Not quite the weekend we planned

With a forecast of blue skies and even some sunshine over the weekend, we decided to head of down to Kings Bromley this weekend and bring Blue Moon out of hibernation. We arrived early on Saturday afternoon with the intention of heading out of the marina and enjoying a meal at The Old Peculiar at Handsacre. First, we had to at least partly fill the water tank and refit the water pump which I had removed over winter. Unfortunately, having connected the pump and turning it on, it just kept running and running.......problem !!

Water was running from the taps after clearing the air in the system, but after a while, the pressure relief valve on the calorifier was kicking in and water was flowing nicely out of the side of the boat....well at least it wasn't flowing inside I suppose. No signs of any leaks around the calorifier, but to get to the valve and check it means dismantling the bed. Our trip to Handsacre was now abandoned.

We have wonderful neighbours at the marina and we all muck in to help each other. The conclusion after much head scratching was either a faulty valve on the calorifier or a problem with the pump which was just a year old. We eventually settled on the pump and the pressure switch within as we had unusually high pressure on the taps. So the pump was disconnected and then we all decided to head for The Swan at Fradley for a lovely evening meal and a few beers......result.

As we didn't have use of the water system, we decided to return home for the night and were through the door of Midland Chandlers at Willington at 10am this morning, leaving shortly afterwards with a replacement pump under warranty. The replacement pump connected, we switched on and hoped our collective diagnosis was correct. What a relief when the pump switched off - problem solved.

We spent the rest of the day doing some spring cleaning and I changed the fuel filters. Very happy to see no trace of the dreaded diesel bug after winter. Everything seems ready to go, just a shame we couldn't manage it this weekend. At least next weekend the stoppages at Woodend Lock and Haywood Lock are scheduled to have finished, so let's hope for more good spring weather and no more technical gremlins.