An exciting day.

Morning passed by uneventfully , we are once again into isolated country, marshlands, tall reads and few signs of life apart from the occasional boat. Water had very shallow water through one short cut between two rivers. The cut is called hells gate, when the depth got to 2.8 feet I reversed out pronto. We should be aground when it says 3.8 ish, however with a very muddy bottom it's difficult to say what constitutes aground. Next try wasn't much different but we gently pushed through on idle and thankfully we made it. Alongside us was a mud bank, in the middle was a little powerboat firmly ground , in the back was a young girl with a large bright red umbrellas acting as a sunshade , in the front was who I assumed was Dad, probably explaining how it was normal to go aground and wait for the next tide. 

 Big bright orange butterflies were everywhere , here is a photo.

With there wings open they are much more colourful, I'm thinking they could be monach butterflies on there way to Mexico , can't check right now as have no internet.

  

I noticed  that we had a bit of steam coming through with exhaust. Are we getting hot? The engine note had also changed, things didn't sound right.  A quick check on temperate revealed we were definitely over heating and no cooling water was being shot out the back . Quickly dropped anchor and cut engine. A quick bit of investigation revealed that the water strainer was not blocked but no water was getting through the sea cock. A bent coat hanger came to the rescue and this popped out.

A couple of reeds were jamed in the sea cock blocking it.  We set off again to our anchorage but it was obvious the situation had not been completely resolved, once safely anchored  we cleaned every thing again, blew out all the pipe work and even replaced the water pump impeller . This time the engine sounded good. A sweet note.