Where's Oli?
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Alongside RSAYS, Outer Harbor We made it back into the water on Tuesday afternoon. My engine problems continued and it took me quite a while to get the BRM started, but after much fiddling around with the thrust lever I eventually got it going and managed to motor out of the the short distance out of the cradle over to the maintenance berth without incident. The following day I pulled the injection pump out and confirmed the problem was with the fuel rack. It had some corrosion in it but was soon put right with a bit of WD40 and lots of oil. Now the pump is reinstalled and the engine is starting okay. I say only 'okay' because I think we still have a compression problem which needs further investigation. Next week I will call in a professional diesel mechanic to do some more fault finding for me. So that is the good news. Some bad news is that Oli has gone missing. Normally I lock him down below after dark but Wednesday evening was very hot and I decided to keep the boat open so he could sleep in the cockpit where it was much cooler and also allow some ventilation below decks for myself. I was confident that if he did wander that he would not go far and that he would be back for breakfast, as in the past when he has escaped my lock-down routine he had always made his way back to Sylph no matter where she was berthed. Indeed, most recently he worked out how to climb up and down the ladder while Sylph was on the hard and even when I removed the ladder he somehow got off the boat - presumably he jumped from the boat to the ground, a height of almost four meters! But obviously my confidence was misplaced. He clearly did go for a wander, presumably quite some distance. He did not return for breakfast and I have not seen him since. Naturally I have searched high and low for him. I have passed the word around the club and notified the local vet but thus far there have been no sightings of him. In the morning I will cast the net wider, notifying the Animal Welfare League, the RSPCA and the emergency vet service - though Oli is micro-chipped and registered so I should have heard from any of these organisations if he had been brought into them. Of course I have not given up hope yet, but ... All is not so well just now. |