The day dawned overcast, but really looked like it was going to perk up before too long. After breakfast Helen wanted to go and look round an open garden that wasn't too far away. We were there by 1030, and there was just the owner there. The garden has a honesty box for the £3-50 entry that is for the National Garden Scheme (Yellow Book) charities. The lady came out and we had a bit of a chat before setting off round the acre garden by ourselves.
The soil is sandy, or was, as it obviously has been improved over the years. She bought the field where her plant nursery business in 1997 and the garden has been open to the public since 2022. The garden has lots of beds that at this time of they year are full on 'forget me nots', cowslips, fritillarys, and lots of other things that look to be more advanced than we are up north. All the sun in March certainly seems to have brought things on. There were some plants that we hadn't seen before and after a look round the garden we spent a bit of money at the nursery with items for the 'new' garden.
At the back of the garden was a deep pond with pollarded willows and lots of clumps of various bamboos. It seems somewhat drastic to keep a panda to keep the bamboo in check but it seems to be working.
We headed off to Southam as we were running out of cat food and they have an outlet shop. That was closed but the Co-Op was open. I always find it a little strange when the Co-Op movement has different branches and you have to have the right loyalty card for the area, and ours wasn't the correct one. Just up the road was a one stop shop place that wasn't just vape liquids and the like but full of bits of hardware and ironmongery stuff, and other things that you didn't know you needed. When I rigged the chimney the plastic box I had been using as added protection for the chimney bung just shattered in my hand and the brick keeping it in place just well through. It had been a rectangular box for fat balls for birds and was the right size. It just shows that plastic does degrade with time and sunlight. Helen spotted a bowl that seemed as though it would fit the bill, and after trying to remember the measurements that were required, and compared with it, it was bought. The price on it was £4-50, but it was ours for £2-99. I love a bargain.
It is a nice metal bowl, made in Germany, but I don't think it is stainless so will have to treat it or paint it with something. I also put on the chain that I got from the museum at home. It was old picture hanging chain. I made the bung by filling a plastic plant pot with cement and added a rubber seal too. Hopefully it will all keep the rain out.
After a bite of lunch I set to on a couple of jobs. One was to check the inflatable life jackets and another to fill up the stern gland greaser. I checked that the self activating pellet hadn't absorbed moisture and also that the gas bottle was intact too. I then blew two of the jackets up and left them to see if they would hold their pressure. Meanwhile I popped down the engine hole to see that the deck was covered in the water and coolant that I had put in yesterday. I should have realised there had to be a reason that it had water there yesterday.
I mopped it all up and then started to refill and hoped to see where the 'leak' was. I could quickly see that the water started pooling up again, but I couldn't where it was coming from. I checked all the hoses and connections and all seemed tight. I decided to drain it down, at least to the top, of the skin tank before refilling again. I unscrewed the top, of the bleed valve on the skin tank and took of the radiator cap too.
Top left is the hex nut that is on top of the bleed valve for the skin tank. The hose is from the engine to the bottom of the skin tank.
When the water was out down to the top of the skin tank I started to mop out and dry up, before starting to top it up slowly to see if I could find the leak that way. I noticed eventually that the water was coming from where the deck meets the bottom of the skin tank. I feared the worst that the weld had failed. Once again a drained it down and mopped up and dried it and cleaned it so that I could get a good photo to show a mechanic. I then refilled to take a photo of where it was coming out. When I got to the top I screwed on the top of the skin tank bleed pipe. I then noticed that the water was coming out despite the top being on.
On the right is the skin tank the metal at the bottom is the base plate and the pipe is where the hose in the last picture goes into. The rust bit of weld is where I thought the leak was from. The last time I topped up the system and screwed the cap on the skin tank I noticed that it was still coming out. As I had only put it on finger tight I went to harden it up, but it just wouldn't stop.
When I looked closer I could see that water was streaming down the side of the skin tank and pooling up where I thought it was weeping through a weld. I hadn't seen it before as the rivulet from the leaking cap didn't catch the light .
This had happened before, in Birmingham, and I nearly died as I had nothing to stem the flow with at hand. Eventually I went round to see Sherbourne Wharf who had a little base down Oozells Loop. They let me root through there odds and sods box and I found the nut/cap that has just failed. They thought that it was some sort of gas fitting!
You can clearly see the crack in the top of the nut, on top of a 2p piece for scale.
I am going to have to take it home to see if I can find some sort of replacement. I don't suppose that the engine will come to harm not full of water. I do hope that there is nothing else wrong after this. I will need to remember to get some more coolant too. The first time I topped the system up and it drained away I did notice that when I had drained it down to when it wasn't coming out of the bleed valve it also stopped coming out where I suspected a cracked weld, despite having the head of a full skin tank above it! Then you look at the very little nut with a crack ion it and wonder how the water drained that quickly! Fingers crossed for when we get back. When that will be I have no idea at present.
It looks like it will be a wet trip back home tomorrow.
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