Through Nuneaton

Hartshill Yard - covered dock

When we struggled out of bed and looked through the window what we saw was a heavy damp mist. And the boat was cold because the fire had gone out overnight. We have just started a new bag of fuel , "Taybrite", whereas previously we were using "Supabrite" and the burning characteristics are rather different.

Last night, as an experiment in saving battery power we turned off the inverter which supplies 240V AC, mainly for the fridge. This morning the batteries were still showing a high level of charge and the fridge temperature had only risen a couple of degrees. So something we will do again, at least during the cold weather.

By the time we had breakfast, the weather was much the same so we decided not to move. I relit the fire, and whilst waiting for it to have some effect turned on our rarely used diesel central heating. This worked well quickly bringing the saloon up to a more comfortable 19degC. So we kept snug til lunch time.

Even with the inverter running the battery power stayed high the whole morning - what this means I dont know. Perhaps turning the inverter off and on had reset something. We will see.

After lunch conditions had improved sufficiently for us to start moving, though first we had to moor at Hartshill yard to fill up with water. The scenary remained attractive for the following couple of miles with our first sight of fresh hawthorn leaves. However the canal water was steadily getting dirtier with floating bottles, wooden posts, plastic bags and other assorted rubbish. We were approaching Nuneaton.

As I have noted on previous travels many large towns and cities are surprisingly attractive when seen from the canal. Nuneaton isnt. The only sight of possible interest was the allotments with ramshackle huts and a few men digging the rather fertile looking soil.

Out of Nuneaton we passed into open and rather bleak flat countryside where we have moored for the night. Our progress is getting rather slow - only 2 miles yesterday and 5.5 miles today. We will need to get a bit of a move-on!