over several weeks diagnosed an impeller problem and also has the head gasket replaced alongside a couple of slightly worn valve guides and tested and cleaned the injectors - boy do I know a lot about my engine now !!
So I needed to prove to myself Percy was set fair for another 20 years or so of ownership (hopefully) and what has happened was clear and the joy of the canals needed to be re-injected into my system with a solo cruise over some of the path I had my 'Hell on'.
Last week I took Percy out and reversed just a bit of the route where I had my most anxious moments. The last day saw me cruise from just north of Wheaton Aston back to Shebdon, this mini two day cruise took me nearly as far as Wheaton Aston and back.
On the way out past bridge 44
My nemesis corner coming up. It's where I had to moor out into the canal (Shroppie shelf) for a couple of hours to let the engine cool down
The iconic double arch Shroppie bridge. On the way back on the hell cruise I can't even remember going under it so was my fixation on the engine !
Past the beautiful properties in Gnosall and into the Cowley tunnel.
My window view of the mooring past Cowley - I marked in in my Nicklesons as a future mooring spot - perfect.
Next day it was off to the winding hole for the return joyous trip
The weather was glorious a proper warm spring day.
A real quintessential farm and buildings adjacent to the canal
Norbury looking ready for 'the season'
This one was not put off by me buy I did pass on proper tick-over
So all in all a perfect antidote to the stress and anxiety of the last cruise this way.
As was to be expected Percy's engine performed flawlessly as did the new batteries and the rewiring I undertook over the winter. Fridge on, telly on - I even charged my Macbook (albeit with the engine on going back).
Still a few jobs to do but in the main happy and can't wait to get out more !!
No comments:
Post a Comment