Sunday - pushing on back towards Yelvertoft

Sunday was another scorcher of a day. Cruising was relaxed, and traffic in our direction wasn't nearly as heavy as that going the other way. Boats were queuing to descend Hillmorton Locks, but we ascended with ease and speed.

Our enjoyment of the day was somewhat marred, however, when an alarming noise was made, apparently from the propellor, and we were forced to cut the engine and drift over to a reedy bank. At first, we thought it was something metallic wrapped around the prop or prop shaft, but an inspection found them to be totally free. Looking into the engine, however, I found two drive belts (that's right - the ones that were fitted last week!) had shredded. The noise had been the frayed ends whipping various parts of the engine as they flew around their pulleys.

I called RCR, whose engineer had fitted them last week, and two guys arrived within an hour and a half. Apparently, one of the belts fitted last week had been too narrow, and this had caused premature wearing. What had caused much the same to happen to the other belt, they could not say.

After a quick visit to the (fortunately) nearby Halford's shop to buy a belt, the engineer (the other young man was an apprentice) fitted it, but had been unable to buy a replacement for the generator. However, since that one isn't needed for the engine to run - and the generator control unit had already broken down - we were able to continue on our way, after a hasty lunch.

We finished for the day, overheated and somewhat scorched, at bridge 81.

Oh! And the fridge stopped working! In this heat! I checked the fuses and all the other obvious things, but zilch. Keeping food edible over the next couple of days will be a challenge!