Wey Hey Toilet mended!

Last nights sky held promise

The promise was fulfilled but before we set off we had the all important visit.    Mike from Lee San had come down yesterday afternoon to have a preliminary look.   His first comments as he struggled with the way the toilet was fitted were not encouraging.   However he was back this morning, having looked back at our history (or rather the loos history) and talked to others in the office and to cut a long story short he has mended it.   It turns out there there is actually noting wrong with the mechanism, it is one tiny bit of the fitting....a rather essential bit......but with a bit of doctoring from Mike, fingers crossed, it is functioning again.  Once again a big thank you to Lee Sanitation.  After it was all complete he did say that he had seen a lot worse installations.  The problem is that it may all look nice and neatly fitted in but when there is a problem the most important thing is accessibility and he did have to use a few contortions to get to all the parts he needed.  (All boat builders take note!)

 BUT  and a rather big but, we can`t use it yet as our other big problem is the batteries.  For a few weeks now we have noticed that the service batteries are not holding their charge like they used to.  We have 3 gel batteries which are sealed for life and have lasted us 11 years of cruising, so despite the fact that they were more expensive to buy we think we have probably had our moneys worth.  We are hanging on in the hope they get us safely back to Rugby in a weeks time.   We have to turn the fridge off at night and the heating won`t fire up in the morning until we turn the engine on.  The loo takes electricity to build up the vacuum every time it is flushed so that is another NO NO at the moment.

Still to look on the bright side at least all this has happened towards the end of the seasons cruising and not at the beginning!!

Moored behind us at Fenny we found an old friend.

TICKEY

In a previous life....ie before PETROC we had a quarter share in Tickey.  We tried the living aboard all 40 ft of her to see if we could cope for long periods in close confinement.   She looks much smarter now, obviously had a paint job, but sadly no one aboard to chat to and maybe get a peek inside.  Since we have been on Petroc for 11 years it was quite a while ago.

Tickey moored in Bugsworth Basin 2006

We set off after Mikes departure, much later than usual for us but the sun was still shining.  We are on the summit now so it is gentle meandering with no locks for a while.

Moored in a nice open spot which we have frequented before.  If it was still summer and we were not on our way home we would probably stay here a few days.

Total distance:3.02 miles 
Elapsed time:1h19m7s 
Locks:0
Bridges:9 
Average speed:2.29 mph (2.29 lock/mph)