Not entirely unimpressive
I hope Gary Doswell's alternator pulley problems are resolved. We recently had cause to call River & Canal Rescue (RCR) when, following a grounding in high wind on the Upper Thames, the rudder was found to have lifted out of its bottom bearing, writes Paul Burke.
The boat was just about steerable, and we struggled onto Eynsham Lock, but decided to stick there on the safe moorings until we could get attention. It being late, we saved our call to RCR for the morning.
Gloomy comments
Our own feeble attempts to address the problem brought many gloomy comments from passing boaters, most predicting an expensive craning operation to get at the rudder to fix it.
Our calls to RCR didn't seem to be very fruitful at first. The young lady in the office seemed to have no clue as to what we wanted or where we were, but gave us phone numbers of a number of boatyards that might solve the problem. One didn't answer. The others were either many miles away or didn't do emergency repairs, and it was only after this that I reminded her that she was supposed to do the phoning around.
On the way
After several more calls, she proclaimed that an engineer would be with us by about two o'clock. Sadly, she didn't say which day, but with two o'clock past and gone, another call elicited a claim that an engineer was actually on the way, wait till half past three. Still no sign of anyone, but after we had practically given up and decided to limp onto the canals and head northwards for succour, at about half four a van arrived—an RCR marked van no less.
Started to go right
And this is where things started to go right. The solidly-built young engineer, Luke, lifted the tiller/rudder assembly bodily (I couldn't move it with a lever) and after several attempts at fishing for the bearing, relocated it. He was so broad in the shoulders that he couldn't get his head into the weed hatch to check it out, but I could so perhaps I'm a little use after all.
Fortunately no serious damage down there. And despite the frustration and hard physical effort, he never deviated from calm, politeness and charm. It turned out that he had been called elsewhere previously, and not notified of our plight until that job was finished.
Fine and competent bunch
Like so many organisations, whatever the shortcomings in the office (and perhaps they can be forgiven a little following the fire), the workers on the ground, or at least those we have met, come across as a fine and competent bunch.
As an aside, a big thank-you to the lock keeper at Eynsham, who tolerated us hogging one of his few moorings beyond our fair share.