AA and RCR - well worth the money!

Having had to call out River Canal Rescue last week, it was with a wry smile that I summoned the AA when we got back to the marina. My oldish Honda Jazz Sport has been totally reliable since I bought it, and was assured on that occasion that it had been so since the previous owner had had it from new. Indeed, the AA man who attended this week said, "A Honda Jazz? They don't go wrong!"

It was only a flat battery. Well, a battery, one cell of which had died totally. The reason, said the AA man, was that I use the car too little, and allow the battery voltage to drop too low. I leave it for weeks at a time, several times a year, and even when we're living in the marina, it often doesn't get used for over a week at a time. So what happens, I was told, is that the plates in the battery cells develop deposits of sulphates, and these can eventually cause a short circuit between adjacent plates. This is what had happened to one cell in my battery. Time to get a new battery.

Mr AA man jump-started the car and left it with a charging pack for ten minutes, after which I took it for a spin to charge it more. The car would restart and drive several times that day, he said, but it'd be useless the next day. I checked on the web, and found that the Rugby branch of Halfords had a battery in stock, so I drove over and bought it, and fitted it there.

The AA guy also told me that the way to prevent damaging the battery through under-use was to buy a car battery solar charger to keep the battery fully charged all of the time. The AA had these on special offer on their website, so I duly ordered one, and await its delivery.

Thank goodness for these rescue services!

The weather dominates

On Friday, we set off late, our energy low because of colds, but the sky was blue, and this continued all day. We descended Cape Locks with another boat whose crew weren't in the mood for talking, and on to Tesco, where we bought five bags of shopping. After lunch, we moved on out of Warwick, and through Leamington Spa. Radford Lock and the three Fosse Locks were the last for the day, and I was glad.

We looked now for a mooring, and found too often that the water was too shallow at the bank - it seemed likely that someone had left lock paddles and/or gates open recently, the level was so low. Finally, we moored between bridges 31 and 30.

On Saturday morning, it was raining again, and our colds were really getting us down, so we decided to stop where we were and have a lazy day, hopefully to recuperate somewhat. We needed an Elsan disposal point, and the nearest one was 28 lock miles away, but, with three cassettes in total, we thought we'd be all right.

However, with the weather now warm and promising, and us feeling better as the morning progressed, we had a substantial brunch, and set off at 12:30.

We navigated Welsh Lock and Bascote Locks alone, and moored at Bascote Bridge for water. And it poured! And poured! With thunder and lightning, too. We waited until it stopped.

At Cuttle Bridge, we had to decide whether to risk the weather and carry on up Stockton Locks, or not to take the risk, and moor up until the next day. We spent some time under the shelter of the bridge by the Two Boats Inn, waiting for the heavy rain (again) to abate a little before deciding to go for the locks. The weather really did look as if it would improve, and we were feeling well enough, at least for the time being!

At Stockton Bottom Lock, we had the fortune to meet a solo boater in an anonymous boat going our way. He suggested it would be best for us to breast his boat alongside Kantara, and tie them together. Grace would then drive the pair of boats, and he and I would manage the locks together, alternating between us to go ahead and prepare the next lock in advance. Grace had never done this before, but was happy to try, and somewhat flattered by the man's trust in her management of his boat. It worked a treat. Grace took to it very quickly, and was deemed "brilliant" by the other boater. (Why do we never stop to exchange names with people we meet?) I proudly agreed.

The tied boats leaving top lock

We finished the flight of nine locks in excellent time, with only light showers to dampen us. We moored in bright, sunny weather about half way between Birdingbury Wharf Bridge no. 21, and Gibraltar Bridge 20.

Sunday morning was very foggy, and the fog lifted slowly to leave a beautiful mist hanging heavily over the countryside by the time we left.

But the day was cloudy and chilly for the most part. We travelled fairly fast, for us. Calcutt Locks,

then Wigrams Turn, and Braunston by 2:00pm. There was a lot of traffic on the canal that day, and Braunston moorings were almost full, with just one space available, immediately after turning right out of the junction bridge.

The weather on Monday morning was foul, with very strong winds driving heavy rain. We waited for the first break in it, then departed Braunston, but it simply got worse after that. We took Braunston Flight alone, and were glad for the tunnel, a short respite from the weather. After that, we ditched the idea of mooring at Norton Junction and completing the return journey the next day, and set our sights on Yelvertoft. We were wet and cold, and couldn't get much worse!

Our ascent of Watford Locks was unimpeded, and fast. Crick was frustratingly slow because of all the moored boats. As we had imagined it would be, the wind across the Yelvertoft marina was strong and gusty. Grace wanted to reverse into our berth, and almost made it, but the wind took her bow hard over 90° to port just before she managed to get far enough into the space, and the boat ended up across the back of Cream Cracker and the berths beyond. Undaunted, she turned her around and went in bow first, with help from Nick on the bow rope, and not without giving Cream Cracker a bit of a bashing on the way in. Darren was very forgiving - the wind was ridiculous!

It was good to shut ourselves in to the boat, and get warm and dry. It had been an enjoyable trip, and the weather hadn't spoiled it - it had just added... interest!

102 miles and 186 locks in 21 days.

Hatton Locks again

On Thursday, we started earlyish under lowering skies. There were few boats around. NB Koffee and Kream was ahead of us, but he joined another boat at Hatton Top Lock, so, after a short wait to see if another boat should come along, we carried on down alone.

Sculpture below top lock

At the second lock, however, we realised there was another craft behind us, just entering the top lock, so we waited for them, and were in due course joined by NB Bascote. The crew were a nice couple who'd been on the canals full time since 1990. He used a bike to speed up and down between locks, setting them up ahead of the paired boats, then flying back to help close the lock they were leaving, so I did no more of the to-ing and fro-ing I'd started to do.

It rained on and off, but from about half way down, it rained hard, very hard, very, very hard! We were all soaked through by the time we got to the bottom. We drove on past the Saltisford Arm, moored, had a hot shower, put on dry clothes, and enjoyed an indulgent fry-up for lunch! The descent had taken us three hours again, made quicker and all the more enjoyable by the couple on NB Bascote.

We stayed where we were moored for the rest of the day and the night, though the rain had stopped and the sun come out as soon as we'd moored! My cold hadn't gone, but thankfully I was well enough to have done the locks and endured the rain.

Lots of weather!

Wednesday was wet and chilly. Autumn was certainly here. The rain had stopped by 9:00, but we'd had a bad night because of my cold, so we weren't in a hurry to move on. When we did, it started to rain again within half an hour, and carried on like that, on and off. We locked our way up the Lapworth flight - 11 locks in 2 miles - and it was raining hard by the time we got to the top.

We turned right out of Kingswood Junction and moored for lunch in the Lapworth Link.

When the rain cleared - we were considering staying there for the rest of the day and the night - we carried on back onto the Grand Union, stopping between bridges 62 and 61 for the night, close to Foxwood Aqueduct.

Kingswood Junction

Foxwood Aqueduct

Now the heavens opened, and there was thunder and lightning - very impressive, and not something we'd seen for a long time. Needless to say, the skies were clear and sunny by 5:00pm!

RCR to the rescue

I rang River Canal Rescue first thing on Tuesday morning, and a mechanic arrived before 11:00. Grace had gone to the Farm Shop to buy a meat pie (and some delicious ice-cream, the like of which I'd been hankering after for days!), and met the man as he got out of his van a few hundred yards away from Kantara. The weather had been bad overnight, and was a bit iffy now, but it wasn't raining as he stepped down into the engine compartment to trace our Morse handle problem. He found it fairly quickly.

The Morse handle operates two independent cables, one to the throttle and one to the gearbox. These cables are made of tightly coiled metal wire, moving inside a plastic sheath. The one to the gearbox had at some time in its history been fastened, part-way along its length, to a metal bracket, for stability and security. This metal bracket was itself attached to the exhaust pipe. Over time, the heat from the exhaust pipe had melted the plastic sheath, and molten plastic had seeped over the cable. Each time it got hot, melted and moved, the plastic then hardened again when it cooled. Eventually, this had resulted in the cable being rendered immovable. The RCR man fitted a new cable.

He also identified the source of an engine shake (and tightened a loose engine mounting), and of a rattle, both of which symptoms occurred when the engine was being turned off (and he told us that the rattle was worn drive plates, and, though there was nothing to worry about at the moment, we would need to keep an ear open for it getting any worse), and of the coolant which keeps appearing in the bilge under the engine (an air lock in the skin tank was causing the coolant to blow back under pressure, from the radiator cap).

He also pointed out that we didn't need to turn on the ignition for five or six seconds prior to turning the starter motor, as he saw me doing. It was what we'd been told to do by boat hire companies over the years, and what the likes of Colin and Simon do routinely. The idea is to heat the glowplugs in the cylinders, to make ignition easier. It's a diesel engine, it's how things are with diesel engines we thought. Not so Kantara's engine. Hers doesn't have glowplugs! We'd learned a lot from the mechanic. Not bad for a morning's work, I thought!

We had lunch, and went on our way happy. The weather was good now, too. We ascended Preston Bagot Locks and four more, took on water and disposed of rubbish at Lowsonford Lock, then moored up opposite the Fleur de Lys pub for the night. There was a clear, blue sky, and bright sun.

Sunday, and a problem.

Sunday morning was beautiful, a heavy mist hanging over the water like a strange, ethereal blanket.

We ascended the eleven locks of the Wilmcote flight,

across the two aqueducts, and into Wootton Warwen Basin. I now had a cold! We moored for the rest of the day, and overnight.

It rained heavily overnight, with very strong winds, and this continued into the next morning. A window frame leaked - out came the Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure! We were disinclined to move on in weather like this, but our 24-hour mooring allowance was due to expire at around 2:30. The rain stopped at 12-ish, but the wind didn't. We sighed and went to the Farm Shop we'd visited last time we were here, to buy some of the delicious-looking meat pies we'd seen. They were closed on Mondays. Sigh again. Stopping another night seemed like a good idea now. There had been no sign of an Enforcement Officer CRT checking up on mooring behaviour (we thought), and there was no record of when we had first arrived (we hoped) so we felt safe. We could visit the shop the next morning, before leaving. 

During lunch, the wind dropped and the sun came out. However, feeling the need to run the engine for a couple of hours to charge the batteries, we found that the Morse handle (which gives control of forward and reverse speed) was jammed. Not only could we not charge the batteries, then, but neither would we be able to move off. A job for River Canal Rescue - I'd call them first thing the next morning. And we'd just have to be careful with the batteries in the meantime.

With no time pressure now, we took a look at Wootton Warwen village.

Wootton Hall

St Peter's church

The church is of Saxon origin, with a very interesting history, but unfortunately those in charge there have not made the most of it as a place of interest to visitors.

Needing various groceries, we went into the village's general store. It was amazing! The huge range of goods stocked was quite astounding, from the mundane to the eclectic, on shelves from floor to ceiling, with items hanging from the beams, too. Who needs a supermarket?