It’s January 2016, a cold but sunny day and the cruise yesterday was supposed to be nice and easy towards Mile End. But it wasn’t. We were already on the Regents Canal when the rattling started all over again, until the engine went silent. We were right in the middle of the canal and the only thing we could do was calling pedestrians on the tow path for help. One guy was kind enough to stop so we could throw the rope and he pulled us on to the canal edge. Thank you sir! Really, a very big thank you.

What the heck was wrong with the engine now? We pulled Quintessence to the spot we intended to moor, it wasn’t that far away and we managed easily. And then we remembered what Dominic said about the filter, it might be full of sludge, hence no fuel going through to the engine.

A new filter had to be ordered online, it arrived and Anton came around to help Adnan with exchanging it. Upon starting the engine Quintessence started rattling, shaking, coughing vigorously – we all thought she won’t make it but hey, she did!

The new and shiny diesel filter:

Finally we went back to normal, we could charge the batteries, we had hot water again and could shower on the boat. Though not having hot water was a welcome excuse to go over to friends to have a bath. Luckily we were in their neighborhood.