Several months ago my son came to visit. He doesn't come to see me very often, so it was rather lovely. Even better was that he had decided to come and have a look at what needs doing to the boat to get the engine through a service. I'd much prefer to give him the money for doing a job for which he is qualified than someone else. Unfortunately, months later he still has the engine handbook and the service is still to be carried out. He did say one thing which I found helpful though. He spelled out for me what the smoke means. The white smoke apparently means the engine is not getting sufficient air to aid combustion. That gave me a clue as to how to tackle a problem. Several years ago I fancied that oil was spitting out of an air intake. The oil spillage was certainly coming from somewhere in the vicinity, so it was worth a go! I had a spare filter which I screwed on to the inlet. I wondered if this had become clogged with oil and was not drawing sufficient air. A not very close inspection suggested that that was indeed what was happening. The filter had collapsed and looked like a face that had been sucking a lemon. I removed the filter and fired up the engine. After a couple of minutes this particular smoke problem was solved. I determined to clean up the oil instead, until I can find where it is actually coming from. As it happens, it is not a huge problem despite being a cosmetically irritating one.
With the boat now in reasonable working order I decided to take it out and see what happened.
I headed towards a parish mooring a few miles away where I met up with musicians Steve O'Kane and Fiona McBain. We spent a lovely hour or so together and the boat behaved impeccably. Hmm, time to plan a few days away.
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