No More Chocolate. Not ever.

BOATDATE: 30072019
CANAL: Worcester and Birmingham
HEADING: Towards Brum
WEATHER: Pissing Down, not up.
FUEL STATUS: Probably
WATER STATUS: Wet, very wet, unspeakably wet
TOILET STATUS:  Empty, mostly
BATTERY STATUS: Have to monitor this throughout the day


Trundled up to the next winding hole and turned round to get a pump out at the marina. We are no longer listing to starboard! Heavy shit. Topped up water tank too. Then set off north. North is good.


Set off and decided to stop at Bournville to take a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory. Don't get me wrong, I like chocolate, but that much? Felt a bit queezy from the smell of it all after a while. Then it pissed it down and we goat soaking wet on the way back to Pan. Uuugh!

Bilge Yoga

BOATDATE: 29072019
CANAL: Worcester and Birmingham
HEADING: Nowhere
WEATHER: Steamy, again
FUEL STATUS: There is some
WATER STATUS: Wet.
TOILET STATUS:  Full, listing to starboard now
BATTERY STATUS: 11.6v!!!! EEK!

Bilge Yoga is like Goat Yoga but twice as effective and done in bilges and you need special pants. There are various poses: cutting the alternators throat, rewiring the domestics, degreasing the pumps etc etc. It all involves bodily contortions that make the Karma Sutra look amateurish. The resting voltage of the domestics was down at 11.6 volts. This is bad, very bad - see the chart - It means the alternator, although it is outputting the correct voltage to charge the starter battery, it is not sharing this goodliness with the three leisure batteries which means they will die, alone, in a ditch, like dogs.


There doesn't seem to be a split charge relay so maybe it's a faulty diode in the alternator? I will have to find out. Meanwhile I am re-wiring so that the leisure batteries will receive charge from the alternator but I will have to watch out for overcharging which can be as damaging to the batteries as undercharging them.

Also, I left my loaf of bread in the shop. Dammit!

Engineering Triumph

So that's how you bung a Triumph on the back of a narrowboat. The whole platform can swing to either side courtesy of the steel wires and pulleys. You wouldn't want to catch that platform on the cill in a short lock though and you'd have to really watch your back end while turning. But I do that anyway so that's alright.

Saturday 20th July

Boatdate: 20072019
Canal: Worcester and Birmingham
Heading: North

Tardebigge to Alvechurch. Here Ben has to leave us to go back to work. We are going to take a break here anyway so Cat can attend the funeral of her bestie at University who has died of cancer. Informed the CRT we were going to overstay on our mooring but they cool about it. See you soon.

Friday 19th July TARDEBIGGE!!

Boatdate: 19072019
Canal: Worcester and Birmingham
Heading: North

Soggy start to the day. Arrived at the bottom of the 30 lock rise at Tardebigge at 3.20pm.  Exactly 3hrs and 3mins later we closed the paddles on the top lock. Not bad going...but then we have a secret weapon, don't we?

                                                                           Tardebigge Top Lock

Friday 12 to Wednesday 17 July

Boatdate: 12072019
Canal: Worcester and Birmingham
Heading: Nowhere
Weather: Scorchio
Fuel Status: Let's not go there
Water Status: Full, we filled up.
Toilet Status: Narrow, hard to get your bum seated comfortably
Battery Status: Easy does it

The engineer Jason at Diglis marina, very nice chap btw, said he was off for a dirty weekend with the new gf but would be able to clean out our diesel on Tuesday if we hung about. We hung about. In the meantime we explored bits of Worcester. The cathedral is pretty stunning if you get a chance to visit. The river Severn is beautiful there and I've never seen so many swans in one place. The Anchor pub in Diglis basin is great fun and serves a lovely pint of Boon Doggle.  Turns out the marina doesn't have a diesel pump so we set off back to Hanbury at about 6.30pm

Thursday 18th July

Boatdate: 18072019
Canal: Worcester and Birmingham
Heading: Northish
Weather: Guess
Fuel Status: Less than there was
Water Status: Wet
Toilet Status: Needs work
Battery Status: 12v ish

Arrived back at Hanbury Wharf at 3.30pm for diesel and sundry supplies: new fuel filter, bits and bobs and new mid line ropes, the old ones not quite long enough for our liking. Bunkered up with 150 litres of diesel @£127.52 and now I KNOW there's a full tank. Got a measuring stick too and marked it so I've got a half decent way of knowing how much we're using over a given period. I think the capacity is about 200 litres or 50 gallons in old money. Departed Hanbury at about 5.15pm heading up towards Tardebigge. Sailed for a couple hours and moored up for the night just north of Bridge 41.

Thursday 11th July 2019

Boatdate: 11072019
Canal: Worcester and Birmingham
Heading: Nowhere
Weather: Still Steamy
Fuel Status: Rubbish
Wind: Not really, just a spot of indigestion
Toilet Status: Been
Battery Status: 12v or thereabouts 

Broke down at bridge 28. Awkward spot, reedy banks and narrow. Had to punt her passed the bridge till we found a place we could get the gang plank onto the towpath. Lots of water in the diesel tank. For too long Pan has been used as a weekend boat and not driven much. Water condenses inside the fuel tank if it's not kept full. Changed fuel filter and bled air and water out of the pumps and injectors till something resembling diesel fuel sputtered out. Once going decided to head to Worcester to have fuel tank pumped out and filtered. Should have a water separator fitted really. One day.

Boatdate: 10072019
Canal: Worcester and Birmingham
Heading: Not sure
Weather: Ridiculous, Steamy
Fuel Status: Not the foggiest
Water Status: Wet
Toilet Status: Been
Battery Status: 12v hopefully

So we picked the boat up at Hanbury Wharf and sailed her down to the Fir Tree pub, as you do. We sat on their nice patio furniture celebrating our new adventure with too many pints of Timothy Taylors.

Pushing the boat out, we ordered some pub grub as well and the no nonsense lady that brought it to us suggested we move to "that table over there,' (because), "that way your chins will be a lot closer to your food."
I don't really think she was all that worried about the possibility of rich onion gravy all over her cream patio seat cushions, not really. You never know though, and, once upon a time, the pub had been run by a murderer (allegedly); he got off on a technicality.

The more beer we drank the further we sank down into the cushions. It just happens.

The first mate made some comment about the train going over the level crossing nearby so I asked her how she knew it was level.

It went downhill from there really.