6th July 2011 - Are my batteries done for?

I wake up at 0630 to a beeping noise. It's a bit odd, my alarm doesn't beep and it was set for 0700! The ensuing investigation traces it to the inverter and I notice the batteries at 64%. They've always been around 85% after a night's stop, ok, I know we were here at 1000 the previous morning, but even so! Then I see that the fridge low voltage light is flashing, that shouldn't happen at 64% charge! So against all the rules I start the engine at 0700 to make it all work again and begin to wonder if my batteries are telling me that the show is over! They've not done badly, consensus is that a set should do about 5 years, well, I've got 6 and a half so far, so lets have a think about a new set over the next few weeks. Maybe my previously blogged charger problems are connected with this sudden demise?

We breakfast and set off at 0730 (well, the engine was running!) and cruise through lots of rubbish and weed, I have to spin the prop in reverse on numerous occasions to throw rubbish off. The first part of the Regents canal is outwardly urban and fairly depressing. All the locks are against us and the top gates are open. At Old Ford Lock by Victoria Park we encounter a BW boat locking up in front. We wait patiently and out of the top they cruise leaving the top gates open, I was gobsmacked! they can't read their own 'close gates and paddles signs' So up we go, the urbania improving and becoming less depressing, and cruise on to find another narrowboat had beaten BW to Actons lock and was waving us in, so we joined up with this single hander who's boat name I never looked at!! We went ahead and set the locks and he followed, order was restored and it seemed, everybody leaves gates open on the Regents canal, so we joined in.

Dave was a bit tired at St Pancras lock:

The Cellar Bar, Camden:

Not Camden lock, but Hampstead road locks:

On by a very busy market, nowhere to stop as usual! Through the zoo and to Paddington. Not many moorings to be had, so we had the best of the last two. I topped up my battery water (you never know) one seemed to take a lot more than the others! Don't know what that means? I filled the stern tube greaser and, with Dave's help did some more running repairs on the cratch cover zip stitching. Hmmm... there's a chinese restaurant just round the corner!

Today:     9 miles -   12 locks -     6 hours
So Far: 404 miles - 310 locks - 197 hours