True to his word “Uncle David” picked us up from the boat after our month aboard and took us back to Essex for Sue to attend her outpatients appointment with the Broomfield Hospital Physiotherapist. The appointment went well and her next appointment will be in six weeks and to save her attending will be a telephone appointment.
After David dropped us at the caravan brother Richard phoned to offer to take us back to the boat the following weekend, then London (where Richard lives) and the whole of Essex were moved up a Covid Tier so we weren’t going to be ferried by friends or family till both areas moved down again
We are so lucky to have such helpful family but felt that our “help credit” would soon be totally depleted. Drastic action was required. We bought a car, well an old banger, the oldest, cheapest and by far the smallest car we have bought for many a year. A Renault Twingo of 2008 vintage with 70 odd thousand miles on the clock. Cheap to buy, cheap to tax and insure, cheap (hopefully) to run and with luck it will last until the spring when we trust most of UK will have had Covid jabs and we will be able to start our continuous cruising lives.
Having collected our car (it’s so small we wondered if they should be sold in pairs - one for each foot 😀) we loaded it with as much kit as possible - very little - and set off to the boat for a few weeks.
A highlight of our time here was a visit by friends Carol and David, who live in Cumbria (tier 2) and as we are in Warwickshire (also tier 2) it was within the rules for them to visit us. They slept in their motorhome (as per tier 2 rules) just coming on board during the day. On Saturday night we went to a local pub, The Kings Head for a meal, the precautions taken by the pub were such that it felt very secure and safe. The meal was excellent although the starter order got mixed and we were presented with two Scallops on Black Pudding Crumb. We explained we had ordered only one and the extra was taken away. It was not till the next morning we realised it had not been removed from the bill.
We were enjoying our time on the boat until Boris made his announcement that he was closing England again on the 5th November and wasn’t reopening it until 3rd December. Carol and David left for Cumbria and we decided that although we would spend Lockdown 2 on the boat before it started we needed to go back to the caravan to winterise it and collect more kit. Just one hour after our visitors left we set off to travel back to Essex. We spent Monday in the caravan cleaning, winterising and packing, travelling back to Calcutt Marina Tuesday ready to start lockdown on Thursday 5th November 2020.
Our lockdown has been spent doing even more jobs, the footstools we bought with the armchairs are very comfortable but have no alternative uses so with my very limited carpentry skills I have taken the tops off and made boxes to attach them to so that we can store stuff in them. They look OK if you squint at them but do confirm I will NEVER be offered a job at “The Repair Shop”.
One job we have managed to get done was to replace all the domestic batteries and the engine start battery. We had ordered them from the marina but many, perhaps most, batteries are imported (mainly from China) and UK stocks seem very low. The marina generally keeps a reasonably large stock, but over four months after a domestic battery order was placed the marina are still waiting delivery from their supplier.
Chasing around the internet we managed to locate four Victron 12V 110Ah AGM Deep Cycle Batteries at a (reasonably) local chandlery and because it was necessary to BOA£ to buy those four batteries we decided to add a Victron BMV-712 Smart battery monitor to enable us to take the best possible care of both the domestic and start batteries. Installation was carried out by the marina electrician, David, who on examining the existing wiring did the usual teeth sucking and condemned all the original battery wiring. I wasn’t upset as I could see it was way past it’s best and, anyway, had asked for alterations to be made to the existing wiring. During the installation it was discovered that the split charge relay wasn’t working (the split charge relay allows both the domestic and starter battery to be charged from a single source but prevents the domestic circuit draining the start battery when in use), it was recommended we replace it with a voltage sensitive one which would allow the solar system to charge the engine battery if it’s voltage drops below a set level. After all that was sorted it was discovered that one of the two main isolator switches was not working properly, on investigation it was found to have been repaired at some point by Messrs Bodge’N’Run. Both were replaced.
The new four domestic and one engine (the black one on the far left) battery set up.
Just before the electrician finished for the day I asked him to look at the bilge pump wiring. It seems that while repairing the main isolator Bodge’N’Run had installed the pump and it’s wiring - it was in a dreadful state and would need replacing. Sadly we are rushing towards Christmas and it may not get done till the new year. Oh well it probably means I won’t get the bill till the new year and with the supply of the engine battery and all the wiring and other bits and bobs I will certainly have to BOA£ again but BOA£ or not it should be said that the ⚡️sparks⚡️ was a very skilful man who did a great job - Thank You David for a job well done