Day 006

Well - what a day!

Just about to take off this morning when a voice from a passign boat called out, "is that Andy?" Turned out, it was someone I had communicated with via email when they live din Australia almost 2 years ago and were now proudly cruising their own boat, NB Gleemaiden. They pulled up and lent me spanners to check my loose wire on the alternator but to no avail. Cups of coffee were shared during which I mentioned that I was on my way back to Brinklow. "Brinklow Marina?" they enquired, "Yes," I replied, "well I never," they continued, "we have a mooring booked there and are on our way to it now!" It never amazes me how small the boating world really is despite stretching to all corners of the nation and covering many thousands of miles!

We moved on to Hopwas to meet up with our RCR engineer outside the Tame Otter pub. The engineer duely arrived and pronounced my leisure battery alternator dead! Unfortunately, being the leisure alternator it isn't covered by them but he did carry one in stock and £70 later I was fitted and charging well. The alternator supplied didn't have a connector for my Adverc battery management system although I have heard that these units are sometimes the cause of alternators failing too soon - a fact, evidenced that the alternator replaced today was only around 2 years old! I have decided that I won't re-connect the Adverc and see what effect this has on the longevity of my alternator.

The breakdown meant an innevitable delay in leaving Hopwas and it was gone 2.00pm when we finally set off. I very much want to be back home by Saturday to get my sofa and finish sorting out my saloon and my father needs to be back home by Saturday to travel back down south for Sunday so we decided to push on and cruise a little into the dark. I know some disagree but I love night time cruising - it takes on a magical air and and an element of unfamiliarity in areas otherwise quite familiar. We arrived at the bottom of the Atherstone flight at around 5.30pm and decided to push through the first 2 locks knowing that there was good mooring after them. As we pulled out the second lock, a side hatch opened of a moored boat and a now familiar voice called out, "is that Andy?" We pulled in front of Richard and Audrone of NB Gleemaiden in the dark as this picture shows of my father having just moored the bow in!

Richard appeared, torch in hand, and invited us round for something to eat - an extremely welcome and very kind offer, one which was hastily accepted with the promise of a bottle of wine to contribute! A very pleasant evening was spent with them both and even Simba was allowed to join in the socialising on their boat.

Tomorrow we plan a relatively early start witht he possibility of geting back either tomorrow evening or first thing Saturday morning.