Bartimaeus

We arrived at the marina yesterday with the batteries at a lower level than I normally allow them to fall (73%).  Once I’d managed to get charging to start, the on board systems started taking the maximum power they could and using most of it to charge the batteries.  This is similar to running a kettle (or a three-bar electric fire – remember them?) continuously for about four hours.  The system then switched to a slower charge rate (only one bar on the fire) until the middle of the night.  By then it considered the batteries to be fully charged.

Just before bedtime last night our combined carbon-monoxide and fire alarm started squawking.  We could smell smoke, but when we opened the hatches we found that it was smokier outside than in.  We think smoke from other boaters’ wood-burning stoves was settling in the cooling air and coming through the vents in to our boat.  Somewhat reluctantly we disconnected the battery from the alarm and went to bed.  We didn’t wake up dead!  Today I have shut some of the roof vents hoping we don’t get a repeat tonight.

This morning we had a visit from Rob and Caroline, the owners of Ortomarine, for a very enjoyable chat.  This was ostensibly about the things we’d like them to do on the boat, but we weren’t very good at staying on topic.  They also introduced us to our neighbour, Roy, on Here We Go Again. By the time we’d chatted to him too it was time for lunch.  Luckily we remembered to ask for the combination to get in and out of the marina or we would only have been able to leave by boat.

In mid-afternoon we set off on foot to the local high class supermarket (other high class supermarkets are available).  We walked along the canal including the section of the River Salwarpe that had been in spate.  Today it was open again as the marker at the lock clearly showed.

Strangely, at the other end of the river section, the level marker was a lot more ambiguous.  It seemed to have been partly pulled off the wall.  The muddy brown below the red section seemed to have some yellow showing underneath, but certainly no green was visible.

In the nearby Vine Park we came across a statue of St Richard of Droitwich.  The main reason for the building of the Droitwich canals was to transport salt – the local brine spring is still used to produce salt. Apparently St Richard came to bless the brine spring when it dried up in about 1248.  It hasn’t dried up since, so perhaps we have him to thank for being able to moor at Droitwich Spa.