Leaks and the Erewash

I had to fix a diesel leak yesterday. It had been leaking for some time but I decided to fix it as it seemed to be leaking a little more lately. It was on one of the connections in the return pipe so it wasn't letting air into the system but I had to disconnect the pipe and put some PTFE tape around the screw threads. It was the plumbers stuff and I don't know how it will react to contact with fuel but it seems to have worked so far but we'll see how big the puddle of diesel is soon. It has to be sealed for the BSS in December. Unfortunately I now have to think about these things. How safe is the work I have completed so far? Haven't got a clue. We'll find out in December.

Well we got to Langley Mill today passing not a single boat coming the other way. The canal was in a much better condition than we had assumed that it would have been. Lisa was expecting a Stratford type basin but it's slightly smaller than that mostly occupied with a boatyard and permanent moorings with limited undesignated visitor moorings. The journey from Trent Lock was relatively uneventful but Sam (the dog) fell into a lock when she assumed that the green algae on the surface was grass. I'm not sure who was more shocked, Lisa or Sam. Once she was dragged out by her neck and after a shake her tail was wagging again (Sam, not Lisa). I've got to say that Lisa was on the verge of throwing her windlass into the cut at about bridge thirteen as every lock was against us and all paddles required an anti-vandal key (or what is euphemistically called a water conservation key i.e. water is conserved if vandals don't open the paddles). It is also a little used waterway and the lockgear was very stiff and some of the gates were hard to open making the locks unbearably slow (or was it the lock operator that was unbearably slow).

I've got to say that, on the whole, it was a very pleasant trip and it is highly recommended for anyone passing Trent Lock with a couple of days in hand. There's absolutely nothing more interesting then staring into the back garden and through the rear windows of other people's homes that are backing onto the canal and there are many backing onto the Erewash. I see that next year's IWA festival is to be held at Red Hill and I do hope that many boaters manage to incorporate the canal when attending that event. But it may have been very different during the half term or at weekends. The further we got up the Erewash the shorter the haircuts got, the more aggressive the dogs on leads got and the more Union and St George flags were in evidence. I'll explain all later.