Canal and river run side by side near Rugeley

At last! We decided that we had sat in the marina for far too long without moving. Our neighbours in 'Sanity Again' moved off on their continuing travels this morning and with the weather forecast promising dry conditions for the next few days we thought to take the chance.

After a short trip into town for some provisions we filled with water and had a bit of a tidy around to preparing the boat for movement. Just as we thought we would get going...... it started to rain. Just that horrible mizzel which makes you darn cold but doesn't really get you wet. The kettle was put on for a cup of coffee to see if it would stop.

It duly did stop so before we could change our minds we slipped the ropes and took off.

Our path took us east along the Trent & Mersey, new territory for Lyra, as on our last trip out we missed this section of canal and took the route through Birmingham instead.

There are some lovely places to moor along this part of the canal as it passes very close to the River Trent giving some great views.

We don't know how long we will stay out, it all depends on the weather, maybe 2-4 days.

Ingestre stables

Cath at Ingestre Church

Friday 35th February
Things are finally starting to move forward. The dryer once again failed, but it's an ill wind that blows nobody good. While trying to fix it I left the top of the machine off when it started to spin and there was the source of the terrible noise it had been making. I had thought that some stabiliser had come adrift underneath, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong when I looked, so had been putting up with racket for a while. From the top the cause was easily seen, one of the weights around the drum was loose so I packed the holding bolts with large washers and hey presto a quiet machine again. The dryer heater had once again given up the ghost, so a new one was ordered and fitted and once more the thing works as it should (this is the third replacement heater in 5 years).
On the heating front I managed to finally get the unit working as I wanted it to. Part of the trouble had been a wire in the wrong place on the connector, it seems I can't count properly. Once that was discovered and I had wired in the motorised valve the boat and water heating now work as intended.
Today I scraped a lot of rust off the back deck and applied some rust converter so we'll see how that works.
The other day we took the opportunity of a bit of nice weather to explore a local gem. The village of Engestre is at the end of a cul de sac lane and looks very select. It has two places of interest, a very pretty church (which we couldnt see inside because it's only open on Saturday afternoons) and an old stable block which is still in use. Picture above.

WITH A NEW COAT OF BLACK LYRA RETURNS TO THE WATER

DANIEL IS HIS USUAL HAPPY SELF

Tuesday 15^th February

Its 's been a while since the last post and things are moving on. Lyra finally came out of the water for blacking and while that was going on a new prop was fitted and some slack taken out of the rudder bottom bearing. While this was being done we had decided to go to Leeds and visit our grandson. Things didn't go quite to plan though, the boatyard didn't manage to get started with the blacking until Wednesday which put the whole thing back several days. We should have been back on board on Thursday night but as it was we ended up spending a week in Leeds because Lyra wasn't re-floated until Monday.

The weather didn't seem too bad as I set out from the slipway to return to our mooring, but suddenly the heavens opened, the wind whipped up and it started to hail with a vengeance. As I tried to manoeuvre to reverse into our slot the wind caught me and I couldn't keep her straight at all. I ended up having to nose into the mooring, a great failure. I'll turn us around when the weather improves.

Once again I've made repairs to our clothes dryer, fingers crossed, and while in Leeds I managed to source a proper switch for our land line selection and I'm in the process of installing it now.

The new fan motor for the dryer turned up and we are back in the laundry department.

The catalogue of failures seems to continue.

Our water pump started to give signs of failure the other day. Some adjustment improved the performance but it was short lived so I decided to replace it. A trip to the local chandlers produced a Jabsco pump which will replace it quite adequately. Of course it's a different shape and requires modification to the space where it fits. At first I thought that I wouldn't be able to get the drawer which goes under the step back into its place, but a bit of jigging around and it's now in place.

Cath finally pushed me into starting to replace the broken tiles on the kitchen floor and all that remains now is to grout them.

I have wired in the water heating thermostat on the new central heating and after a bit of a fight I at last managed to programme the thing, I think.

Cath spent the day making Seville orange marmalade and I can't wait to sample it.

Thursday 20^th January

I went to the chandlery the other day to get some sound proofing to put around the new heater. After putting it all over the thing there is no difference in the noise so it would appear that it is conducted and I'll have to try isolating the mounting from the hull some time.

It sometimes seems that everything is failing at once. I suppose the equipment in the boat is now 5 years old so we must expect a few things going wrong.

The latest culprit is the dryer part of our washing machine. The fan motor which circulates the air around decided to give up. I sourced a new one from a local repair shop and they will deliver it as soon as they get it in.

The front bearing on my Roto Zip tool decided to seize up and luckily a local engineering firm were able to remove it from the shaft for me and I should be able to get a new one and pop it back together. This is one of my favourite tools and I don't want to lose it.

Wednesday was Cath's birthday so we went out for a meal at the local pub then retired to the boat for a bottle of wine. A good night.

Saturday 15^th January

The wind is blowing up quite a bit outside, rocking the boat and causing the empty drums to rattle around a bit.

I'm feeling better all the time and hopefully will be good as new soon.

I have at last installed the wiring for the Hurricane in the correct place, so no more ducking around hanging wires. The next job is to wire in and programme the water heating stat and a summer/winter switch to isolate the radiators from the water heating in summer.

Wednesday12th January

The nurses have done their job and I'm finished the IV drugs and only have pills to take now. I'm feeling much better but still not back to normal. I have to visit the quack tomorrow to get a better idea of how things are going.

The new heating gave a moments concern on Monday but it was only low on fuel as I haven't been keeping on top of the tank levels. We did have fuel in stock so I transferred 4 drums and bled the system. All is well again.

The neighbours have been tremendous with offers of help, we had to change a gas bottle the other day and after trying myself, I was too weak to even lift the darn thing let alone get into the gas locker. Cue Bruce from Sanity Again, who saw me struggling and promptly popped in in for us. Nice one mate! Also the marina office rang saying they had heard I wasn't well and if they could do anything don't hesitate to ask. Wonderful place.

After getting a bit of cabin fever I decided I was OK to go out for walk around town which was great. Cath decided I needed a new coat as the real cold weather one I have is now old and abused by my having been down in the engine with it a few times. I'm now the owner of cracking new bright red coat. Cath says it's so she can't lose me. Poor deluded thing.