Trip to great Haywood and tixall wide

 Enjoyable trip to great Haywood - moved the boat to fradley on Friday and had a latish start on sat morning to great Haywood - some new features seen - the Collapsed tunnel before rugely requiring a runner to see if the coast is clear and the aqueduct over the Trent at brindley bank. Rounded off the trip with a short detour onto the staffs and worcs to see tixall wide and a run up to the marina further up the t and m. Checked out most of the Pubs in great and little Haywood - Clifford arms (gh) fox and hounds (gh-closed) and the red lion (lh) complete with karaoke (bad). Woke up to a flat battery in the morning and managed to get a jump start from a friendly boater . Uneventful trip back to fradley and then alrewas 14 day moorings. No idea why the battery went flat - may have to isolate the starter battery to avoid this again - second time it has happened

Moved boat to fradley

Had to move the boat in two stages in preparation for a bank holiday cruise. First last Sunday I moved the boat to the 13 day moorings at alrewas - no major issues six locks all narrows so easy for a single handler - cycled back to the car in findern. Last night we moved the boat to the 48 hr moorings in fradley - another 5 locks up the hill. A shame that the shiny new moorings in fradley are being occupied by such ugly boats! Will have to make an early start on Saturday to get to stone - likely to be a 10 hr trip. Weather was poor for the walk back down to alrewas, luckily raincoats were at the ready.

Cart auction

No luck today with my bid for a longer online mooring at Findern - in recent years there has been very low bidding activity in this area - most moorings going for reserve at best. The last two auctions of 45 ft moorings have exceeded guide price - reflecting people wishing to leave Mercia marina despite the lack of electic and other facilities. The availability of cheap solar panels could have something to do with this as well as the fact that you can store your junk beside the boat at this location!

Keep a watch out for the camouflage boat

This boat and its aggressive owner have been breaking into boats and stealing diesel in the last few weeks - moves between the T & M and Erewash canals

Small solar panel and bilge

Finished installing the 10w solar panel - any bigger would have needed a regulator. Changed the lead over from croc clips to cigarette lighter socket.
Painted the bilge with red oxide and touched up the hull with blacking. Also tightened the bolts on the stern gland - they were very loose and I was getting through a lot of grease.
Replaced the old damaged hose from the coolant header tank to the engine heat exchange also replacing the jubilee clips, then topped up with coolant.
Took the boat out for a quick run to stenson - no leaks detected on the cooling system.