Third time lucky?

I'm not saying! Whatever luck we've got left with Tug Harry I'm not going to waste on any casual claims.
I thought we were okay after the first false start when I fixed the blown head gasket and had the water pump rebuilt...only to get no further than Tamworth again before the engine started misbehaving and we returned once more to base.
Yesterday, with re-routed fuel lines and the fuel injectors all cleaned and checked we set off again.
And today we are ten miles and thirteen locks beyond Tamworth, moored up and hiding from the 30 degree heat a short distance beyond the eleven lock Atherstone flight. And I can report that, so far, the engine hasn't missed a beat. Touch wood.
Curiously the last time we did this trip down the Coventry Canal from Streethay it was mid-winter, the snow began to fall and the canal was freezing up around us. This time we're travelling in the hottest days of the year. Yesterday we moored up in the afternoon and travelled again until 9.30 in the cool evening. Today it was already hot at breakfast time and as I pressed on through the Atherstone locks the temperature soared - in the air and in the crew who were threatening mutiny near the end of the flight.

It was a long, hard haul up the locks. They were busy with boats and running short of water in places as a result. At one lock a hire boat coming out and us going in were both grounded and only ten minutes of rope hauling and pole-ing got us both through.
The top lock at Atherstone looks a sadder sight than when we last passed through - the resident lock-keeper gone and his eccentric weather forecast notes gone too. And the canal coal yard apparently shut as well.
But it's a sunny day, the boat's running well - at the moment - and no time for grumbling. When the sun sinks a little we'll head off again for a few more cool evening miles.