Alrewas to Alrewas
Thursday 4th April
No doubt you thought I was in a bad mood when I posted the
previous blog, well, you ain’t wrong. It is now almost 7 am, I’ve been up and
about since 5.30 and Rusty has already been for her walk.
Now, with 12.4 volts on our panel, at which point any
self-respecting heater should fire up, ours still won’t. So, that’s another
load of expense. The final nail in the coffin of birthday celebrations has come
in the shape of the cost of a new gearbox, and the cheapest I could find was
£501. And then of course it needs to be fitted.
What to do? Well, we’ll wait until Andy arrives later this
afternoon and take it from there, but I see no point in continuing with this
trip without a heater and a possible dodgy gearbox. The heater we can probably
manage without, but the gearbox?
Once again, watch this space, but in my current mood I don’t
suppose I’ll be bothering with the uke today.
Friday 5th April
This morning is much calmer than yesterday, which was very
windy and cold.
I spoke to Andy yesterday and still our remote unit has not
turned up. I also mentioned about our problems with the boat and its crawling
pace. He came by and we had a chat, the result of which is that he’ll see if he
can track down a reconditioned unit. With a brand new one normally costing over
£600, we think a recon would be best at this time, especially after all we’ve
spent on the boat so far this year.
So, having moved the boat onto 14 day moorings, just in
front of Andy’s boat, we look set to be stuck here at Alrewas for several more
days yet, which means a phone call to Alan Oxley. Hopefully he and Chris will
be able to meet us here, instead of the planned meet at Stone.
So far this trip has not turned out too well. However, once
this gearbox is sorted and our remote unit has been fitted, I’m hopeful of a
pleasant cruse this year. Hopeful being the operative word.
Saturday 6th April
The saga continues! Andy popped in on his way home from work
and plugged in a new Remote unit for the charger. No luck whatsoever, which
means the main charger is not sending the signal. He will remove the unit on
Sunday and take it to the manufacturers for assessment on Monday.
Meanwhile he’s located a reconditioned gearbox, which will
cost us £395 + VAT which, as we are now aware, stands at 20%. Hopefully we’ll
have that fitted by Tuesday, which will give us just about enough time to still
meet up with Alan and Chris, before they return to Germany. They are unable to
meet us here at Alrewas, simply because it would mean a train ride followed by
a bus. However, if we can get the gearbox and charger sorted by Tuesday or
Wednesday, there may still be time to reach Great Haywood and take the bus to
Stafford, where we can spend a couple of hours with them.
So, it’s looks like we’ll be twiddling our thumbs for a few
more days yet. What a bummer!
All that remains after that is to get this heater working.
It’s fine on mains electricity and if the engine is running, but can’t fire up
on the battery power, even when it stands at 12.5 volts. From past experience
we know that this will cost us about £300. Great!
The good news is that the weather has improved, the wind has
dropped and we had quite a bit of sunshine yesterday. It’s calm out there this
morning and, once the sun rises above the trees, we could be in for a fine
weekend.
Monday 8th April
Yesterday was a pretty good day, all things considered. It
was bright and sunny for the most part, although still a wee bit cool.
For the first time in almost three weeks, we actually spent
an hour in a pub and put ourselves outside the usual couple of pints of
Guinness, a half pint of cider and some snacks. On the way back to the boat we
indulged in an ice cream cone, the first, but certainly not the last, of the 2013
season.
Later in the afternoon I accompanied Andy to Fradley, where
we disposed of some rubbish and he filled a couple of plastic containers with
water. Sheila stayed behind and, when we returned, there she was enjoying a
chin wag with Sandy, that’s Andy’s better half.
This morning, at about 8 am, Andy will be removing the
charger unit and taking it to Sterling’s place in Droitwich. Hopefully he’ll
get to the bottom of why the remote unit isn’t picking up a signal from the
main unit. While he’s doing that, he’ll also phone the chandlery at Mercia and
ask them to order our recon gearbox. With a bit of luck it will be delivered
tomorrow, in which case we should be away from here on Wednesday morning and
we’ll be heading for Great Haywood, where we’ll collect some mail and take the
bus into Stafford to meet with Alan and Chris.
As for the rest of today, well, some much needed ukulele
practice is called for, along with some more work on our back panels. I also
must print out a picture of a kingfisher, which will be my next painting
project.
Tuesday 9th April
Halleluuuuujah brother, Andy finally fitted the new charger
and all is OK in that department. This gozmo, which cost us an arm and a leg,
really works well. However, since we could only charge the batteries directly
from the alternator yesterday morning, while Andy took the dodgy one back, we
thought it best to run the engine for the usual two hours yesterday evening.
From now on though it will only be for an hour.
Unfortunately it doesn’t look as though we’ll be able to
meet up with Alan and Chris after all. This is because our recon gearbox won’t
arrive at the chandlery until tomorrow morning, which means Andy won’t be
fitting it until Thursday morning, leaving us insufficient time to get to Great
Haywood before the weekend. Still, it does depend on how quickly the gearbox
can be fitted and, of course, the weather.
W
ednesday 10th April
It’s just as well we’re not moored up way out in the sticks
right now, else we’d be getting somewhat bored by now. With the new charger
fitted and working, we’re alright for power and hot water, but we’re looking
forward to moving on, hopefully by Friday morning, but that assumes the gearbox
turns up today.
Andy has done a superb job so far, for which we have shown
our appreciation. Just one more job and he’s done.
Late yesterday morning and with nothing better to do, we
took the bus into Lichfield, where we disposed of some books to a charity shop
and mooched about town for a while. As towns go Lichfield is very much like any
other, with the usual range of shops, banks and coffee bars, one of which we
stopped at for coffee and sticky bun. With an hour and a half before catching
the bus back, we had plenty of time to wander around.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing. Alrewas is a
pleasant place to moor up, with several pubs, Post Office, Newsagent and Co-op,
not to mention a very fine Butcher’s. But spending over a week here is anathema
to us as we rarely spend more than two days in one spot.
Now that our plans for meeting up with Alan and Chris have
been dashed, we’ll make our next stopover at Fradley Junction, after which it
will be Handsacre and Great Haywood, where I must call into the local Post
Office to pick up some mail. After that we’ll be heading for the Llangollen
canal.
Well now, with five pages of our doings at Alrewas, this
would be a good time to post so, cheers one and all.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
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