Why do breakdowns come in threes?

After reading Steve and Chris’ blog from their boat Amyjo, I thought I’d check on my Mifi dongle too. It’s been stuck on the wall above one of the middle windows for two or three years, only coming down for an occasional wipe of the paintwork, and, sure enough, the battery in our Huawei E5573 was also swollen and in danger of failure. So I took a leaf out of their book and ordered a replacement from a supplier on Fleabay, choosing the same model they did.

Huawei 5785 Mifi dongle, up and running.


It wasn’t all plain sailing though. The antenna ports and charging socket were identical which made it easier, but the old dongle used a full-size SIM card, and the new one was designed for a micro-SIM. Still, a sharp pencil and an equally sharp pair of scissors sorted that out…

Before…


…after


While that was winging it’s way towards us the Sterling A-B battery charge manager went on the fritz. It was shutting down it’s boost function unexpectedly, turning into a basic split charge system. At least the batteries were still being charged, considerably slower though. I checked the fuse and that was ok, as was the cabling but  didn’t expect to find anything wrong there, after all it’s been running happily for over 8 years.
A trawl of the interweb found me a replacement at the best price of £400, so that was ordered too.

New Sterling AB12210 alternator to battery charger installed.
















And finally, yesterday, the voltage sensitive relay that allows charging of the battery dedicated to the water heater popped it’s clogs too! Back onto Ebay again… That should arrive this week.

I’ve developed quite a relationship with the chap in the shop at Mere Motors, the local Collect+ hub. He sees me coming and gets my packages ready…

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’ve built a rudimentary bird feeder for our feathered friends.
It took a couple of days for them to find it and become confident patrons, but now we’ve regular visitors, a pair of blue-tits and another of great-tits, a robin, two or three blackbirds and the occasional crow.


The lambs in the field opposite are almost twice the size they were when we first started mooring here.


We made our regular run into the arm on Friday, shopping in the evening when for the first time since the social distancing rules came into force I didn’t have to queue to get in! Result!

We came back on Saturday, stopping for water and rubbish disposal then headed up the canal, winded and returned to what we’ve come to consider as “our spot”. We’ll be right annoyed if someone else moors here during one of our shopping trips!
Not likely though, we only see a handful of boats a week and most of them are doing the same as us.

And that’s about it. All families are  well, in fact we had a multi-generational conference call using Zoom on Sunday with Mags’ lot.

Five generations all at once. Can’t wait to do it in person.
Might not be this year now though. Passage restrictions to save water are now in force on all the lock flights on the Leeds and Liverpool, and if we don’t get any significant rainfall they’ll stay in place throughout the summer.

Having said that the fine weather we’ve had for the last weeks is breaking this week.

Locks 0, miles 3
 
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