Grindley Brook visitor moorings

We'd not planned to move on from Whitchurch, but since we discovered we could power the washing machine from the generator instead of having to wait until the engine was running, Vicky has been doing more washing and consequently using more water. Despite the taps still working, our tank level was showing as empty so it wasn't going to be long before we ran out. Our bins were also overflowing as we there hadn't been any refuse points since Ellesmere.

We did an afternoon journey to Grindley Brook services and what a relief it was to fill up and empty! Turning at the winding hole prior to the first of the locks was difficult due to the wind. We abandoned the canoe and Vicky ended up standing on the towpath holding the bow rope while Will turned the stern. Another boater called Phil saw us and offered an extra pair of hands. We were very grateful and astounded when we saw him walking towards our mooring with our canoe in tow! There are some lovely souls out there!

Soon after we got settled the sun set over the adjacent arable field and farm while a huge starling murmuration flowed to and fro looking for their nightly roost. Ahh.

On Sunday we visited the nearby Horse and Jockey for a delicious lunch. Vicky even had a choice of vegan chocolate brownie or waffles for desert!

Over winter we've been running the generator to charge the batteries each day we don't cruise. The solar panels are beginning to feed in more power as the sun gains height and daylight hours increase but as yet they aren't producing sufficient watts. This time Will fired the genny up and there was a disturbing smell of electrical burning. We turned it off and tried it the next day but the same thing happened. Our inverter battery charger had something very wrong with it. We contacted Lainy the boat builder who called straight back and reviewed what what we were doing. Concluding it was definitely a fault, Will looked online and found it was common for generators to overload the system when there wasn't a surge controller fitted. Fortunately it was still under guarantee so we called Sterling who told us to remove it and post it back to them. We'd need to wait until we were moored near a post office but in the meantime charging via the generator was a no no.もっと詳しく