Yet another engine breakdown!

Feb 2nd and 3rd – Newbold to Rugby

I walked to the bus stop in Newbold and saw Tony off on the bus back to Coventry Bus Station for his connection back home to Portsmouth and returned to No Problem.  We had planned to just do the short trip to Rugby so that I could spend the next day catching up with this blog and a ton of emails in my box.  I also needed a big bag of dog food for Lucy which can only be obtained from the very large pet shops.  We had also planned to get some petrol for the new generator picked up a couple of days before at Machine Mart..

But… no chance.  I pulled the pins before starting up No Problem, as I normally do, but no… phunt!.. tried again phunt! Nope, sounded like the starter had jammed.  I have had that problem before many times, and applied a bit more heat and away she would go, but not this time she wasn’t!

Gave up trying and tied up again.  Checked everything, battery was ok.. engine would turn over manually.. It was getting late.. I wanted to be in Rugby if there was going to be a problem.. No engine means no electric AGAIN!  Ah but we have the generator and battery charger now.. but no petrol!  Getting to Rugby would mean that at least we could get petrol from Tesco’s filling station..

Chas kindly offered a tow .. and on a freezing cold, grey evening I was left on the back of No Problem in very quiet circumstances, my mind racing and my brain trying to talk itself into not being angry and this latest breakdown only about 2 weeks after the last one left us stranded with very little battery power.

I phoned the insurance company and told them of my plight.. they were very understanding beings I had only just put a claim in for the last one, and arranged with Roger at Calcutt Marine for him to send help the following morning.

We never did get the generator going that night, well we had never used it before, and it was gone dark by the time we had got the petrol.. nope that wouldn’t start either!  We had enough battery power onboard for the evening though, but no tele..

A new starter motor was required..

One very amusing moment though, while getting our jerry can filled with petrol at Tesco’s filling station, a fire engine pulled in with its blue lights flashing.. “Quick, someone fill it up and someone go over and pay for it” shouted one of the firemen as he leapt out of the cab….  Everyone on the forecourt froze and looked in astonishment at the huge fire engine… and with it’s fuel tank replenished, they all jumped in. With the sirens blaring and lights blazing off it went with enough petrol now to get to it’s shout!