Wet, wet, wet. That’s pretty much the only way to describe today — it’s been pretty grim. But back to yesterday evening, and Adrian had a couple of calls to join (also pretty grim news for the charity he works for) so I took Macc out. Sharon and John had said they might be in The Boat, and I could see them through the window so on our way back we called in and joined them and their neighbours for a drink. Macc met other dogs and we all had a good chat. It rained in the night and Macc and I got wet on our early walk. After breakfast we moved long to the water point to fill the tank, having got some washing going. We got under way again at about 9.30. Did I mention it was raining?
On the Shelmore Embankment, there were a couple of work boats on the offside. There’s a section of wash wall that appears to have collapsed somewhat, and the guys were building a new wall with concrete bags behind it. They appeared to be having a pretty grim time too.
Norbury Junction always looks cheerful, even when it’s chucking it down. It also takes ages to do this section of canal because there are moorings both sides of the junction.
Grub Street Cutting kind of suits the rain, and of course it’s compulsory to photograph the high bridge with the extra arch and the old telegraph pole.
It was a little after this bridge that I began to hear some odd vibration noises, which at first I thought was coming from the woods but then realised was coming from the boat. They sounded as though they were originating in the region of the electrical cupboards, but opening the doors and having a listen didn’t really reveal anything. The noise was just a couple of seconds every now and then. But then I also noticed a smell, a bit like burning rubber. When Adrian popped out the back, he noticed it too. So when I saw the rings at High Offley, I pulled over and we moored up. I was soaked and cold, so first had a hot shower, and then went down into the engine hole to check all the belts, especially the drive belt on the electric motor — but everything seemed fine. After lunch I had a chat with Jam from Braidbar about it, and we went through all the things it might be. We have an extra air pump in the engine hole to provide extra air flow to keep things cook, and in the course of the conversation, a pipe on the bottom of the pump fell off when I touched it. I also mentioned how hot the hybrid controller box had been earlier. We began to wonder whether the pipe had been rattling because it was loose, and with the connection a bit dodgy, maybe it hadn’t been doing enough cooling.
Before doing anything else, I took Macc for a walk. We started in the dry, but during the half hour we were out it rained quite heavily again, soaking another load of clothes! We’d walked up the towpath northwards, where there are loads of offside moorings. This one boat has tyres out as protection, or maybe just to give the ducks somewhere to stand.
I was keen to see if we still had a problem in the engine hole, so with a break in the rain at about 2.45 I decided to set off again. A potential mooring option was Shebdom Wharf, and there was room, but because of all the moored boats we’d hardly been off tickover so I wanted to go a bit further. The Shebdon Embankment gave me a chance to go at a proper speed.
The old wharf at the end of the embankment seems to have odd bits of boat work going on. I like the colours of the boat that’s moored there these days — the sign writing says the owners are ‘profiteers in all things decent’!
We had a go at mooring on the rings a bit further along, but even though they’re designated moorings we still couldn’t get anywhere near the bank. It wasn’t raining, so we decided to carry on. Just beyond, we crossed into Shropshire. At first I wondered if this cormorant on a telegraph pole was actually real, and then it started moving.
We moored at Goldstone Wharf at about 4.45, so it’s been a long day — for me on the tiller and also for Adrian who’s done a lot of work on the charity situation that’s arisen. The good news was there had been no more vibration noises and no more odd smells. Tomorrow’s weather is forecast to be even worse, especially in the afternoon, so it’s good that we’re an hour or so ahead of schedule; we’ll almost certainly get wet tomorrow, but hopefully we’ll get to where we’re going before it gets windy as well.
10 miles, 0 locks. (322 miles, 194 locks)