nbCaracol on the canals

Sunday, 13 October 2013

Alvecote and back

With a long daily commute through the week we only had one brief trip for some maintenance in September before our week in October. Familiar ground, but very pretty and good to get away.

...and only one misadventure to report. Returning to the boat in Braunston after lunch, the lock on the boat door would not open. Fortunately we had forgotten to secure another hatch, so could get back in without breaking anything. It turned out that the snib had snapped off the the face of the latch, and a component inside the lock had dropped to deadlock it.

Sunday, 18 August 2013

Stratford, Birmingham and breakdowns

With uncertainty over work, we had deferred a planned June holiday into August, so were more than ready for a break. It was a pleasant journey that we've done before, although this time punctuated by a series of breakdowns and other issues. The first was a broken throttle cable that had us limping along to the next decent road access at Preston Bagot to get RCR to come with a replacement.

After some time in Stratford we decided to head into Birmingham, noticing along the way that one of the alternators wasn't producing the voltage it should, and the domestic battery bank was suffering as a result. So we spent a day in Birmingham trying to get help to fix it, and eventually taking it off and getting it fixed in a place in Smethwick.

Our next misadventure was going firmly aground at Kings Norton junction, taking the joint efforts of two passing boats to pull us clear again. It was beginning to feel as though it was merely a question of what would break next, but we had a trouble free day to reach the top of Lapworth locks. Next morning though, the engine died just after setting off, so another call to RCR. By the time they arrived I had found the problem, a broken wire to the fuel pump. Of course these pumps are no longer made, so several hours were consumed locating a substitute.