There was nothing else we could do to the engine until the part arrived. David and Judith and Hexadex did a great job of towing us down the canal and drop on and dropping us on a free pontoon. Safely tied up we went off to find the lock keepers to tell them we had arrived. When our engine failed we let British Waterways know, and got an address where we could get the part sent. Every lock keeper knew of our plight and were keen to find out how we were doing and if they could help. We also found out we were on the wrong side of the canal for shore power. Without an engine and with little wind in the canal we had no way of charging the batteries. We inflated the dinghy, strapped it alongside and put the Suzuki outboard on the dinghy and set off on the trip across the canal.
One benifits of our new location was the view of Ben Nevis (Nevis is gaelic for heaven)
Although the summit remained illusive for most of the time, when it was visible, it was special.
With nothing else to do we headed off into Fort William to do a bit of shopping. Firstly I needed to buy a set of circlip pliers. These are pliers that would help me get the circular clips off the rocker shaft. I'd tried to open the clips with allen keys and now have a pair of slightly bent allen keys to show for my efforts. So we needed the pliers to do the job. We also had to get some food for the next couple of days.
The next mooring we woke early in anticipation of the package arriving. We waited. Kirsty went for a shower and I waited. I read. I played on my iPhone. Kirsty came back from the shower. We waited some more. Around 1100 a beaming lock keeper arrived with the package. I cut the packaging open and there in the box was a complete rocker assembly sent from Ric in Gairloch. I took the rocker arms off and put our existing ones on. Bolted it all back on the engine before adjusting the valve clearances the way Willem had taught me. I re checked them and turned the engine over by hand a couple of times, everything looked fine. I fitted the rocker cover and ran the engine for a couple of cycles with the decompression lever across to stop the engine firing. Again everything seemed fine. There was nothing left to do but cross my fingers and hope for the best. I turned the key and the starter motor didn't engage properly. This happens occasionally so was nothing to worry about. Again I held my breath and turn the key. One cylinder fired, closely followed by the other and the engine was going. I'd just fixed the engine on my own.
It was too late to get out to the west coast, but we could get down Neptunes Staircase. We had lunch, then walked over to see Ray on Charisma, who we'd last seen in Gairloch. I went to see the lock keepers about getting down the staircase, they said the were waiting for another boat to arrive, so he'd open the gates and we could go in first.
Going down the staircase we were the only two yachts going through so we were suddenly the centre of attention. Kirsty had lots of people talking to her while I sunk lower into the lock, only to go into the next lock at talking level, only to drop out of talking range again. It was warming to hear a young boy say me "That's a nice boat" I'm not sure how vast his knowledge of boats was, but he obviously knows a good looking boat when he sees one!
By the time we were in the bottom lock, a coach load of Spanish OAPs had turned out to see us lock out. This was slightly delayed as a steam train has to pass before the could open the road and rail bridges. We were going to stop for the night at the last pontoon before the double lock down to the sealock. The yacht behind us was going down, after stopping for a quick pic we thought we might as well go to the basin before the sea lock as well.
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