Rufford's Flooded Engine Room

 Sunday 24th September 2023 Back in Norbury.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear but sadly the night had not passed without incident. 

 Strange noises emanating from Rufford's heating system woke Jenni, Will and Ed up in the night. On investigating in the engine room they found some four inches of water flooding the engine room. The bilge pump had not come on automatically as it should have done, so Will switched it on manually and drained most of the water. Unfortunately, the water had been so deep that it had also flooded into the compartment under the engine, which does not have a pump as it should never get wet. Jenni called the Ownershare people who manage the boat while R and M went in to the Gnosall Co-op for the usual  "few bits". Not much traffic, as you can see!

Back at the boats, R got into Rufford's engine room and started bailing water out of the bilge and from under the engine. As this meant standing in the black greasy bilge water, he took his shoes and socks off. Despite scrubbing his greasy feet afterwards, M suggested that R wear socks to bed in the night to protect the sheets from any residual black grease! He was a good boy and dutifully went to bed in his socks!

As the source of the water, some 10 gallons, could not be ascertained, it was decided to return to Norbury, where an engineer could be consulted. In order to go back to Norbury, we had to head south for two miles to find a place to turn around. So, the two boats headed south through Gnosall's Cowley Tunnel.

At the winding hole, we turned both boats, Jenni first, and we waved to each other as we passed by.

"Deja vu" as we came back into Gnosall. We definitely had that "been here before feeling"!

Finally, we arrived back in Norbury where the marina owner assured us the the boat was fine and the water had probably come in from the front well deck. Unusually, Rufford has no drain directly from the well deck, so any water in the front well deck flows in a long pipe to the engine room bilges. Either someone had left a hose running at the front or had got the well deck flooded in a lock.

 We agreed to stay the night in Norbury and meet together for breakfast in the café in the morning.

Today: 7 miles, 0 locks and 3.1 hours.

Trip: 265 miles, 116 locks and 144.8 hours.