Rain, cold, and feeling flat

Today started at 5am when the dogs kicked off, probably woken by a nearby cockerel greeting the pale dawn. I had to take them out for a tiddle, and Minnie took the opportunity for an early morning swim, so Loulie had to towel her down before we could all go back to bed.

Things didn’t get any better when we got up at a slightly more normal hour and prepared to set off. When I went to start the engine there wasn’t the slightest flicker of response, and looking at the battery control panel in the cabin it was clear that the starter battery was totally flat. After a bit of thinking we realised that I had made a tiny but consequential error the night before. The ignition key starts at top dead centre for Off, then there are three clockwise positions – On (normal running), Heat (to warm the engine before starting) and Start. To turn the engine off you have to rotate the key anticlockwise past top dead centre to activate a solenoid which kills the motor. When I removed the key last night I left it in the 11 o’clock position, and the solenoid was permanently activated through the night, flattening the battery entirely.

We called Matthew at the Navigation Narrowboat Company, who confirmed the cause of the problem, and came out to rescue us. Although it is a week since we left there, we were less than ten miles from Nantwich, on the parallel canal. He came out with a replacement battery which he installed, and all was fine. These batteries are powerful but fragile, and running it down to zero will have permanently ruined it, so the new battery has replaced the old one.

An expensive lesson, but I won’t make that mistake again. Each time we stop Loulie amusingly reminds me to get the key in the right place when I switch off, and I demonstrate, using my middle finger, that I have left it in the vertical position.

So it was after half ten when we set off, and we still had to get to Middlewich for a pumpout. That wouldn’t have been a problem, but it came on to rain, very heavily, with a cold wind. We would have liked to batten down the hatches and sit out the storm, but we needed to keep moving. I was standing on the poop discovering that my hat is showerproof but not rainproof, and Loulie had to get out to work eight locks, so we were both freezing and soaked.

John in the rain

We stopped at Kings Lock to take on diesel. All these things are dead easy when you have done them once, but tricky the first time. There is an odd little key for the diesel filler cap – you have to insert it and then rotate it 90 degrees, at which point you can unscrew the cap. Easy. But it’s not obvious that it is 90 degrees, rather than 180, say. Nor is it clear that you unscrew the cap – you might flip it off on a hinge, or push in the centre like a button. So you try lots of different combinations, hanging head down over the stern rail to reach the cap, until something works.

We then went down the three-lock flight in the centre of Middlewich, made much easier by the team of volunteers helping to work the locks, which took the load off Loulie, though it did slow her down from her normal slick operation. Below those locks we stopped at Andersen’s boat yard for a pumpout – again our first time, and it was useful to have someone else doing it so I could watch. The guy told me all about the effect of the canal breach on their business – very severe, because most of their hirers want to go out along that branch to get to the Llangollen, Chester or Audlem. So he has lots of boats sitting around after cancellations. It has had a bad effect on a lot of canalside businesses, and they get no compensation.

We stopped below Big Lock to take on water and do some shopping, then headed out into the open country between Middlewich and Northwich. We have moored opposite an open flash which borders the canal – though there are lots of warnings that it is too shallow to take a narrowboat onto. Minnie disgraced herself by getting onto at least three other boats when we went for a walk – it’s becoming a bad habit, though so far people have only been amused, as most of them have dogs too.

If all goes well we should be back at Preston Brook tomorrow. We have less that 14 miles to go, and just the tiny stop lock at Dutton, though there are three tunnels. We are very sorry the trip is coming to an end, it has been quite an experience, and the early days going down the Shroppie already seem like an age ago. It will be very odd to be back on dry land again.

A pile of dogs

Today: 6.5 hours. 10.3 miles. 9 locks.

Voyage: 59.5 hours. 100.9 miles. 96 locks.