Stourbridge

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 6.66 miles 

Total 5108 Locks  398 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7746.57 miles

 

A pleasant enough cruise from Kinver to Stourbridge with a lunch stop at Stewponey Wharf. Weather was good all day which was a bonus. Quite busy coming up through the Stourton Flight passing 4 boats coming down with one boat behind us going up. The only very slight drama was a family of duck who unwisely decided to join us in a lock. They all tucked in behind the boat in the lock, but when the paddles were opened the boat was pushed backwards towards the bottom gate with the risk of crushing them all. A burst of forward thrust solves the problem, but it did mean the ducks did a bit of wave surfing!

On arrival at Stourbridge most of the mooring seemed full but as we passed on boat the girl on it said that they would move nearer to the boat behind to create a space for us. I went to the end of the arm to wind and by the time I got back, the space that had been created had been taken by another boat, you win some you lose some! Fortunately there was another mooring available only 100 metres further on.

Kinver

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 3.85 miles 

Total 5101 Locks  397 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7739.91 miles

 

After waiting for yesterday’s poor weather to pass through, we have only moved a relatively short distance down to Kinver, to once again take on a bit of water and empty the cassette. Whilst moored at Ashwood I tried to take the opportunity to fix a dodgy alternator on which the warning light keeps coming on. I carry a spare alternator (having had several fail in the past) but when I came to fit it I found that the domestic alternator is a ‘right hand’ fitting whilst the spare that I had is a ‘left hand’ fitting. It is possible to transpose them but it is necessary to rotate the end and drill out the screw-hole and fit a nut and bolt into it. First attempt was when, after I had removed the alternator, I found the spare was the wrong one, so everything was then re-assembled. Adapted the spare to become ‘right hand’ but when it came to fit it, found out that the drilled out screw-hole doesn’t align perfectly with the bracket on the other end of the alternator, so everything gets re-assembled again.

Tomorrow we are probably heading into the Stourbridge arm where I’ll have a 3^rd attempt at fitting the alternator!

Ashwood

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 4.17 miles 

Total 5097 Locks  396 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7736.06 miles

 

Again we got pretty much as far as we planned, originally just to Greenforge to refill water tank and empty the cassettes but pressed on a bit further to find somewhere decent to moor. Annoyingly the alternator that had played up earlier between Black Country museum and Bentley Bridge has decided it is going to play up again. I’d replaced the regulator hoping that would fix it but once again the warning light came on today. I have a spare alternator but it has the wrong pulley on it, and I now find that I don’t have a spanner to fit the large nut on it to try and change it. Of course being bank holiday weekend confounds things a bit more. Have to see what we can do tomorrow.