Ill winds and banjo jokes

Well it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, so they say, and that's true for us this week.  The rain has at times been biblical in its intensity. So it's fortunate that because of an engine problem we've not been out cruising. and stranded somewhere behind a flooded lock or some such.  Herbie is going nowhere at the moment and it's all the fault of a banjo.

Now orchestral musicians make viola player jokes -somebody has to be the butt of the professional humour,  but with musicians of a less highbrow nature, it's banjo jokes., the most common being "What do you call a man who can play banjo but doesn't?  A gentleman."  There are dozens of these, one of my favourites is about the man in the pub who suddenly rushed out realising  he had left his banjo on full view on the back seat of his unlocked car, but when he got to the vehicle it was already too late.  There were already four more banjos there.

Why am I writing this rubbish?  Because I have discovered the cause of Herbie's diesel leak from the top of the fuel filter.  I had thought it was just that copper washers needed replacing but on closer inspection, the union, called a banjo,  that returns unused diesel from the injectors via the spill rail is split open.  In fact me tightening the screw to try and compress the suspect washers only made it worse.

Fortunately we are not too far from Calcutt Boats who hold extensive stocks of parts for BMC diesels, so after a half hour car trip each way I now have a shiny new spill rail complete with all its five intact banjos.  £45, so not too bad as these things go. I'm not going to fit it myself partly because I'm not sure how tight to tighten the nuts without doing further damage, and because I have learned from experience that the first time you attempt a job like this you often discover it ain't as easy as it looks, but mostly because the new rail has to be bent into shape to reach to top of the filter and I don't want to break it in the process.  So a man called Martin who does such jobs here at the marina is going to do it. He tells me he's done the same job a few times before so that's reassuring.  Martin would have done the job by now, but who wants to stand in an engine bay open to the elements in a deluge?  He now says he'll be here tomorrow (Friday) when according to the meteorologists we should have a dry morning at least.

Meanwhile Gertie the kitten has been keeping us amused, or is it the other way round?  Anyhow we're glad to have her here.  I was worried about her jumping on the coal stove when it was lit, but she seems to have the common sense to keep her distance, so that's a good thing.