'When the skipper of the towing boat discovers that the engine of Badger, our towed narrowboat is alive, he releases Badger's bowline.
Grinning like a Cheshire Cat, I grab my selfie stick as the skipper chugs away.'
Badger Lives!
Our narrowboat engine starting again, is like ginormous weights falling off our shoulders, so it's big smiles from @scubahead and I, and a real sense of relief.
This however, was a day after our friend Kevin @diveratt, who had spent several days servicing and repairing our unresponsive engine, eventually went home feeling defeated, from what he thought was his futile effort to resuscitate life back into the engine of Badger. The reality is that Kevin's time and skills were actually productive work, except for a small omitted task, which was identified by Martin, who had offered to tow us to source alternative solutions to our engine woes.
Jubilation Time
Kudos Kevin!
Cameron and Martin in elation.
Vroom, Vroom, Vroom!
The loudness of our revving engine sounds like music that's feeding our hungry souls.
Leaving the engine to run for a few minutes, it warms up, as we kill time with quick brews and celebrate.
While rejoicing and backtracking how long we'd been immobile, I flick through my diary to find where I'd recorded the day we came to a sudden halt: 10th June, 3 full weeks of stress, worry, uncertainty, and bloody frustration.
But guess what?
Badger lives on...
We be cruising again!
Badger had her moments of fun with us!
It wasn't 3 full weeks of dull and gloom eh no...
On nail-bitting moments such as when we needed to get to the boatyard to fulfil our appointment for the blacking (painting) of her hull, Badger surprised us by bouncing back to life, even though short-lived. We made the 200 meters distance from where our previous boat tower had taken us to, to the boatyard where Badger spent 6 days instead of 3, where on the 4th morning, Cameron and Kevin pulled her to the towpath across from the boatyard and marina for mooring.
Our Central And Peripheral Views for 4 days during engine repairs at Streethay Marina.
Oh, plus "liquid sunshine" and 2 neighbours missing their cats.
Cruising Again
After approximately 4 hours chugging, we called it a day and moored up at this pretty little spot.
On The Birmingham Canal Navigations (Birmingham and Fazeley Canal - along route of Coventry Canal) between Fazeley Junction (Junction of Birmingham and Fazeley and Coventry Canals) and Whittington Brook.
With our engine now working, we'll have hot showers again, sleep the night away, and bright and early we plan to chug a few kilometres and find a mooring close to the nearest supermarket. We'll top up our water, do garbage and waste disposal and get back on track with our normal day-to-day household tasks.
To be honest, Cameron and I have missed the buzz of navigating locks, walking towpaths, and chit-chatting with other boaters, so we'll continue to celebrate and share photos and stories about our experiences living on our tiny narrowboat Badger, while we explore and enjoy the beauty of the English countryside.
Thank you for stopping by! ;)