Spencer and Shaun (engineers) confirmed it was the gearbox. They called in another engineer (Matt) who was experienced in working with gearboxes. He concluded – it would need to come out. It wasn’t something he could work on. It would need to be sent away. He knew a man……
So that’s what happened over the next few days. They managed to lift the back of the engine in-situ and get the gearbox out. Patrick asked Spencer if he could also check out a persistent oil leak that he had attempted to fix a number of times. Spencer agreed to investigate that leak, once he had recovered from manually lifting out the gearbox and getting it into his vehicle. I think, with hindsight, he probably wished he had used the forklift that had been part of the discussion earlier in the day.
Spencer drove up to Nottingham to drop the gearbox off (about 150 miles one way!!) as he didn’t want to risk it getting lost using a courier service.
And we made the best of a bad situation.
Patrick painted the roof, which has been on the to-do list for years. He fitted an extra two flexible solar panels onto the roof once it was dry. The 3 existing solar panels charge the batteries for our fridges and freezer in the galley. The new 2 solar panels will charge the house batteries. We had friends and family come and stay on board. We played board games - not all drinking games either. We are saving the hard liquor for the feedback call from the gearbox man and our engineers.
We tried out a number of different laundrettes. Patrick took a bus. We explored the area by bicycle and visited the local museums and Abbey ruins (circa 1121). We saw some beautiful sunsets (not that many sunrises). All in all, while we would rather be travelling, this spot on the river, where we have broken down, is not too bad.
Time spent in Reading
