continuing Saturday 16th

So we were heading off along the Trent and Mersey canal, we hoped to make it as far as Alrewas before dark. A distance of 12 miles on the canal map but with 6 locks to go through and with us not getting away till nearly noon it was going to be tight on time.
After we'd been on the move for about half an hour we
became aware of a lot of blue smoke coming from
under the engine hatch, and on lifting the hatch cover
we were enveloped in a smelly blue haze of smoke.
Once the smoke cleared and it was possible to see into the engine 'ole it was obvious the smoke was coming from the  engine breather pipe. Also the engine seemed to be labouring somewhat.

Smoke has nearly gone

I throttled back to just over tickover speed and the engine se.emed to run a bit smoother. As the engine seemed to be running ok we decided to leave the hatch open and 'let the air get to it'   We thus continued on our way.
Gradually we managed to relax and although we kept a wary eye on things, we made our way through the first couple of locks without incident. In fact during the next few hours i grew more confident, and we developed a good system of approaching and dealing with each lock as a team.
Graham and i would set the lock whilst Jacki held the boat with the centre line

                                                                   
 Then i would drive the boat through, picking them up once they had lowered the paddles and shut the gates.
One of the hardest things to get used to is the reduced speed of travel. There is in fact a speed limit of around 4 mph but this is not only a legal speed limit but a limit governed more by the shape of the hull of the boat. Push it harder with the engine and all that happens is the engine labours harder but you don't actually go any faster. Throttle back and the boat glides along quite smoothly just slightly faster than walking speed So we continued at a leisurely pace.
Having cleared the engine smoke, Brother decided to light the fire in the stove, so we were then choking on wood smoke till the fire got going! I'm not sure which was worse, engine smoke or wood smoke :) but it certainly made a difference to the temperature in the saloon, pretty soon it was as warm as toast in there.
We eventually got to Alrewas although the last half hour of travel was in almost pitch dark Fortunately Bracken has a good headlight though i wouldn't like to make a habit of travelling in the dark
A phonecall to Jenny, (our sister), who lives at Fradley ( not far away from Alrewas) and she arrived in her car to take us to a fish and chip shop for much needed sustenance and then to her house for an enjoyable evening of tele and chat.
Then when we were all yawning our heads off Jenny took us back to the boat and we bunked down for the night.