Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th April
Thursday morning we decided to make our move off the river Severn on to the Worcester and Birmingham canal. We looked at the Nicholson’s and discovered that to get anywhere decent to moor up again we would have to travel about 5 miles and do 16 locks! This came as somewhat of a shock to me as the last lock I did was way back last September when we came off the Staffs and Worcester at Stourport!
We set off about 8-15 am and were gratified to find Alan (Off ‘Florence E’) was getting the two Diglis double locks ready for us and had filled the pound between them as it was a bit low. We ascended to the canal and said goodbye to Alan as he is not going the same way as us. We may encounter him again later in the year when we go up the Witham and Fosdyke.
After stopping for water etc it then took us a further 5 hours to do the 5 miles and 16 locks before we could moor up at Tibberton. During this trip we discovered that our batteries weren’t charging, aaaargh!!! How many more things can go wrong with this bloody boat? Ken stopped in a lock and had a quick look at the alternator but it looked ok. It could be the alternator or the battery management system or the batteries themselves. We decided to put the generator on and run the battery charger for the remainder of the journey, see if the batteries charged up and try to fathom out what was wrong when we stopped.
When we arrived at Tibberton we happened to moor in front of Dave who had been moored in front of us in Victoria Basin during the winter. Ken tested the batteries, decided there was enough charge in them to get us through the night and he would look at the problem in the morning. As luck would have it the visitor moorings at Tibberton were close to The Bridge Inn which, in addition to being a very nice pub, not only sold Jenning’s Cocker Hoop (one of our favourite beers) but also had a 2 for 1 steak night that night – bonus!
As we were finishing our pint Dave and his wife came in so we had a chat. After this we returned to the boat to get ready to return to the pub for our steak. We had 2 10 oz rumps for just over £10 which was not bad. The steaks were a little chewy but very tasty nonetheless.
This morning after an inspection in the back room Ken came to the conclusion it was probably the alternator that was at fault but we needed a professional opinion so he phoned Droitwich Spa Marina to see if they had someone who could look at it for us and if we could have a mooring with electric hook up. The answer to both questions was yes so we set off there and arrived about lunchtime.
A chap came and had a look and decided it was the alternator and he could do something on Monday. We don’t mind staying here for a bit as we were going to suss it out for future reference anyway. We got a mooring and sorted out the electric hook up. The chap came back and said he had spoken to his mate who knows about alternators and he said a new one would be about £400 but he could take ours to Gloucester and get it refurbished for a lot less. So that is what is going to happen.
This would take us up to Tuesday and we were going to leave on Wednesday but I have subsequently found out the canal is going to be closed all day on Wednesday for maintenance so we will stay until Thursday.
