Mercia to Alrewas
Tuesday 2nd April
At last this day has arrived and we can be off. The pontoons
here are just beginning to frost over, but with just a smattering of clouds in
the sky and the sun due to rise soon, I don’t see any problems with ice raising
their ugly heads. This was our main fear for this morning, having to break
through ice in order to leave the marina, especially as we have only just had
the bottom blacked.
Our first stop will be Branston, where I’ll post that disc
off to Alan. Frank emailed me to say that he’d wiped the hard drive and filled
it with rubbish, so as to overwrite any stuff that may have been left behind.
All he needs now is the System Recovery disc to reinstall everything that was
on there when I bought it. Job done!
We are now stocked up with food and coal and can go about a
week before topping up with food again.
As with last year, we’ll first make our way to Stone where
we’ll meet up with the Oxley’s, but first and hopefully for the 4th,
my birthday, we’ll stop at Fradley Junction where The Swan hold a Folk Music
evening. Now that will be a great birthday.
Are you in the habit of making New Year Resolutions? I know
I am, but for the most part they always fall by the wayside. Anyway, I was
giving this some thought the other day and, instead of waiting until January 1st
2014, I thought I might make a New Year Resolution in April 2013.
So, for my NYR for April 2013, I have decided to go all out
to really learn to play the Ukulele. There’s a very good reason as to why I
delayed this decision until April 2nd and that is because we’re
going cruising again and, more importantly, I have very few distractions whilst
cruising. However, the main reason for doing so at such a late stage, is that I
have my eye on an 8 string uke but, unless I consider myself proficient enough
to have earned this new instrument, I won’t buy it.
Watch this space!!
Wednesday 3rd April
Just before we left Mercia marina yesterday we had snow, not
just a few flakes either, real heavy stuff. However, lucky old us, it only
lasted a few minutes so we were off without wintery problems.
The seven miles and two locks to Branston, took us three
hours, all of which was with a bitterly cold, following wind.
Now, last year we didn’t have the Alternator to Battery
Charger, so it was necessary to run the engine until as late as possible; which
means 8pm; in order to ensure enough power the following morning to be able to
use the heater. On many occasions, even after running the engine for two hours,
we still found that the heater would not switch on.
Yesterday evening, after three hours of travel, we ran the
engine for just 1½ hours and this morning the domestic batteries are showing
12.6 volts, whereas, without the new charger we would be lucky if it showed 12
volts, with a more likely level of 11.9 or less.
I am hopeful that, even though I have had the laptop and
WiFi unit plugged in, the heater will work this morning. The temperature has
dropped considerably overnight, so the heater would be useful.
It’s really amazing how you get used to the surrounding
noise in a marina. From Mercia the main background noise is traffic from the
A50, along with ducks and geese squawking during the night. As soon as you
leave the marina however, and moor up in the countryside, peace prevails and,
until the sun comes up, we won’t even hear the birds in the trees, never mind
the waterfowl on the nearby lake. Wonderful!
I am hoping that the canal is not frozen over this morning
and, more importantly, that there’s not much of a wind to contend with. Andy
phoned yesterday and told me that the remote unit should have arrived and that
he would meet us somewhere if it has. He’s already moored at Alrewas, which is
our next stop, although he’s still travelling back and forth to Mercia for his
work, so we’ll have the remote fitted today, with a modicum of luck.
Thursday 4th April
It’s my 71st birthday today, but I can’t say that
the day leading up to it was any great shakes. For a start, it was cold and
windy and we had five miles and four locks to go to Alrewas. But that was a
minor detail compared to what followed as we pulled away from Branston. The
boat didn’t seem to have much power and, although she was moving, the revs didn’t
seem to equate to the actual speed.
On Tuesday, when we set out from Mercia, everything was
fine; at least, I thought it was; but that could have been the difference
between driving the car and then suddenly finding myself in a boat doing no
more than 4 mph. But, we got to Branston in our average time of 3 hours, so I
didn’t think anything was amiss.
So, getting back to yesterday, we had a following wind and
the first lock was just around the corner. But, before entering the lock, I
pulled in and checked the weed hatch and found that to be clear. This state of
affairs with engine speed continued right through to Alrewas, where we moored
up for the night.
I phoned Andy later in the evening, but still no remote
unit. However, I did ask him what he thought of my problem. “It could be one of
two things” he said, “either the drive shaft is not spinning at the right revs,
or the plates in the gearbox aren’t meshing correctly.”
Last year, when Lyndon service the engine, he did suggest
that the gearbox was on its way out but, since we managed to travel over 500
miles last summer without problems and I actually took the boat across for
diesel whilst we were at Mercia this winter, also without problems, I thought
we were OK. It seems I may have been wrong.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that Andy will come along
this evening and we’ll take the boat for a short run and, hopefully, he’ll be
able to tell me what’s wrong, if anything. It’s a big worry though because,
having spent all that money on the service, the blacking, the additional
charger, plus the car and its MOT, we will have big problems stumping up for a
gearbox, which all means that we’ll probably have to turn around and crawl back
to the marina, until we can gather the cash together, and then just take a
short cruise this year.
As for the rest of today, well, we’ll just chill out here
until Andy turns up. The problem is that we have to be at Stone to meet up with
Alan and Chris but, if we have a dodgy gearbox, that meeting will have to be abandoned.
So, on that happy note, I’ll post and worry about the boat
after Andy checks it out. It just might be my imagination but, having driven
this boat for more than six years, I do have my doubts.
The other thing is, if you may remember, we had problems
with the heater not starting first thing in the morning. All winter long we’ve
had no problems with it but, on the very first morning we needed it, it wouldn’t
start up. Now, with this new charger and a reading of 12.2 volts at the panel,
the heater should have run, so we’re back to square one on that too, which
probably means we’re going to have to get that serviced asap.
As for the rest of yesterday, well, I did make a start on
the ukulele and we both did a lot of reading. I didn’t dare put the TV on last
night, even though we had the engine running from 6 until 8 pm, for fear that
we wouldn’t have enough power for the heater. I’m even running this laptop on
the internal battery, which has 1 hour and 42 minutes left even as I type.
Cheers everybody.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
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