Urgent cooling system question

[droptop]

Yesterday evening I brought the spider an a twelve mile round trip to fuel it up for a 180 mile round trip to a show today.
When I came home, I immediately put it back into the garage, but while I was driving in, the cooling fan came on. I've never experienced this on such a short run before and as I'm paranoid about such things as engine temperature and oil pressure, I'm constantly watching those two gauges.
The temperature was normal and the big issue here is that I didn't think further about it until I awoke at 5.00 AM today abd began to ponder it.
I'm now going for a drive and I want to see if the top hose is getting hot to try to determine if the thermostat is stuck shut.
Now here's the question finally-Is there anything I can do to free up the 'stat if this is the case? I don't want to miss the show but I certainly don't want to destroy my engine either.
The obvious answer is of course to replace the 'stat regardles, but I don't have a spare one and I'm also unsure if I have a gallon of coolant left and I'm not sure about using water as a short-term coolant.
Help!!!

[MattNoVAT]

Using water short term with no coolant will not be an issue.

If the stat is stuck shut try tipping it with a screwdriver handle to see if it releases and opens.

I was on a similar position to you once and I ended up removing the stat from the housing so I could get home.  The engine was fine and it bought me enough time to sort out a new stat.

[droptop]

Thanks Matt.
I'm less apprehensive about the trip now and looking forward to it again despite the less than sunny, i.e. bloody wet, day we're having here as usual.

[Neil-yaj396]

What a Forum! Query posted and answered before 7 on a Sunday morning!

[MattNoVAT]

No guesses who was up early to make a 4 hour round trip drive to Mark W to drop off some parts....

Nice drive except for the traffic by Stonehenge

BTW - Thanks for the coffee Mark !

[droptop]

Well, there were no further issues with cooling yesterday. I suppose it's possible the 'stat just stuck and released itself again?
Anyway, I'm getting a spare this week just in case, not that there seems much chance of having to worry about hot weather in this green and pleasant island of Ireland. May have to consider a snorkel-type air intake though a la Landrover if it doesn't stop raining soon!