Monday June 19 con't: Burritts Lock

Meanwhile, back to Sunday as we were on our way to Merrickville: after towing us a difficult 5 miles (wind was quite strong), Craig and Karen did a masterful job of swinging us into the dock. If you have ever towed a boat with no power you know how difficult it is to adjust timing and turning to get that boat under tow to a dock – without getting props fouled with the tow line – or without the towed boat ramming the tow boat! Good job guys :-)

With the engine now being quite cool, Steve first started with the raw water impeller. Remove the cover – looks ok. Next remove the thermostat housing. Definitely an issue there – except it was stuck open which really wouldn't cause the engine to overheat. Replaced the thermostat and decided that was the only other thing it could have been.

Sunday the 18^th was the actual date of Craig's birthday, so Steve had been up early and baked a birthday cake – Craig's favorite: yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Add a few candles and we were good to go :-)

They joined us for desert Sunday night so Craig could blow out his candles – he did a nice job and didn't get wax all over the cake! Add ice cream which Karen brought and we had a great celebration!

It was a wonderful sunset.

Everyone was up early for breakfast and internet at the Village Bean coffee shop. Great food and free wifi. At this point there isn't anything better :-)

Not a large town but many interesting shops along the main drag. The lock didn't open until 10 am and we had already moved to the blue line – ready to go!

Still more history with the Merrickville Blockhouse which was built in 1832.

Remember to click on the photo for a larger view.

Canada is celebrating her 150^th anniversary as a nation. Lots of signs around – and free lockage on all of the canals this year!! So far we haven't seen any indication that this had increased the number of boats traveling. In fact, it seems the opposite. Little traffic on the waterway but it may be the weather as this spring has been very rainy and many of the systems opened late due to the flooding.

This house we passed seemed like it needed a shave! Not sure all of the ivy growing is good for the building but it's interesting to see.

The plan when we left Merricksville was to travel to Hurst Marina – a decent day of 23 miles and 7 locks.

The boat was running fine – holding at a temperature of 160 degrees. Until it wasn't! The temperature started creeping up – now it's 175, now closing in on 180 degrees. Obviously we still had an issue.

Maybe the impeller just looked good but was fried?? Not sure what to try next. Inventory indicated a spare impeller but after searching everywhere, it was not to be found. We managed to limp our way to the Burritts Lock (a couple of miles) while Rahn de Vous once again stood by in case …..

Long story short, we made it to Burritts Lock and Steve was able to ride with Craig and Karen to pick up an impeller at a marina farther along the canal then return by taxi. Change the impeller. Really??? Still a problem???

Ok. This is a simple system. Water comes in the outdrive, goes to the impeller then through the thermostat and into the engine. Only option left? Water intake on the outdrive – which truthfully should be next to impossible to clog.

But it was. By a glob of very fine seaweed. Never in the 40 years we have boated up here has this ever happened! Seaweed on the prop? Sure – lots of time. But never anything that clogged the intake.

So now we are truly good to go. The sunset was wonderful – and a good ending to the ongoing engine problem. We;ll catch up to Rahn de Vous at the Hurst Marina tomorrow.

Sadly, we really should have known. It's like when the trawler engine overheats. We stop, clean out the intake filter. And good to go. No thought to 'the impeller is bad' or 'the thermostat is bad', just stop and clean out the filter.

Lesson learned – until we forget it :-)