Marsh Lock, Swindon

Arrived last night to find that the trickle charger hadn’t been working properly so the batteries were flat again. It appears not to be producing any output so i suppose I’ll have to send it back.

We set off about 9 o’clock. We indend to take a couple of days going up to Compton to fill up with deisel at Limekiln.

The weather was quite pleasant, cloudy but not too cold. We stopped for a “Full English” at Stewponey.

All was going well until we got to Greensforge lock. As I went to pull away from the lock the engine spluttered and died. We have been having some fuel blockage problems so, as it was due to be replaced anyway, I replaced the fuel filter and checked the water trap – still no go. I tried bleeding the fuel lines but nothing would come out. As a last resort I dipped the fuel tank, it was emtpy! I couldn’t beleive it, I estimated that we have used about 80 litres since the last fill. The boat manual says that the tank is 180 litres. Where had the other 100 litres gone?

We needed to get some fuel from somewhere. I thought that the best plan was to try to get to a filling station where we could get some road diesel, but I didnt have a jerry can nor did I know where the nearest petrol station was. I saw a boater on one of the boats on the permanent moorings, so I walked over and asked him if he knew where the nearest filling station was. He did better that that, he had a jerry can of fuel on board which he let me have, and wouldnt take any money for it. I said that we would bring it back full when we came back in a couple of days, but he trusted me with about 20 litres of fuel and his jerry can. Arent boaters wonderful!

It took a while to bleed the fuel lines to get the air out and the diesel flowing again and then we were off, stopping for the night just above Marsh lock.

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