Still living the dream pt 2

Friday 9th June.

Hi people, so to continue the story.....

We had moored at a quiet spot near Ingestre and so far the weather had been kind to us, not hot but at least the rain had held off.

As it was Anne's birthday on the Monday, we had decided to moor at Tixall Wide for the birthday celebrations where we hoped the weather would allow us to have a bit of a BBQ on the towpath. We'd had a mini BBQ feast moored at Ingestre but we were really aiming for Tixall 'on the day'. So we upped pins, turned at a winding hole (turning point) and headed back towards Great Haywood junction where we intended to make use of the facilities at the Anglo Welsh yard, (empty loo, fill water tanks etc etc) before turning right onto the Staffs and Worcester canal, through the Viaduct over the river Trent and on to Tixall Wide. 

Ironically I was at Tixall Wide around this time last year when my friend Sharon came down from Sheffield for a weekend.

Such a pretty area on the way to Tixall Wide

Jennyanydots just about to disappear round the bend in the distance.

The weather wasn't being very kind to us as we had numerous showers on the way and the forecast for next few days wasn't very promising either.

Tixall wasn't particularly crowded and we managed to find a good space for both boats to moor.

Anne preparing a birthday feast aboard Jennyanydots as the weather put paid to any chance of a BBQ.
lurvly grub, and good company Anne and Ray.

We had moved further down The Wide into an area that was bordered on two sides by trees and woodland, a very pretty area when the rain stops. 

It was around this point in our travels that a problem had developed with the charging system on Bracken. You may recall I had fitted a new high output alternator shortly before we started our little adventure, which at the time I thought was a good idea. As i started the trip with fully charged batteries there wasn't much load on the alternator to maintain the charge. Unfortunately over the next few days with the weather turning lousy, therefore we didn't go anywhere, when I did run the engine I found the alternator wouldn't turn at the speed of the engine, ie the resistance was so high the belt slipped. Even replacing the belt for my new spare one didn't help, no matter how tight i made the belt, it wouldn't turn the alternator more than about 300 RPM.

Obviously the first thing I did was turn the inverter off thereby reducing the drain from the batteries and consequently reducing the load on the alternator. This meant my fridge/freezer was now just a cold box.

 The engine ran fine but my biggest fear was that the belt would snap which of course would mean the engine water pump would cease to circulate the coolant which would result in the engine overheating. I thought better to lose a freezer full of food due to no power than snap the belt and potentially cook the engine to death.

Wednesday was the worst day as the rain was continuous all day, so we agreed we would head for home (Marina) on the Thursday regardless of what the weather was like.

I did take a few good photos whilst we were kept indoors by the rain.

Mum, Dad and youngsters.

If I zoom in a bit more........

5 cygnets only a couple of days old.

Peace and tranquillity.

And just as I was trying to zoom in closer.....

......He took flight

Thursday started dry and bright so we left Tixall and the Staffs and Worcester, came back to Great Haywood junction and turned right down the Trent and Mersey canal, through Great Haywood lock, on our way home. Next stop would be Colwich lock. When we got to the lock there was a boat already in the lock going down stream, the time then was about 11 am so we were hoping to be home around 3 or 4 pm Unfortunately, you know the phrase 'the best laid plans etc etc' ??

What happened was this;-

The boat already in the lock was unable to shut the ground paddle on the upstream side, it was jammed open and constantly letting water into the lock. This meant it wasn't possible to empty the lock, therefore the boat in the lock was going nowhere.

We phoned CRT, (Canal and River Trust) to advise them of the problem and eventually a man came out to see if we had closed the paddles correctly! Duh! Eventually he decided that a work crew was needed to rectify the problem. So more time passed by whilst we and several other boaters waited for the work crew to arrive. Around 1pm the crew arrived, dismantled the paddle lifting gear, scratched their heads and decided the problem was under the water and so they would have to drain the lock to get to the paddle board. Now this is where it gets really interesting. Remember in the photo I spoke about the mini shed with the roof on it? Inside there are what they call stop planks which are inserted in slots in each side of the mouth of the lock, each one on top of the previous one all the way down to the floor level in the lock thereby creating a dam effect and stopping the water going into the lock. Then they can drain the lock by opening the gates at the downstream end and letting the water out. Once the lock is empty the offending ground paddle is exposed to scrutiny. Hopefully these next photos will make it clearer.

Just arrived at Colwich Lock, one boat already in the lock going down.

Waiting for work crew to arrive, queue of boats behind building up. See the little shed with the stop planks?

Queue of boats on the other side waiting to come up through the lock.

Decision made, stop planks being inserted to dam off the flow of water into the lock.

First plank very tight fit due to a boat having bent the metal guides the plank slides into creating a 'pinch point'

Next plank on top of preceding one and so on till first plank hits bottom, I think there were 5 in total.

stamping planks down trying to get a seal between planks.

Gradually slowing the inflow of water, the level in the lock drops

....and drops

Tarpaulins dropped in upstream side to help the seal.

The culprit is revealed, the yellow handled fork was used to fish out debris from under paddle, the lifting shaft is bent at an angle from the paddle board. Board and shaft should be straight and vertical.. 

 They were unable to repair the bent shaft and paddle, so as a temporary measure they blanked the water gully behind the paddle so that the lock could be used, thereby releasing all the boats waiting to pass through the lock. 

As the lock was now clear, yours truly was first in line to go down, followed by Jennyanydots.

Time then was around 4.30pm and we had roughly a 4 hour journey back to the Marina. Oh and it started raining, again! 

This pile of sandbags is what they pulled out from under the faulty ground paddle.
I wonder where they came from??

We arrived back at the Marina, cold, stiff, and extremely wet around 8.30, and I was so relieved to plug in to the shore power and get the fridge/freezer up and running.

I didn't actualy lose anything as everthing remained frozen for the 24 hours or so the fridge had been off although I did eat my way through everything in the freezer over the next couple of weeks to get it cleared.

I'll write some more tomorrow as I'm getting a numb bum.