An Aylesbury Welcome

Wednesday 4 July

Leaping lightly from our beds, we started boating at 7.50 and worked steadily down the Aylesbury flight. It makes a change to do a set of narrow locks in this part of the world, not to mention the two lock staircase that is the top pair. The weather was not impossible, though a bit windy. The locks are easy to work, but there was an awful lot of water coming down. Since the flight was built on the cheap, there are no side weirs, and spare water just runs over the gates. On some of the upper locks this amounted to almost three inches over the gate, which looked pretty impressive seen from below on the back of the boat. On the way down we passed Dudley Castle coming up, having spent the night in the basin at the end of the arm.

Just on twelve midday and fifteen locks later we arrived at Tesco. There is another very handy shopping mooring here, though we’ve never fancied overnighting. There were three scruffy looking GRP cruisers, apparently liveaboards, tied nearby, but no one else. We had lunch and then did a grocery shop.

Setting off again, we worked down the final lock and along the short pound that leads into the basin. Here we were reminded of why we enjoy coming down here. The Aylesbury Canal Society is dedicated to making visitors welcome. There’s a sign on one of the boats saying “Welcome Boat”, and as we stopped nearby, a head popped out and asked if we planned to stay overnight. On being told that we did, the guy directed us to moor alongside another boat, Laughing Cavalier, in the basin arm, and got off his boat, in the rain, to make sure we could manage. He then went to the clubhouse to get the welcome pack which consists of the most recent issue of the Society mag and a general info leaflet about the town. There is electricity available on a meter, and use of a shower in the clubhouse.

Having connected up, we went into town to visit the large Wilkinson’s here. We bought their entire stock of rubber mats (ten) as well as bits and pieces. Back at the boat, I noticed that the inverter/charger is still not behaving normally. The engine is due a major service, so will do that tomorrow (we’ve decided to stay two nights) and check out the basics of the batteries, i.e. the connections, check the electrolyte with the hydrometer and top up the cells.

After going back into town for a haircut so expensive she won’t tell me how much it cost, Sheila set to and covered the foredeck with the mats we’d bought. It looks very smart.


Thursday 5 July

Waking to a fine morning we made a leisurely start. The charger is holding the batteries on float OK, but at a very low voltage, and according to the battery monitor there still plenty of room for charge in the bank. What, I wonder, is going on?

Another trip into town got two more mats to do the back deck. Wilko’s hadn’t restocked, but we found some identical ones in a shop called QD. We also bought a hair trimmer in Argos. This is meant for my hair, since I like to keep it very short, but after yesterday’s experience, Sheila is wondering how she’d look with a crew cut as well.

I spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon doing a mega engine service. As well as the oil and filter change, and changing the gearbox oil, I wanted to clean out the fuel supply. Since we ran out of diesel back in Stoke, I thought it would be sensible to change the fuel filter and check the water trap, in case gunge from the bottom of the tank had been pulled over. In any event, if ever we do get onto the rivers this year, it would be more than good to know that the engine is not going to shut down suddenly with a blocked fuel line.

There was in fact quite a bit of crud in the base of the water trap. Changing the fuel filter was a bit of a struggle, just because the access is so cramped by the side of the engine box. I’d actually got the filter off in my hand, with diesel dribbling in all directions from it and its mounting, when I remembered that you have to take the air filter pan off to get the fuel filter past it and so out... Fortunately, bleeding the fuel line is very simple with the Beta, and by lunchtime I had the engine running again.

After lunch it was the turn of the batteries. I switched everything off, and disconnected the shoreline for good measure. Then I disconnected the negative side of the domestic batteries and cleaned and Vaselined all the clamps and terminal posts. I did the positive side one by one, and then looked in every cell, checking the SG with the hydrometer and topping up the fluid to the mark.

There was a reassuring similarity between all 24 cells, both as regards SG and fluid level. In fact according to the hydrometer, the batteries were pretty well fully charged. I connected everything back up, and was pleased to note that the charger now did exactly as I’d expect, given that the batteries were full. It ran on absorption for a while, and then went to float, maintaining the charge level in the batteries without putting much more in.

Three equal possibilities:

a) The charger had been confused by the erratic supply it was getting from the TravelPower as the brushes died, and the period of downtime has reset it.

b) The battery monitor was underestimating the charge state of the bank, and again, the disconnect has reset it.

c) I’ve no idea what I’m talking about.

Thinking about it, all these are probably true – the main thing is that things seem to be back to normal.

After I’d finished playing and had put everything back together, Sheila covered the stern deck with rubber mats and we collapsed for the rest of the afternoon and evening, listening to the weather deteriorating.