I put a hose on the cooling pipe and turned it on. Unfortunately the water was going in faster than it was coming out the exhaust, this had the efect of filling the top of the engine so when I tried to start the engine the cylinders were full of water. It took me some time to work out what was going on but by then the damage was done and I had lost compression on one cylinder . I had two choices: leave her in the cradle for the summer or get her towed out to the buoy and work on the engine out in the middle of the river.
The valves and cylinder tops were incredibly carbonised. With luck the problem will be a bent valve and relatively easy to remedy.
During the night there was an amazing fall of rain and accompanying thunder storm. Lots of roads were flooded but this did not effect me on the boat.