We were woken at 7.45 by the commotion of vim and Ajax leaving the mooring. The premature Dutchmen were at it again. Surely the locks do not open til 9am, and next lock is just 5 mins out of verdun. They know everything so i suspect something. We enjoy a leisurely breakfast of yoghurt and honey and bananas followed by poached eggs and baguette.
At 9 sharp we leave the lovely verdun. 5minutes later, we turn the corner to see vim and Ajax just exiting the lock, 2 further Dutch tied to the waiting pontoon and another Dutch boat waiting to go onto the pontoon. The buggers had kept this to themselves. A little miffed, Had we known we would have left a lot later but here we were stuck.
It took an hour and now we were in a convoy but at least we were second in each lock. The trip was fine, I would allow the nice Dutch couple in front to get ahead a little then catch up approaching the next lock. I had got a little behind and running on just port engine, pushed the throttles to around 1400 rpm. I was horrified at the amount of vibration I was feeling. I eased her off and tried again. Same result. At lower revs all seemed fine although she seemed a little sluggish and would account for the falling behind distance. I went below and with the crew at the helm checked the shaft. It convinced me that we had a bent shaft as it wobbled the whole stern gland. Disaster was looming large with tone and rose due in just a few days. I switched to stbd and was pleased to find 1 space at Lacroix Sur Meuse. There were 4 other boats, within 10 minutes of arrival a Belgium boat came alongside looking for a berth. He was about to move on so I called to him to raft alongside me. He accepted gratefully.
I checked out the shaft and was horrified to find a large bolt in the bilge. I quickly realised it had vibrated out of the clamp that holds the shaft in the gearbox. Now in a state of mild panick, I called thunderbird rescue. Smeds was able to calm me and assured me that the bolt should be replaced but that my shafts were held into the gearbox by a clamp and he was not sure why this bolt was also there. I confirmed the clamp system and replaced the bolt/ grub screw. He was sure, it was a fouled prop.
I lay on the quay and armed with a boat hook set about feeling for damage on the stbd prop. I could feel something thick and soft around the prop but could not clear it. Bugger, it was Cousteau time! I squeezed into my wetsuit which did miracles for my Upper torseau but only succeeded in forcing the rolling mass south and making me look like one of those weebles which bounce back up when pushed over. With snorkel and mask in position, I slipped into the icy cold dirty muddy murky weed strangled river. Shish it was bloody cold. It Seemed an age before I was able to reply, "yes I am fine" to the concerned crew. I dropped my head in. Splutter and panic as water surged into the mask and my first degustation of the Meuse was digested. By now I had an audience of interested berth neighbours.
I surfaced and struggled up onto the belgians bathing platform which offered the easiest escape route from this watery nightmare. It was done! I would have to wait until tomorrow to see if it had cleared the vibration as the rafting Belgians made a quick test drive tricky.
We Had a lovely walk through the lovingly tended allotments and watched the sun setting over the dairy herd munching grass in the fields bordering the halte.
I bedded early after dinner with deepening concerns that this vibration issue was not over!
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