Saturday 5 May 2012

cc -1 Edinburgh Quay


A Sadza Send-off with Stevie doing his Exorcist impression...


5 May 2012 cc -1

A Beltane Moon for Blessing
Some mornings I wake up with my arms wrapped round my head as if it's gonna burst. Set off yesterday morning on the Union from Linlithgow to Edinburgh with gearbox running as sweet as a nut... felt we had conquered the world. But the old BMC got warm and once we'd stopped and tightened the bolts on the engine mounts she started growling again... called Jimmy who told me how to check the alignment before attaching the prop shaft coupling and I realise there is no mechanism for such adjustment and that it is some mighty miracle that has kept the thing operating all these years. I must uncouple it again, get under the floor and see if there is some measure of squeezing and releasing the nuts on the rubber mounts that  will give the adjustment I need. Is this at the root of all the gearbox nightmares of the years?  How tragic it would be to resolve it now. Tragic or magic?

Amy was a rock with the repairs on Friday. We had an idyllic run on Wednesday evening to Slammanan Basin, the beautiful picnic site just before it, and I had the best sleep I've had in many years.  Waking to birdsong and no traffic... a sunny day (my poetic and literary skills fail me in the description of happy sunny days... I am much more effusive on the miserable moment, aren't I Dazzie?) So idyllic it was we dallied till lunchtime  before moving off to Linlithgow and the tool bag.

Olivia's Owl
I'd decided to change the drive plate and see if that sorted the gearbox... she's begun slipping soooo badly in the past fortnight. I'd forgotten that the drive plate is actually behind the bell housing so a one hour job turned into 4 (we had to jack up the engine) and then one rogue nut cost us another FOUR HOURS. Unbelievable... with no electricity to employ savage grinders we had to resort to laboriously sawing through washer and nut. Well Amy did. I could only look on as she folded her lovely long limbs into my filthy bilges (I have a bit of a love affair with the oil in my bilges... the quintessential diesel dyke... that some folk don't share... Jimmy cursed me blind for utterly ruining one of his boiler suits when he welded the weed hatch... thought to buy him a new one but do you have any idea how much those things cost? And how minute are the various fitting requirements? There is  a whole world of fashion in working gear that makes Versace look positively cheap!

Our new Grandaughter Hollie Helen Christie just 1 day old
So on cc -1 here are a million thanks to those of you who have crushed yourselves into our  filthy bilges, those of you  who are wending your way to Edinburgh quay tonight to consecrate the journey... and those of you  far away who are holding me tight. To precious little Hollie who has brought such light into the world, to Margaret who is braving the edges of it. And tonight we raise the glass to who? To all the women who ever struggled and struggled and struggled simply to do what thier heart tells them they are here to do.

1 comment:

  1. I don't think the drive plate could cause slip. They either break (no drive) or go solid (Big clunk going into gear). Usually a few odd noises before that happens, though.

    Good luck, and see you at Stirling

    ReplyDelete