Heavy work!

Saturday 29^th March; Landsdown Park to Lowesmoor Basin, then to Perdiswell Park, bridge 17.

There was frost on the grass when I took the dog out first thing, but it soon went.  The sun was shining brightly as we left for Lowesmoor Basin, arriving before 9 am.

Early morning at Landsdown Park

Stuart soon arrived and set to work.  He is tall, broad and at least 10 years younger than us, but even so he said that our batteries, at 31 kg each, were at the limit of his capabilities.  So it’s hardly surprising that Dave decided a boatyard would be better equipped than us to change the leisure battery bank.

Stuart removing battery no 3

There was a lot of puffing and grunting – it was clearly a very difficult job.  Glass-of-squash work rather than cup-of-tea!  Stuart knew Martin, the boater Dave had been talking to at Droitwich, whose batteries were 36 kg each – that was a 2-men-and-a-winch job.

Just one to go - the one on the left is the starter battery

Stuart confirmed that the frame securing the batteries was welded in place, so the only way to get a battery out was to lift it.  The first was the hardest, as the others could be shuffled sideways, with a bit more space to heave them out.

In goes the first new one

Two to go

Stuart keeps a tidy ship

He had a magnetic lamp which gave a good light, so that this photo of the finished job is very clear.

It looks as though there is plenty of room to get the batteries out, but that really wasn’t the case at all

Because the solar had been keeping the batteries topped up, and we had turned the fridge off overnight to reduce drain, it was hard to tell which of the old batteries had failed.  Or maybe more than one?  Anyway, with the old bow thruster lead-acids on their last legs Dave swapped them with two of the old leisure batteries, and will monitor them closely to see how they behave.  We have kept the other two to try as needed.

And now the bow thruster is happy too, and so are we!

We paid our bill in the office and were on our way again by 11.30.  There was apparently a partial solar eclipse this morning, but the hazy cloud had been building up so we didn’t notice – and had forgotten about it anyway.  But it would have been good to try projecting the image onto the ground using a colander, as was suggested on the radio!

Reversing out of Lowesmoor Basin

We stopped again at Landsdown Park so Jess could have a play, had lunch and then moved off north again.  The swans were pottering about between the two Gregory’s Mill locks and were no trouble this time, thank goodness.  We could see a boat ahead of us at Bilford bottom lock, progressing very slowly.  They turned out to be first-timers up from Diglis, with two adults on the boat and one little lad working the locks.  He was doing very well, and got most upset when I turned up to help!  Personally, I wouldn’t have allowed a child of 10 (at a rough guess) to be operating a lock with no adult on the bank.  They were winding at the Bilford winding hole, which is between the two Bilford locks.  They found it very difficult, mainly because the pound was very low (this one often is).  Dave managed to get Bonjour out of the bottom lock but stuck on the way into the top one, so I had to run some water down.  A good learning experience for the newbies, anyway – Dave was close enough to the lock mooring to give them a running commentary, and they paid close attention as this will be their local patch.

The afternoon was cloudy and increasingly cold so we were glad to moor before bridge 17 at Perdiswell Park, a favourite spot.  Jess was bouncing up and down with excitement at the prospect of a walk in the park, which she duly got.  I had remembered to re-proof the little area on the cratch cover that had been leaking, though an hour later had to hastily bring the cover down so it stayed dry when the rain started.  The fire was lit early. 

Less than 3 miles, 4 locks