Thursday, December 17, 2009

Power failure

I went to Stafford on the bus to fetch Ann back. She had spent many days down south with our grandchildren to see their school activities over the pre Christmas period.
After a walk together in the morning we uprooted the boat and moved, backing up and turning at the junction to head for the marina. Then the beep beep warning started indicating charge failure. Thank goodness we were not far away. Great Haywood Marine Services to the rescue! While diesel was filling our tank the alternator was being confirmed as being a failure. It is the third failure during the five years we have had the boat. I was told that an average of between 1 and 2 years is about right for an alternator being used every day charging five domestic batteries. If only we could tell when it is about to fail as it happens quite quickly without much warning.

We have a temporary mooring with a mains connection while we wait for a replacement alternator to arrive.

The situation with the waterways lack of care, maintenance and money cannot get much worse and may even get better if British Waterways are to change to a National Trust.

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