Bartimaeus

We had a sunny morning to come up through the locks out of Chester.  At the first lock we were joined by another boat that had been moored just in front of us.  They had set off as soon as they saw us moving so as to share the lock.  We were glad of their company, but it turned out they were only going up the first lock before stopping for water.

We continued the flight solo.  While Clare was catching up after the lock I had time to have a closer look at a sign on the bank I’d seen as we we went by before.  It seems the gnomes don’t want any ducks to join them.

We met several other boats on the flight coming the other way – the season is clearly starting.  That slowed us down so that by the time we reached the top of the flight it was already lunch time.  I had intended to move on a little further, but we had to change that plan or I would be late for my online chat with erstwhile colleagues.

We had a short walk around Christleton before it got dark.  I was surprised to see another duck sign.  This one was the more common warning, though there were none in sight – just daffodils.

During the flight I had kept the diesel engine running.   This isn’t our usual approach to locks, but I remained concerned about the ability to restart the engine when it is warm.  I remembered that the trickle charger attached to the starter battery was able to give a conditioning charge.  We do this on our main battery bank every so often, but it is not the usual plan on the sealed starter battery.  Overcharging like this drives off hydrogen (and oxygen) which is why we have to water the main batteries.  The starter is a sealed system – a catalyst inside the casing recombines the gases to water.  I hoped that a single charge wouldn’t make things worse, and might make them better.

Next day, the plan was to get along to Tattenhall Marina and speak to the boatyard about the starting problems.  I deliberately switched between diesel and electric multiple times to see what the current situation was.  The engine started easily every time!  Perhaps the conditioning charge has fixed it, maybe replacing the faulty cube relays sorted things, or perhaps the engine is afraid of the engineer.  We decided to change our plan and didn’t go to the boatyard after all, mooring up just beyond the marina entrance.

We had thought we might explore locally in the warm sun promised in the forecast.  There was no sun, but we eventually did take a short walk in the late afternoon.  We got back before the sun eventually made an appearance shortly before sunset.

This morning, the forecast cloudless sky was not in evidence.  We realised that we should have included getting water in to our plan the previous day.  We reversed back to the marina and get the tank filled there.  With that job complete we set off towards Beeston.  From the canal the castle can be seen perched on a high rock half a mile to the south.  We found a sunny mooring just as the sky began to clear.  We reached the cafe at the castle entrance with both of us ready for our lunch.  So much for that plan – the cafe was closed!

We were both too hungry to contemplate paying to get in to the castle and continue to climb up, so we headed back to the canal again.  Across the bridge was an inviting pub and we went to see if they did lunch.  They did an excellent lunch which we were able to enjoy at a canal-side table in the garden.  By the time we’d eaten, we’d decided that a better plan to visit the castle was to go tomorrow.

We’d been back at the boat for a while when I heard a characteristic peeping.  From the cabin I could see a kingfisher perched on a high branch a few boat lengths behind us.  It made a few distinctive flights before we lost sight of it.  I heard and then saw it again in the same place a little later on.

We walked up the towpath to a shop shown on my map as a chandlery.  The owner was apologetic, but said he no longer sold much chandlery – no matter, it wasn’t anything urgent.  We did find a coffee shop across the road though so had some more refreshment in the sunshine in their garden.  By the time we got back to the boat the sun was quite low in the sky bathing the land around in gold.

It’s been a relaxing day, we’re both quite used to things not going as originally planned.  The setting sun illuminated a surprising number of tiny insects – they are even more opportunistic than us.