Bartimaeus

We've had a run of days with damp mornings followed by brighter afternoons.  Clare had been enjoying the occasional sightings of sheep in the field opposite, including a youngster who had come several times for a drink from the bank opposite,  We both remembered previous occasions where sheep had ended up in the canal, but this one seemed secure enough.

When we did set off, Clare found the mooring chain at the front was a bit stuck.  While trying to release it, she managed to drop it in to the water.  Fortunately we've had practice with fixing this situation.  A boat hook will struggle to catch a chain, but it took her only a few seconds to locate and hook the chain with the approved tool (the incorrectly labelled "long handled mini paint roller").

We didn't go very far in the afternoon, stopping at a convenient mooring near Shackerstone.  After we'd moored, I walked on around the corner and discovered the moorings marked on the map.  They were more shaded with trees though, so we decided there was no need to move on.

Clare got some concerned messages from people who live further north asking if we were prepared for the coming storm.  The forecast for us was some brisk winds, but nothing to worry about - especially as we weren't moored near any trees.

The next morning was windy, and wet again as promised.  I occupied myself with some small fixes to my picture upload mechanism.  The target is that Clare's pictures will upload first time, I may have done it this time.

As the rain started to clear, I put my boiler suit on and headed in to the engine bay.  We've been getting an annoying clatter from the drive when the load on the engine changes.  This never used to happen but had been getting gradually worse.

I was vaguely aware that it was possible to adjust the tension on the belt that connects the propellor shaft to the electric motor.  I knew how to get the belt cover off and had identified a bolt that held the tension wheel.  It turned out there was also another bolt through the wheel itself.  With both of those loosened I could move the wheel to a tighter position.

I now found things were so tight that I couldn't get the belt back on again.  I loosened the bolts slightly and tried again.  With the belt back on and the bolts re-tightened everything felt much the same, though I hoped the belt was slightly tighter.

By the time I'd celebrated with a cup of coffee the sun was out, so we set off.  A mile or so further on, we met a day boat coming the other way.  As they passed they told us there was a tree down after bridge 56.  I thanked them for the information, but there wasn't a lot we could do about it, there were no winding holes between us and that bridge.  The day boat was much shorter than us, they could turn round almost anywhere.

So maybe Storm Floris would affect us after all.  We decided to press on, keeping an eye open for mooring spots in case we had to reverse back to one.  I also started the diesel engine so that we would have charged batteries if we were unable to moor in the sun.

Bridge 55 is missing, but immediately after bridge 56 we saw the canal was almost completely blocked by reeds.  The curving banks covered in trees, some at strange angles, conspired to give us a number of false alarms, but the way was clear until we could see bridge 57 ahead.

We had just concluded that the day boaters must have been tricked by the light when we saw the tree - just after bridge 57.  Perhaps they had misremembered the number, or been confused by the missing bridge, but they were right about a tree.

I coasted up very slowly with Clare at the bow to warn me of anything low in the water I might not see.  We drifted slowly through the bridge and between the tree and the bank before coming to a halt.

I went inside to get the saw in case it was useful.  When I grabbed any of the branches I could reach easily, they broke off in my hands - no need for a saw.  We seemed to be firmly aground though, so I used the bow thruster to push the nose in to the channel.  That seemed to be the fix - we were soon on our way again.

Clare started working out how to contact Canal and River Trust (CRT) to tell them about the obstruction.  We were only a few boat lengths from the Snarestone Tunnel when the batteries reached 100% so I switched to electric.  All the time on diesel I had been delighted to find that the clattering seemed to have been fixed.  Clare had just got her message ready as we entered the tunnel, but there is no network available in there - that got fixed as we came out of the other end.

We moored up at the last spot on the visitor moorings at Snareston when we arrived.  The evening sun was behind some trees, but there didn't seem to be a way to fix that.  I cycled in to Measham for some groceries at a small supermarket shown on my map.  When I got there, there was no shop, but fortunately another supermarket was available.

When I got back, I edited OpenStreetMap to fix the map by removing the erroneous shop.  I later discovered that the shop was nearby but incorrectly marked on the map.  By the time I got back to edit the map, another user had fixed things by adding the shop in the right place.

This morning was another wet start to the day, though the showers were very light.  I spoke to a volunteer who told me it was fine to go through the new stop-lock and footbridge in to the restored section. Last time we were here, the bridge was still being built and there was a narrow section with no water in it.

This small fix to the canal was installed after a breach in the restored section, which is not (yet) under the control of CRT.  Any future breaches will not affect the CRT canal as the water pressure will seal the gate firmly shut.

We drove to the winding hole, turned and reversed to the bridge.  Friendly volunteers opened (and closed) it for us and I reversed through.  I chose to reverse as the only winding hole is for 52 foot boats.  By reversing in, if I have problems it should be easy to get out.  I reversed about half way along until we were at a pleasant spot with a low hedge - that's the problem with the trees fixed.