We left Wigrams Marina on Thursday 16th with a fully charged battery bank and a full tank of water, and moored up at Braunston, opposite the Boathouse Pub (again!).
The newly fitted heat exchanger supplied hot water to the radiators for the journey and kept the boat nicely warm – as did the sun that shone brightly on the way!
Our instruction from Graeme was to run the batteries right down to 20% capacity to check that they were now working correctly.
For those of you that understand batteries (that's not us by the way – we are still learning!) we have 24 x 2volt cells that equal 800Ah and 48volts, and they are PB deep discharge batteries! They supply us with “household” mains electricity to run our appliances – fridge, freezer, dishwasher, washer/dryer, electric double oven and induction hob without having to run the engine.
So we sat at Braunston, being really lazy, just going for the odd walk to visit the shop and pubs, whilst still using all our appliances as normal – we did treat ourselves to Sunday Lunch at the Boathouse on Sunday though!
Braunston was incredibly quiet – not many boats moored opposite the pub or along by the marina!
By the time we got to Tuesday morning we had used 620Ah out of the battery bank and we couldn't boil the (electric) kettle until we started the engine! Hoorah! Five days without running the engine whilst still using everything on board! Success, batteries now performing as they should!
Time to move (and of course fill up with water) so we headed up towards the marina and water point.
As we turn in the marina entrance you can see no other boats moored!
We headed off towards Rugby, passing through the Hillmorton locks (note Garys smart new SHORT hair cut!)
It was another glorious sunny day, but it did get cold in the shade!
As we passed the golf course we spied Derwent 6 moored up and Al had just arrived back from shopping – we shouted hello as we passed, and she posed for a picture!
One day, we will moor close to them and have a proper chat!
A bit further up we went past Clifton Cruisers and spied Waiouru hiding behind another boat.
Unusually, I was steering for a few minutes (still in training – I could never get the hang of steering the hire boats!) and Gary took my picture for a change!
We moored up at Brownsover, after 4 hours and had boosted the batteries back up to 78%. Hopefully (wont speak too loudly) our alternator problems are now behind us!
We stayed at Brownsover for 2 nights, visiting Tesco and all the other shops there and then pulled away, turned round at the winding hole by the Rugby Wharf Junction and headed back towards Hillmorton – passing Brownsover looking like a summers day (except for no leaves on the trees!)
We passed through Hillmorton Locks again (well, I do need some exercise after our lazy 5 days!) and moored for the night at Onley, just as it started to rain.
Our mooring spot – totally deserted!
We are now moored back at Braunston again. I am heading down south next week and will be leaving Gary on the boat – give him a wave if you see him!
Normal blogging will resume when I return!
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