Three dirty jobs in two days

We set off from Westport Lake at about 0900 and enjoyed the deep waters of this part of the Trent and Mersey, reaching 4 mph at times. At Etruria we turned onto the Caldon Canal to use the services, watering up and emptying the Elsan. The Elsan point was nice and clean, but the flush took ages to refill. Rinsing out the cassette was a slow job as, instead of a tap to press or turn there was a plastic pipe attached to a cistern with a pull flush. This also took a very long time to refill, so the spare cassette hasn't had as good a rinse as usual.

We made good progress to Stone, despite a slow start down the Stoke Locks behind a newbie steerer on a hire boat. At least her companion knew what to do so it could have been worse.

Once tied up on the 24 hour mooring above Star Lock I changed the oil and fuel filters. I was interested to see the crud which had collected on top of the primary fuel filter, which was obviously doing its job.

The secondary, spin-on, filter is difficult to inspect. I suspect that it had picked up hardly anything, and that I could have reused the fuel I poured out of it. Oh well. It's worth a few centilitres of diesel (and a new filter or two) for peace of mind.

That's two dirty(ish) jobs (I managed to get an oil stain on my T-shirt). Yesterday I carried out the revolting task of cleaning out the shower sump in an effort to find out why the float switch sometimes didn't work. When I'd finished cleaning out the gruesome gunk I discovered that the switch itself was intermittent. I had hoped it was the yukky mess that was stopping it working properly, now it was evident that it wasn't. I need a new float switch. I can get one for about £9 on Amazon, but delivery will be a problem. The alternative is spending about £30 in a chandlery. Hmm.

To end today's post here's a piccy of a fine-looking house just above Newcastle Road Lock in Stone.

Oh - nearly forgot - we met up with Adrian and Chris (Essence) and John and Jane (Ichthus) for a delicious curry at the Crown of India in Stone this evening.