Another potential solution

Moses…. did it ever rain last night!  Unlike me, Jan couldn’t sleep and eventually went off to the saloon whilst I slumbered on.  Eventually she decided to walk me a 7:30am by creeping back to bed and placing her cold feet on my lovely warm back.  The day appeared to be shaping up to be very miserable when to our surprise around 9.00am  the sky cleared and the sun appeared.  It was still rather cold and windy but this didn’t prevent me from taking a long walk.

There was a solo boater coming down through Aldermaston Lock into the pound so I stopped to help with the lock gates.  He had passed through both Newbury and Woolhampton so I asked about the conditions.  Apparently exiting Newbury lock was very scary and Woolhampton even more so.  However he said “I am a boater… so I had a second beer and went for it!”. It’s also the first time I can recall seeing the water flowing over the top of upstream gates of Aldermaston Lock.  Later in the morning I walked to Woolhampton Lock and decided it would take more than two beers for me to attempt it

There is a problem with Widmead Lock near Thatcham and it can only be transited on Wednesday’s with the assistance of CaRT.  So I walked to the lock to get a better idea of the problem.  There is a significant volume of surface ground water either side of the canal and the river is running quite fast.

Widmead Lock – Water over the upstream gates and the landing is flooded.  The tops of the landing bollards are just visible.

It appears the water has worked it’s way behind the brickwork and leaking out below the 5th course

Now for what might be more positive news.  The domestic battery bank is under the stern counter and it’s rather hard to check the electrolyte levels so I started searching for an automatic top-up system.  The price of them was frankly… frightening!  £200+ for 12 cells.  Our net has been cast wider.  No joy in Canada or the USA!  But to my astonishment we may have stumbled upon a supplier in Brisbane, Australia.  The price quoted for the system is A$148 works out at around £90 (plus postage).  I’ve written back with a query regarding the minimum height of the header tank and if that answer is satisfactory we may have a solution to managing the electrolyte levels.