It's Penkridge again

21st & 22nd February

We made a prompt start on a bright and breezy morning yesterday, having woken to a battery bank full of volts. It's really good to be back to not having to watch the electric use like a hawk.

As I said in an earlier comment, it really is like the Dead Parrot sketch in Monty Python; as the capacity of the bank declines, you start taking more and more care of your power consumption, all the time trying to persuade yourself that there's nothing wrong with the batteries. This is particularly easy to do when they start declining at the beginning of winter, when the dark evenings and need to run the heating more often genuinely impose more power discipline.

In future, I think our expectation will be that a given bank lasts two years and a bit, so as soon as we are past the 24 months mark, it's a case of deciding the most convenient place to change over, rather than trying to eke out the last few weeks from the old batteries.

In addition, our thinking is moving towards a less power hungry set up on Sanity Again, with no big freezer. More on this in due course – I really will get round to another post on the Building SA blog soon. I planned to do one yesterday, but between some problems Sheila was having with her proof reading sites and the fact that the connection was very temperamental, I didn't get to it.

We'd had a good morning's boating, after I'd made a quick trip in to Great Haywood for bread and a paper. There's still a fair bit of traffic about at the end of the half term week, and the weather, though a bit blowy, was so Spring like it was really encouraging.

On one of my walks whilst Sheila was off the boat, I'd noted the water point at Milford as referred to recently in Retirement with No Problem, so we thought it would be good to get a fill there, as the tank was down to 40%.

I promptly forgot exactly where it was, and we had a bit of a hunt to find it, before spotting it between the turn over bridge and the tunnel under the railway. No matter, once there we found it to be a good one, with excellent pressure, so we were soon in possession of a full tank once more. It's contained in what proved to be an old ammo box, on its end and fastened to the wall, and I took a couple of photos of it just for a laugh, a water point that thinks it's a geocache.

As before, we worked up Deptmore Lock and tied just a little beyond. It's a nice quiet mooring, except for the rumble of the M6 across a couple of fields, but as I say, the internet connection, though high speed, kept dropping out.

Today we got away in good time, chugged round Acton Trussell, and up the three locks into Penkridge. On the way, I started experimenting with the Garmin, using it to add winding holes and locks to its map as waypoints. By saving the day's cruise as a track, it is possible to transfer the data onto the Mac in RoadTrip; I really must get hold of a text about this sort of thing, as I'm a complete tyro with it, and it's always good to add to one's areas of expertise.

We had a quick coffee on arrival in Penkridge, did some shopping and got back to the boat in time for lunch. The engine hours counter was just short of 6400, so I've done the oil and filter change due at that point, taking the opportunity to refill the stern greaser at the same time. I must get some more grease at the next chandlers we come too, as the current tin is nearly empty.

Sheila has been proof reading again, using the Canadian site, as the US one has continued to have problems. She says the Canadian books are more interesting anyway, and has already downloaded some of their finished texts.

Tomorrow we'll do some more shopping: this is the last chance for a few days, as Gailey and Hatherton don't have anything, and the day after we'll be on the Shroppie and plan to stop before we get to Brewood. You can shop at Pendeford as you go through Autherley Junction, but that means leaving the boat in a pretty rough area, as we discovered during last year's IWA National.

Once stocked up, we'll work up Penkridge Lock and pump out on the service point above (diesel purchase can wait until we get to Turner's at Wheaton Aston). then we'll go on to Gailey for the night, and Hatherton the day after.