Scary Moment at Cromwell Lock

Posted by Richard_Irwin (Belper, United Kingdom) on 4 October 2007 in Transportation.

This shot follows yesterday posting, and is at the other end of the tidal Trent, and two full days journey from leaving Keadby.

This is Cromwell lock, a fearsome cavern of a lock by a wier of even more enormous proportions, and the scene of a disaster in 1975 where 10 servicemen in the Royal Engineers were drowned.

During this trip however, this lock offered me the best sanctuary, for unbeknown to me, several miles or so before the lock, an 'olive' had split in one of the diesel injectors in 'Irene's' engine, and diesel was now squirting out across the engine bay.

We first noticed the smell of vapourising diesel literally minutes before we arrived at the lock (we later found out that diesel was landing on the hot exhaust pipe and vapourising), but by then we were so close to the dangerous wier and entering the lock, that looking in the engine bay was out of the question, so that we pushed through.

Luckily we made it through unscathed, moored up on the non-tidal river on the other side, and after finding the problem, then spent two days cleaning up the diesel mess in our engine bay and bilge. Fortunately, it was quite contained, and we got it cleaned up without causing any pollution.

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