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Reflections at the Three Horseshoes

I did not sleep well last night. I awoke to a strange humming noise, and started prowling the boat trying to find out what was causing it, then looking out of the windows into the rainy night to see if there was some reason for it outside. Alan was not sympathetic, he couldn't hear it, and was not happy with being woken up by me trying to find the cause. If I know what is causing something I can ignore it, but if I don't know the reason... well, then my sleep fuddled brain starts imagining all sorts of things.

Alan finally identified the noise, at about 8:30 this morning. It seems to be some kind of transformer hum coming from the vicinity of the Three Horseshoes pub. When speaking to David about this later it turned out that he had been disturbed by it too,and had been up trying to find out if something had been left switched on in the boat.

So, a grey and misty, not quite drizzly day, and 15 locks to our home mooring.

Alan had a look over the engine, since it was making some strange noises yesterday, but couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it, so we set off. The engine was far smokier than normal, which wasn't a good sign, and then, as we we entering the third lock there was a loud bang and Alan lost all power to the prop. David took the boat on the centre line, while I turned the lock, and Alan rolled up his sleeves to go down the weed hatch - only to find nothing around the prop.

The newly re-opened Rising Sun at Berkhamsted
The boat started fine after that, but had a mysterious rise in engine water temperature immediately afterwards - which dropped almost as fast.

There were no major problems after that, although the engine still sounds odd, and is still smoky. Clearly something for investigation.



The very last lock - Cowroast

We arrived back at 2:30 - almost exactly 14 days to the hour to the time that we left. Koukouvagia waved to us and greeted us as we passed Owl. Given that we spent nearly 2 whole days in Thrupp (stopping early on the day that we arrived, and not getting started until well into the afternoon two days later) it is possible in 12 days without going completely mad. With more crew members it would be easier.

I've had a really great time away. I can't wait for the next trip.

Miles: 5.3 ; Locks:15
Total Distance: 251; Total Locks: 175