20-15: But why?
I dedicate the answer to Andy Miller of Miller Marine - http://millermarine.co.uk
The answer is that the engine would not stop - yes - stop: most people have engines that don't start - today mine did not stop.
The day started with fog - but it cleared. I headed off with the tide to go a few miles to the Walton backwaters - pure pleasure - captured in the picture of a barge and the entrance to the Harwich channel before the nasties hit. It continued good with a nice reach into the Walton river - and upstream to the shallow part of Hamford water - saw a few seals and lots of birds. Found a nice anchorage - - and then - - I tried to turn off the engine - - .
It would not turn off - - and I did not have any idea how to turn it off other than with the key - - . Mild panic - moderated by the idea of ringing someone - I tried Andy Miller who answered the phone although he was sailing past Ratray Head at the time. He identified the solenoid - I had instructions about how to frighten it into working (after taking all the junk out of the quarter berth to get to the back of the engine). The wire fell off the solenoid, so it was not going to work - at which point I rang Andy again and learnt how to stop the engine with a 17mm spanner.
At which point - common sense kicked in and I decided to keep the engine going and go to Titchmarsh - about an hour's chugging away. What luck to be so near a marina with an engineer to hand!
So here I am - the good news is that the solenoid connections were reconnected by a very pleasant engineer and I am good to go again. It is foggy again tho'. Typical of sailing - with things going wrong and then other things working out - like Andy answering the phone and there being an engineer in a near-by marina.
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