Cut and Rune: Faringdon

Here I am Rune

Distance 14.4miles

Total 2118 Locks 90 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3026.7 miles

I think it would be fair to say that today did not go exactly to plan. On the plus side, the weather was exceptional and it is difficult to believe that this is now September. On the down side however, the boat developed an electric fault. This first manifested itself as the Inverc light on the control panel beginning to flash. Tried to find out the cause but without success other than noting that the alternator didn’t seem to be charging at all. We set off for Lechlade where the nearest boatyard is located but, on arrival, it seem that they don’t do repairs. They advised that the nearest boatyard for that was Oxford Cruisers at Aynsham, 27 miles away. Since we were not charging this made the return to Aynsham a bit imperative since, without charging, our batteries will only last no more than 3 days. The original plan to moor in Lechlade was ditched and we set off back down the Thames (after reaching the Limit of Navigation where the old Thames & Severn canal went off). Having got back a couple of locks and the crew then told me that we had no power at all, the lights weren’t working and the water pump wouldn’t work. This made things a whole lot more urgent so we filled a spare canister with water so we’d have something to drink and wash in and set off on our way.

Whilst travelling I was considering our predicament and came to the conclusion that the only way for all of the power to be off had to be a fault with the battery isolation switch since nothing else would so comprehensively shut everything down. At the next lock I checked it and, sure enough, the switch had broken away and was no longer connecting. Working on the principal that if you can’t fix something with gaffer tape you haven’t used enough, I stuck the thing back together and, for a while it worked, but then separated. This repair was repeated three times and each occasion the spring loading in the switch caused the repair to separate. The last occasion, when we moored up for the night is, at the moment, still holding. We’ll see what happens tomorrow but however it works we need to get to Oxford Cruisers to get a replacement switch.

As one other near miss today, we also got the closest to a significant collision that we’ve ever had since travelling around on the boat. This section of the Thames epitomises the work meander, and some of the corners are extremely tight. On one such corner, as I approached, well on my side of the river, the bow of another narrow boat appeared around the corner and continued straight across the river on a direct collision course with us. I even called out “We’re going to hit” to prepare the crew for impact, I don’t know how, but we didn’t and missed the other boat by inches. Since his impact on us would have been a direct ‘T-bone’ into our side I suspect that something or other would have been bent or broken, but thankfully it didn’t happen.

Hoping for a better day’s cruising tomorrow!