Out of Manchester and into trouble

The morning started well with blue skies. After our experiences with the rain over the previous week we decided to buy some better wet weather gear and so we spent the morning shopping in Manchester. That largely successfully achieved we returned to the boat for lunch and then set off at 13:00 to fill up with water and to dump the rubbish we had accumulated over the past week.

This completed, we started off down the Bridgewater Canal towards Cheshire with Angela driving for the first few miles. After 2 hours I checked the voltages - oh!, um??? The domestic battery voltage was showing 13.3v - whilst charging I would expect it to be at least 14.2v. The engine battery voltage was fine at 14.7v. My guess was that the domestic battery alternator was failing to deliver any charge at all, on the other hand it could have been due to a failure of the domestic batteries which would be disastrous as almost everything depends on them - water pump, loo flush, lights, fridge etc.

There was little to do except to carry on cruising until we found a suitable mooring. One was found at 16:30 at Dunham, a small village out in the country. Turning off the engine and checking the voltages would confirm the nature of the problem. Relief all round - the domestic voltage remained steady at 13.3v, the alternator was simply having no effect. So we were OK for tonight, and a phone call to a local boatyard confirmed that they would be able to check the electrics tomorrow.