DEEP CYCLE

WEDNESDAY 18TH TO THURSDAY 19TH MAY 2011

Whilst we had been in Liverpool Jacquie had been doing a lot of research about marine batteries and we had very conflicting advice about fitting AGM batteries, but David Milner of WWW.pbbatteries.com had been very helpful and recommended that if we had the space we should fit six, six volt deep cycle batteries, this type are fitted to industrial floor cleaners and pallet trucks and are used to deep discharge and repeated recharging. I measured up, it would be tight, but they should fit OK. The cost would be nearly two and a half times that of replacement 135AH batteries, but we were assured they would pay for themselves in the long run, we bit the bullet and asked when thay could be fitted and Thursday 19th was agreed.

During the Wednesday we were gradually able to move SKYY back as close to the car park as possible in readiness for the batteries to be delivered and fitted and spent the rest of the day doing the usual chores and shopping.

At 7am on Thursday morning I heard a text come through on my mobile and it was Will of Powercell, saying that he would be with us at 8am, was this OK? Well it would be, if we got out of bed straight away and bang on time Will drove into the car park. Will was obviously much stronger than me, as he had no problem in just lifting the old batteries out, unlike me when previously I had to devise a method of levering them over the lip of the battery box. The new batteries did fit in the box with just a millimetre to spare and by 11.30 all was reconnected and the volt metre was showing a healthy 12.5 volts. We thanked Will and we will be keeping our fingers crossed for some time, hopeful that these new batteries will last at least three to four years.

We got moving straight away stopping just before Crooke, there is a marina there with a B for boatyard shown in the guide, but with no details and I hoped that we might be able to get some diesel tomorrow as it was now too late in the day. As we walked Duggie passed the Marina, which was on the non towpath side, we shouted across the canal to a chap on the stern of his boat, asking if the marina sold diesel, he asked how much we needed and I replied about 100lt and to my surprise he said no problem, just more up alongside him in the morning and he would fill us up. It transpired that Wayne was in the process of setting up a coal, gas and diesel, mobile floating service, but as yet the boat wasn’t ready, but the diesel was. I would sleep well tonight knowing we would soon have a full tank of fuel.