No Go

 Thursday 27^th August 2020

I went to start the engine this morning, but the starter motor simply whirred, without turning the engine at all. It appeared that the starter was not engaging with the engine, so clearly there was no chance of getting going. I tried a few times, and then rang the NNC for advice. Their first suggestion was to give the starter a few good blows with a wooden object, to try to shake it loose from whatever was stuck. After that failed further discussion led to the conclusion that we would need a new starter to be installed, and that could not be sourced and delivered before tomorrow. So we were stuck here for the day – the first thing I did was email C&RT about our booking for the tunnel, and get it changed to tomorrow.

Although being unable to move for a day was annoying, the worst aspect was that since we were unable to start the engine, there was no way to charge the batteries, or to heat up the water. A particular problem was our phones – in order to charge them we would need to turn on the inverter to give ourselves a 240 volt supply, and that would drain the batteries very quickly. The same applied to our laptops, though other things like the lights would not be a problem – since we had LEDs installed they draw very little power.

We decided to get a power pack for the phones, and after a bit of Googling we discovered that they had some in Argos in Tunstall, only about four miles away – in fact I noticed that it was quite close to the southern end of the Harecastle tunnel, which I thought was quite amusing. I set off on the bike, but before long I remembered that the reason they dug a tunnel was to go through a large and very high hill, which I was now going to have to get over. After struggling up several false summits I finally got off and pushed the bike to the top. Sadly, as I started down the skies opened and heavy and persistent rain began. If there is anything wetter than cycling in the pouring rain I have yet to hear of it.

After a wet ride

Eventually I got to the centre of Tunstall, found Argos and bought the power pack, then started back, pushing uphill all the way. Once I got to the top though it was rather fun, though very cold, freewheeling all the way back down to Kidsgrove and on to Church Lawton. Rather to our surprise the power pack came already charged, so we were able to plug the phones in straight away, problem solved. We settled down to dinner and a fairly quiet evening, ready to get going again in the morning, assuming the engineer arrived on time.

Mabel attempts to merge into the blanket on her bed

TODAY: 0:0 HOURS. 0 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

Voyage: 10:55 HOURS. 25.9 MILES. 10 LOCKS.