♫♪ It’s another day for you and me in lock-down ♪♫

Time to move the boat to the other side of the canal to top up the water tank.  It’s an absolutely glorious day..  the fire is also in lock-down until the winter 🙂  and there are a few more people moving around that should not be!

Yes – daily exercise is allowed.. but..  driving to the car park near the water point, pulling out 2 inflatable canoes and going for a gentle paddle along the canal IMHO – doesn’t count!

I guess the “review” we were all hoping for has been done – and were not seeing an end to this any time soon.  After this bank-holiday, I suspect there may be no end in sight if the expected morons are out and about during the bank holiday weekend. There are news items about the police ramping up their enforcement this weekend as well..

There was one thing – it looks like the bow thruster is stuffed.  Fantastic!

When moving the boat, tried the thruster to pull the bow in, nothing..  so finish topping off the fresh water tank up, move the boat back and have a look to see what has happened once were moored up again. Pulled the covers off, check the bow thruster battery voltage (yes – we have all the things we ( I ) need to keep on-top of the jobs – like a circuit tester!) and the battery is getting 14.1v with the engine running..   with the engine off.. 12.9v – so the split charge relay on the engine alternator which charges the engine battery.. and once that’s charged.. sends the power along the boat to charge the bow thruster battery are all OK.  Not that then – batter is charging and not flat…

Checked the main large fuses..   both of those are OK..

Checked the power at the thruster itself, there’s power there.. and the 5A fuse in the control module is OK..

Turned the isolator back on..  got one of the kids to press the buttons at the stern..  click, clunk, sounds like the relays in the unit are working..  but the motor doesn’t sound like its spinning.. usually, you can hear this at the stern when you press the buttons.. and the voltage gauge drops (none of which happened before – hence my suspicions)..  so.. either the propeller is jammed, or the motor is stuffed.

I can take the 8 bolts off and remove the covers to the inspection towers.. but – it actually looks like those bolts have not been moved since the boat was built as the bolts were painted the same colour as the boat’s base paint.. and I don’t want to disturb them, and risk the boat flooding if I cant seal it again – if they have not been touched for a long time – there could be a reason..  and with that.. it’s time to get wet.

Short straws were drawn..  and I decided it would be more sensible for me to get in..  so the straws were put away again!

After checking that the isolator was off again..  and once changed..  slowly climbing in bank side.. waiting for 5 minutes as it was bloomin cold!..  sinking down through the silt in the bottom of the canal (and yes – I had an old pair of shoes on – not walking around in there with bare feet..   you don’t know what you are going to stand on!) reached into the bow thruster tunnel..  wrong side – bugger..   time to move to the other side of the boat and go deeper in the water.

The propeller feels clear..  and can be turned..   not jammed.. not broken (still has 4 blades).. so yea..  its the motor.  Crap – one more thing to add to the fix list when out of the water for blacking. We cant take this out whilst the boat is in the water, or the bow would fill when the seals are removed, and we would sink..  so were going to have to leave it for a while. Time to put everything back in the bow and forget about it until we can sort it – at least with the isolator off.. the panel at the stern doesn’t work either..  so that’s a bonus, and the bow thruster battery will still be charged from the engine when its running, so that wont go flat either!

So yea..  nice start to a bank holiday..  ah well..