We had another go at getting the batteries into float this morning. The problem was that we used the £5 of electricity we’d bought yesterday, but not until about 7pm last night, which was too late to get a top up. So this morning Adrian went over to the office and we started again. Meanwhile I downloaded the Victron Connect app, and had Jam on the phone checking all the settings and making some adjustments, including re-synchronising where 100 per cent was.
Eventually the solar MPPT controller went into float, and Jam was confident the charger would too. Once we were all sure everything was as it should be, we decided to make the most of our shore power by using the self cleaning feature on the oven. This heats it to about 500 Celsius to burn off all the spills, and takes a couple of hours. While all this was going on I washed the pontoon side of the boat, and went across to the Elsan and the rubbish. There was a goat running about in the car park; I thought it was a bit odd, but we’ve never been to Blisworth Marina before so maybe it was normal. But it turned out the manager was also bemused by it, and thought it had probably come from a small holding the other side of the railway line.
We had lunch, and when the oven was in cooling down mode we got ready to leave, finally reversing out of our berth at almost 2pm. As we left, Adrian pointed out that the goat was now tethered to a tree, and then someone who looked as though they might be the owner was arriving. It was only when we were away from the marina that we realised just how loud the A43 is — and it’s constant too. On the way to Blisworth, the Red Arrows flew over. We made our way through Blisworth and I took the compulsory photo of the old mill (although of course it hasn’t actually been on this blog before).
Then it was into the tunnel, where I switched to diesel to get some speed up and to get the batteries up to 100 per cent again. We passed no other boats, although the trip boat did its thing of coming into the tunnel, then turning its lights off, then reversing out. If you didn’t know it was the trip boat you’d wonder what on earth was going on. As we approached the end of the tunnel I switched back to electric. There were only a few boats in the village, but we opted to go down two locks to moor. The lady lock keeper at the top lock was rather officious, but we kind of just went along with it. By now the sun had finally come out.
The long pound is rather short of water, so we had some trouble getting near the side and were also slightly on the wonk. Hopefully the back pumping will mean the levels recover this evening and overnight. We walked up to the village and had an ice cream. We’d been hoping to see Kathryn but she’s busy this weekend, but we did see Mike from the trip boat.
The Crick Boat Show episode of the podcast is out today. Listen to it here.
4 miles, 2 locks. (21 miles, 16 locks)