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We have had |
Saturday 3rd November Reims - Calais - Ashford True to our word, we were all up bright and early and ready to set off at about 8.00 a.m. We'd intended to do a very slight deviation in the route, but only to get some booze at Calais. Cybil had behaved very well for the past couple of days, although she'd had another couple of doses of Gum-Gum to try to stop her exhaust blowing. She was actually sounding very mean by this time and Cuan and Richard were getting quite used to thinking she had a V8 engine under her bonnet. We'd all joked and secretly prayed that she'd make it to Calais with no problems, which was another reason we'd allowed plenty of time for the trip. We'd got just north of Saint Quentin and were making really good time, when Sputnik decided to cut out on us. Typically we were the last car in our usual convoy of four, so we frantically flashed and tooted at James and David who were in front of us, before pulling over into an extremely conveniently placed layby on the hard shoulder. The Cooper Sport and the Equinox both had walkie-talkies, so the emergency call was sent out immediately and they all managed to pull over a little further along the motorway, then reversed slowly back down the hard shoulder to us. We couldn't make out what the problem was at first as the battery was turning over, but he just wouldn't start. At this stage Karen called the organisers to put a call out for the service van, which we assumed would be somewhere behind us. Apparently it had left before us and was 20 miles outside Calais at the time. They weren't coming back for us so we were on our own. Mark fiddled with Sput for a while and thought he'd found the problem. There didn't seem to be any power to the petrol pump. He used a wire (stripped from their fridge - it came into good use at last) and got the pump working, but Sput still wouldn't start. Karen then phoned the RAC number she'd been given from her mobile, only to find that she would have to walk to one of their orange boxes to call them. She did this, to be told that the RAC wouldn't come out, the police recovery service had to get us off the motorway and the RAC would come after that. After loads of hanging about James and David decided they should try to make ferry as there was nothing they could do. We told the others they should go as well, but they wouldn't leave us. Eventually Sput was hauled onto a truck. Ben and Cuan offered to go with him, so that Ben could find out what was happening from the driver, so Karen went in the Equinox with Mark and I went with Richard in Cybil. We went to the place we'd been told to go and waited while the truck picked up another broken down car from the motorway. Eventually we saw it arriving, but it turned straight round and headed back up the motorway to Saint Quentin. It was lucky Ben was in the truck to find out what was going on and phone us or we'd never known where they had gone.
Then a miracle happened. We were about to remove Sput's numberplate before he was towed onto the ferry as it looked like the tow rope would probably crack it. Getting a screwdriver out of his toolbox we found a funny looking black box. When he was on the ferry we showed it to Mark, who said it was worth a try, and swapped it with the one in Sput's engine. He started immediately!! It turned out after that it was the ECMU (whatever that is) and that Sput had had one go before, so was carrying a spare just in case. Just wish someone had told us! We cancelled the RAC pickup from Dover and Sputnik made it back to Ashford under his own steam, a little late maybe, but he had his reputation to keep up! That night was the end of Job Ball. More posh frocks, but not nearly as enjoyable as we'd hoped. The seating plan was set by the organisers, which was a real shame as I'm sure most Jobbers would have liked to celebrate with friends they'd made on the run. The speeches went on for far too long and the comedian was distinctly unfunny - well not to my taste anyway. Paddy Hopkirk had nothing good to say about Minis, so I don't know why he bothered to go. The dancing didn't start until around midnight, and seemed to finish very soon afterwards. We had fun at the end, but it could have carried on a lot longer. Hopefully we'll keep in touch with some of the friends we've made, maybe see some of you again next year! |
