Bartimaeus

On our second full day on board we had made excellent progress in the locks at the edge of Chester thanks to arriving at the same time as another boat was entering the top one.  It is sometimes marginally slower going through double locks with another boat, but it is a lot less work, and a lot more sociable.

Despite the bright sunshine it was pretty cold driving.  I was glad I had increased my upper body clothing layers to six.  I wasn’t sure if the bush we passed was hawthorn but it reminded me of the aphorism: “Nae cast a cloot until May is oot!”  Don’t cast off clothing until May is out.  But is that May the month, or may the blossom?  I decided to remain dressed as I was – the temperature was too low for anything else.

During the flight I managed to find the time to do a little bit of research I should have done earlier.  I looked up the places on this canal where we can buy diesel.  I was disappointed to discover that the northernmost place was Tattenhall Marina where Bartimaeus had spent the winter.  We had around 30 litres left in the tank.  In the summer, this would be enough for us to travel the entire length of this canal.  In the cold weather, we are going through more than 5 litres a day keeping the cabin warm – so this was far too low.

That will teach me to be so blasé about starting the season.  We could have made a dash for the end of the canal and back, but we instead opted to turn round and take our time.  We took advantage of the canal side high-class supermarket (other supermarkets were available) and had a short explore of the city walls towering above the canal.  We’ll be back to have a longer look.

The next day we set off back through the locks.  We were unaccompanied this time, and the five locks are spaced out over more than a mile.  The folding bike allowed me comfortably to get ahead of the boat to get each lock ready.  We still weren’t in a hurry though, so we explored Christleton before moving on to a quiet mooring before the sun got too low.

We got to the marina late on the next morning and got the diesel tank filled.  While we were near the boatyard who had done the blacking, I decided to call in to see if they could diagnose the problems we’ve had with warm starts.  The diesel engine starts very reliably when cold, but often won’t start if switched off when it has been running for a bit.  It usually starts alright again if left alone for a while (or we drive on electric if the batteries aren’t too low).

We were about to drive over when I noticed something else strange.  The warning lights on the control panel on deck are usually all off except when stopping or starting the engine. Now, one of the lights was staying on after the key was removed.

I found someone at the boatyard who came and had a look.  He didn’t know why the light was on, but he did have a theory about our starting issue – a dying battery.  He said he’d have his lunch first and then come back with the battery tester.  While we were having lunch, I got on to the message board for other Ortomarine owners and sought advice.  Rob quickly told me that the cube-relays behind the panel were probably damp (condensation) and shorting across.  They are easily sourced and easy to replace – I soon found some on sale at a well-known motoring shop in Chester.

It seemed like we’d been forgotten after lunch so I went to enquire.  It transpired the battery testing kit was not on site though, so even after we’d been remembered we were no further forward. It being Friday afternoon, nothing was going to get fixed until Monday.  We agreed to come back in a week or so.  If his theory is right and the battery decays further, we do have a work-around.  The bow-thruster batteries are identical to the starter battery, so we’d “just” need to carry one the length of the boat and connect it up.

We’re heading back to Chester again knowing we have enough fuel to keep us warm.