You'll recall our plan to move on from the "wiggly bit" on New Years day... before we did that, we thought we'd have a walk to try and find 'the perfect' mooring spot before chugging off...
Once again, we got a bit carried away - this time in our wellies and ended up doing just under 7 miles (there and back) - WHICH took us to Greenberfield locks ... or more precisely the moorings just at the bottom of them after the bridge.
It really was a lovely day to be chugging.... and
Whilst here, the old batteries once again did their "crash rapidly" thingy... showing as 66% when we got up but after just an hour of the webasto doing it's thing were down to 40% and then went RIGHT down to 10v - ... nothing for it but to change them and whilst I was at it, decided to give the gear box an extra oil change ... to be truthful, JUST to try out my new 22mm spanner I'd treated myself to before Christmas and nothing to do with Andy's 'more aggressive' selection between forward and reverse than she's used to when I captain - HONEST!
The amount of stuff
To many boaters, 15 months out of a set of batteries would seem horrendous - BUT given we live aboard full time, have a fridge freezer running 24/7, run 2 laptops, 2 phones,3 TVs plus guests which leave their Ipads and the like plugged in over night etc. they've not done too badly for what really were the cheapest lead/acids I could get - from memory all 4 (130ah each) came in at under 300 quid...
That said, lets hope the new ones do better - they probably will now that we've got to grips with a decent charging regime... famous last words.
Anyway - the solar will soon begin to kick back in again as the days get longer and in a couple of months, we'll have forgotten all about HOW long the nights feel at the moment.
So - once the batteries were installed, we ran the engine for a couple of hours and THEN started up the generator ... continuing to charge until the current dropped to less than 1amp... deciding by then the new batteries were as fully charged as they are ever likely to be.
Next day, we had a wander up the locks and in to Barnoldswick - it's actually a gem of a place... although we passed through several times in the past, we've never explored.... I managed to cash in (if that's the right term) a prescription for my blood pressure pills etc JUST on the day my monthly card expires and we also topped up with supplies from the Coop. On route back, we met a boat coming down and they turned out to be "The Fender Knot" from Facebook. Having got chatting about my previously (failed) attempt at making a side fender from our old centre lines, a while later there was a knock on the side hatch and Neil was there with some bits of rope to give us a demo of how he does it...
What a smashing bloke - it was really kind of him to make the effort to explain how he does it and also gave us a note of a book to buy to learn more rope skills - and no... it WASN'T 50 shades lol.
Having spent 3 nights moored at the bottom Greenberfield, we then set off up and on towards Salterforth.
The levels in the pounds were a bit low but we didn't need to run any down . Once at the top, we filled up the tank utilized the time that took, to make use of the showers... which btw, are the cleanest (2nd to Ripon) we've come across - probably because the canal has been closed for so long and no one has been using them... either way, they were clean, hot and well heated.
Chuggin on, we stopped on the visitor moorings near the "Anchor" pub at Salterforth .
The plan (if we have a plan) was to spend a few days there and explore- however, TV signal dictated otherwise and we chugged on to "this side" of Foulridge tunnel and have ended up moored within hosepipes reach of the water point and a few steps to the facilities block - which (unlike Greenberfield) Is NOT the nicest!!!
On the plus side, the weather has been mild enough for Andy to clean the side of the boat down and I've done a bit of touching up of the paint work... not ideal weather for painting I admit but I get sick of looking at scratches after a while... it's stayed on and dried which is all that matters - we're NEVER going to be a member of the "proper shiny boat brigade"!
Yesterday, having struggled with cabin fever, we went off for a walk to Colne - via the road... not a bad hike- about 6 miles all round. The reservoirs seem to have plenty of water in them which is good so fingers crossed this year doesn't see a repeat of 2018's drought...
On route back, we spotted one of the vent shafts from the tunnel - never seen one from the other perspective before.
Once back on the boat, Andy decided he'd try and make a mini fender from some para-cord (part of my emergency kit)....
to be fair, he seems to have mastered it thanks to Neil's tuition ... as a reuslt, the "old" centre lines have now been through the washer and are currently drying in the shower - in preparation to be made into larger side finders...
Until next time...
1 comment:
I suspect your battery problem - rapidly losing voltage - was down to one of the 4 suffering a short circuited cell. This will mean it's only working at 10 volts, instead of 12, and will pull the others (however many there are) down with it. This situation is always a problem with multiple batteries connected in parallel. The answer is to regularly (ideally every 6 months or less) disconnect the negative clamps from all 4, let them settle for an hour, and then check the voltage of each battery separately with a digital meter. They should all be the same, or close - within 0.2 volts - but if one is showing significantly less than the others it should be treated as suspect. In this case it's better to leave the suspect disconnected (make sure you insulate the terminal), and see how the remaining batteries hold up.
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