Boat time? Us time!

Colin arrived this morning to do a number of fairly large jobs on Kantara. He arrived at 8:30. Grace was still in bed, I was drying myself after a shower. I commented on his earliness. He never normally comes before 11:00.

"It's boat time," he said. "Vague!"

Fair enough.

He's come to replace the drive plates. He's just showed me the ones he removed. Knackered, and about to fall to bits. We got the timing right there, then!

The prop shaft packing needed to be replaced, too. This is the packing between the shaft and the tube it passes through from the engine to the propeller. It stops water getting in through the tube. As it happens, getting the drive plates out necessitated moving the prop shaft, so the packing would have had to have been redone anyway.

And he's replacing part of the Morse mechanism (speed and forwards/reverse), and stopping the fuel seepage around the injectors, the problem that's been with us since the major breakdown at Audlem.

This won't be cheap. Gulp!

>>>===<<< 

We're so pleased we went to Stowe on Tuesday. We hadn't been there for about ten years, and it's been improved in all sorts of ways since then.

Stowe House became a school in 1923, after a chequered history. Because it's term time, entry into the house was by guided tour, ably and entertainingly conducted by a volunteer.

We were at Stowe for about five hours, and the weather was good to us. Now we can face more work!