Eynsham Bridge
We used to own this Princess 32.
Pinkhill Lock
If ever I was to work again, I think I would love to be the lock keeper at Pinkhill Lock, how would you enjoy living and working in such a beautiful isolated rural setting.
As I went into the lock and reversed to slow the boat I heard a bang and what sounded to me like gearbox failure as grinding and vibration came up from the engine room below the deck. We pulled onto the 24 hour mooring above the lock where I lifted the deck boards to see if anything obvious like a loose bolt or rod could be seen. All seemed in order visually so I started the engine and revved it hard all sounded OK then I put it in gear and the vibration and noise returned, now positive I needed a new gearbox I rang RCR, they had an engineer here within two hours to this isolated spot. After doing his check's his diagnoses was the engine was out of alignment, possibly a broken engine mounting (so much for my mechanical skills) but he couldn't fix it on the river bank and in any case "it shouldn't effect your cruising" not happy about cruising in something that was not 100% mechanically, it was agreed that I would take the boat to Oxford Cruiser's and RCR would ring ahead to let them know we were coming. This they did and at Oxford Cruisers the engineer did find a broken engine mount and as he put it "it's rattling around like a prick in a shirt sleeve" (typical engineer speak) but advised to change a pair. The part's are on order and should be here tomorrow, fingers crossed. The engineer also offered to give us a lift to the nearest village shop which is 30 minutes away, what a nice chap.
So here we are moored up with the hire boats for the night. It's very peaceful here and Sue is cooking a roast beef dinner that we nearly had yesterday.
Marina
Marina
Arty shot
Arty shot
I have a picture of this bridge at home with a young Andrew sitting atop it.
No comments:
Post a Comment