A long morning

We did the full early start this morning, Sheila getting up at six and starting boating whilst I made the tea. Once I had drunk it, dressed and breakfasted, it was around seven and we were just short of Springwood Haven when I took over. Last night's mooring wasn't as quiet as we'd thought; conversations outside the boat as we were dropping off made it hard to get to sleep, although in the event we had nothing to worry about.

A straightforward run through Nuneaston and Bedworth followed; Sheila gave me a spell after we'd passed Charity Dock until we arrived at Hawkesbury. Progress was slowed by a fair number of boats tied on the towpath at various points, a mixture of obvious leisure boats stopping for the night and what looked like longer staying liveaboards. We stopped on the water point before the junction and filled up, another washload having been run on the way.

Moored just ahead of us was Timewarp with Tony and Jacqui on board. We've not seen them for quite a while so had a good natter whilst the tank was filling. Tony is selling tiller pins these days and had a wide range on display on the roof. His unique selling proposition is that they have brass pins to go through the tiller arm rather than stainless steel, so no chance of corrosion.

Sheila spun Sanity Again through the junction without any trouble despite the blustery wind which has continued to plague us. I took over for the final stretch to Ansty. We've found a mooring on the far side, but have remembered why we don't often stop here. It really is a most boater-unfriendly village, with great lengths of No Mooring signs and locals walking their dogs or cycling up and down the towpath and staring suspiciously at you as though suspecting you of planning to commit rape and mayhem as soon as their backs are turned.

The batteries (I know this is becoming an obsession!) were still drawing a lot of current considering that the engine had been on for nearly six hours. After lunch I restarted and monitored things for another forty minutes, during which time the charge rate rose from 14.8 to 15.5 amps. That's not right and I've emailed Peter Mason to ask his advice. If we need to replace the bank, Crick will be a good chance to do so. Checking them again, I found one of them just a tad warmer on the terminal post than the others; I'll check it again as soon as we stop tomorrow.

If it's running significantly hotter than the others, that will indicate that it's on its way out and should be isolated from the rest until we can replace them.

Tomorrow, on to Newbold, possibly for a couple of days if the forecast for Thursday is right, full of rain and wind.