Bartimaeus

I realised as we were mooring up last night that my first choice of location was the water point, so we needed to go a little further.  During the evening it occurred to me that we needed to fill the tank before we set off, so we had to start the day by reversing back a few boat lengths.

We were almost ready to go when I saw a message from Rob at Ortomarine about data logging.  We have been having some strange behaviour from the heat pump with flow and return temperatures getting too far apart in both the ground and load circuits.  An upgrade to the software on board logs this information, but makes it available to read on the boat only.

I was asked to install a piece of software to collect the data and update a file.  This file is in turn made available on our website so that Nick and Andy at Hydrogen Afloat can see what is happening.  It took me less than an hour to sort out before we got going.

We did remember to get water and then continued on our way.  Today it was a few miles to the first lock and Bryn took a long spell of driving.  When another boat caught us up he handed over to me so I could let them overtake.

We caught the overtaking boat again at the lock as it turned out.  There was a queue of boats coming the other way too, and a very short lock landing.  So despite being ready for our lunch, we worked through the lock.  The other side had much more space, so we sat on the end of the lock bollards and had lunch.

While we were eating, the queue of boats coming towards us cleared, and a single boat passed us going our way.  As we approached the next lock I could see that boat in the lock ahead, and it looked to be a loan boater.  I encouraged Bryn and Clare to go ahead and help her while I waited at the tiller.

It soon became apparent that there was a problem.  I brought Bartimaeus to the side and tied the centre rope to see if I could help.  The boat had become wedged by a stick between it and the lock wall.  Full power in both directions hadn't helped, and neither had trying to get a pole or mooring spike in.

We tried letting some water down, but it made little difference.  Bryn and I asked if we could come aboard and see if we could rock the boat free.  That had no effect at all.  I suggested that perhaps we needed to try letting more water down but maybe reversing as it arrived.  Having ensured the other boater was happy with this, I climbed back up the ladder.  Bryn stayed aboard to lend moral support and any other help he could offer.

I opened one head paddle fully, watching carefully what was happening.  To everyone's delight, the boat started moving - it was free.

Bryn hopped off at the bridge to help bring Bartimaeus through, and then walked on briskly to help the other boat through the next lock - without incident.

We were glad to have been able to assist.  A lone boater is usually extremely competent, and often proudly so.  On this occasion it was only bad luck that had got her stuck.  We saw no other boats moving on this section later on.  It was good luck that she passed us as we ate lunch or she might not have had help available.  It would have been very risky to attempt to wash a boat out of a lock with nobody at the tiller.

We carried on to our planned destination in Middlewich, arriving well before sunset despite the delay.  This evening I have sent a message to Rob asking about another side matter.  A section of the lights under the gunwale has stopped working - I'm hoping he may have a suggestion about fixing that.