Tag: Worcester and Birmingham canal

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August 2023 – Screwfix almost saves the day

A busy day ahead as Mary is leaving us by Train at about 2pm, but before we get started we now have a very low leisure battery bank and the voltage must be very low as the fridge has stopped working, it little internal LED is flashing away. Luckily in the freezer box we had some packs of Obi’s dog food acting as freezer blocks and helping keep things cool.

Looking at the alternator for the leisure batteries it’s possible that belt is also now loose, it does seem looser that yesterday, but I may be getting paranoid and unfortunately the tools we used yesterday just don’t want to fit well enough to get the bolts loose without damaging them or me.

Now a sudden inspiration strikes ‘Screwfix‘ I look on their web site and see they have a one hour service in this area with deliver just £5.00, all I need is a postcode to deliver to. Luckily the local business we are moored near is happy to help, so within an hour we have some smart new spanners and five minutes later the belt is a little tighter.

With the engine running we still no charging taking place, now I check the wiring, wish I had done this first, as the single yellow and black wire that connects to the alternator just comes away in my fingers. Probably all the vibration from the engine a couple of days ago and is has finally given up holding on to it’s spade terminal.

The wire has given up holding on !

I need a bit of luck as unfortunately I have also left my crimp tool at home in the tool bag, but in my box of boat bits I find a spade terminal with approx the right gauge wire already attached and manage to strip back both ends and twist them tight enough that they will hopefully get us home once covered in some insulation tape.

With Mary safely on the train, by 3pm we are on our way out of Birmingham, the plan is to go as far as possible before it is to dark to chug along.

Finally at about 8pm we moor up just before the Shortwood tunnel entrance, under the cover of some trees, Antony and Ellie cook tea and it is off the bed.

Today we have travelled 12 miles in about 5 hours.

August 2023 – Part 1 – A little adventure, Droitwich to Birmingham
August 2023 – Part 2 – A really Tardebigge adventure
August 2023 – Part 3 – Birmingham Engine Lows and Highs
August 2023 – Part 4 – Lost dog and diner out at Ju Ju’s Cafe
August 2023 – Part 5 – Screwfix almost saves the day

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August 2023 – Birmingham Engine Lows and Highs

Not a very early start this morning, we walked Obi the dog, then get a coffee from the local Nero before the family leave me and Obi to work on the engine problem. They all head to the Bullring for some much-needed retail therapy.

We are on a 4 day mooring, but we need to get back at Droitwich Spa by the following Sunday (4 days time). Hunting online for a fuel pump is proving a little difficult, I cannot seem to find a part number for what we have got and the pictures I find look nothing like what I have?

Then I have a little inspiration, with the engine battery so low, maybe the pump, which I am told is electromechanical? may be not getting enough power to keep the pressure up. Also why is the engine battery so low.

Not my Isuzu 42 engine, but on this you can see the two belts driving the alternators

A quick check of the engine and one of the belts, the one it is hardest to see and get to has worked a little loose, in the image above it is on the right hand side, in the boat this is very close to the bulkhead. I have spares belts, but my hands (poorly thumb joints) are not up to reaching behind and below the alternator to release the bolts, unfortunately I have some tools, but had left my main tool kit at homeland at this point I could really do with a set of normal spanners. All I have adjustable spanner and a universal ring spanner, but it is too large to fit well behind the engine and my hands by this time are painful.

I did search on google maps for a local tool shop, but everything was well outside the centre of Birmingham, I could have got an Uber, but luckily when the family returns Antony (Son) after much effort manages to tighten the belt with the adjustable and we then start the engine and the battery start charging.

Things now run smoothly, the volts are increasing rapidly, it is relief all-around, now we leave the motor going for an hour to get some charge back in the batteries.

Happy now with finding and fixing the problem and while writing this things can seem obvious in hindsight but there is more to come in the next few days….

August 2023 – Part 1 – A little adventure, Droitwich to Birmingham
August 2023 – Part 2 – A really Tardebigge adventure
August 2023 – Part 3 – Birmingham Engine Lows and Highs
August 2023 – Part 4 – Lost dog and diner out at Ju Ju’s Cafe
August 2023 – Part 5 – Screwfix almost saves the day

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August 2023 – A really Tardebigge adventure

7:40 am and we are the first to the bottom lock and off we go, the first few locks are going fine, then a CRT person on a bike warns us that lock 36 had been closed and the pound had been drained for an emergency repair to the lock gate, so could we hold where we are, it will take about an hour to refill the pound and check the repair.

As the repair was at the next lock up, I walked up to get some pictures, as you can see there is not much depth at the sides.

Tardebigge Lock 36 repaired and empty pound

About an hours later, the pound is full and we were back on our way.

Sonia was at the helm and I was working the locks, the next time she catches up with me, she reports the engine is playing up, so I take over for a while and all seems fine except it is not settling down after changing gear.

This slowly gets worse over the next few locks until it stalls when trying to leave lock 49 and so we pull over to take a look.

While doing this the next boat coming down the TB seem to drain the pound leaving us at an essessive angle with most of our worksurfaces cleared and cupboards emptyed. Luckly a CRT crew member jump to our aid and refilled the pound and kept us safe while we diagnosed the problem.

We can hear a ticking from the fuel pump that lasts for a 45 seconds, after that the engine will start, but soon boggs down and stops.

Sounds like fuel starvation, I know we have fuel, and I have a spare filter so we whip to the old one off and replace it, now nothing, luckly a very helpful man traveling on his own stops to take a look and thinks we may have an air blockage in the diesel lines, much tinkering later we are running, but very erratically. 

Note: We later discover this engine will automatically clear any airlocks in the pipes/injectors.

Bravely we decide to continue and see what happened as we only have about 10 lock to complete to the top of the Tardebigge.

Mary very happy to be at the top of the Tardebigge

At the top things are going OK’ish and we decide to push on the Birmingham or as close as we can make it. We can manage about 2-2.5mph but the engine is not run stready. All the advice we got was the pump was on it way out, lots of phone calls and we cannot find one… We call supplier after supplier all of whom send us onto someone else, who either has not got or heard of our engine (Isuzu 42), but may know someone who could help. We give up for today.

The now famous Birmingham Canal roundabout

After 3 tunnels, including the Wast Hill Tunnel at 2,492 m, which is worrying with a engine we don’t trust. But we carry on as at least in Brum I should be able to get parts delivered or hire an Uber to go and get some.

It is slow progress but finally make it to Birmingham and find a mooring just outside the Lego centre. We have been chugging for about 13 ½ hours now and are all greatly relieved to stop.

Doing some final checks before stopping for the night, both our batteries banks seem low, the leisure batteries are below 90% and the engine battery is showing only 11.3 Volts. 

We are all too tired to think so it’s time for food and some to sleep before I start looking at the engine tomorrow.

Today we have completed 17 Miles and 29 locks in about 13 ½ hours

August 2023 – Part 1 – A little adventure, Droitwich to Birmingham
August 2023 – Part 2 – A really Tardebigge adventure
August 2023 – Part 3 – Birmingham Engine Lows and Highs
August 2023 – Part 4 – Lost dog and diner out at Ju Ju’s Cafe
August 2023 – Part 5 – Screwfix almost saves the day

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August 2023 – A little adventure, Droitwich to Birmingham

We only have about a week with all the family on the boat and we have decided to do a quick trip to Birmingham. Sonia, Mary, Obi (The Dog) and I arrived at the Droitwich Spa Marina on Sunday about 8pm we left home after Mary had finished her Sunday job working in the café of a local garden centre, Antony and Ellie arrived form Reading at around 10:30pm.

With the team assembled the plan was to get the boats waste tank pumped out at about 10am on Monday when the marina office opened, before heading off up the Birmingham and Worcester Canal.

Need to know when it is time to pump out, see our fool proof
method of knowing when you pump out before it is to late?

Monday morning arrived and we started late, lazily then decided to send Sonia and Mary off to McD for our breakfast, then we needed to head to Waitrose for supplies, and when we finally got to the pump out we had to wait for another boat. In the end somehow it was noon before we set off, we then had a little fun against the wind in the marina trying the back out away from the pump out dock and then turn around to exit onto the canal.

Nearing the end of our first day we passed our boats original home at Black Prince (Stole Prior) where we could see their new look Classic and Signature colour schemes

Black Prince at Stoke Prior

After a quite and uneventful trip and 4 ½ hours of chugging we had traveled just over 4 miles and completed 15 locks, our team had got the lock procedure well sorted.

Antony, Ellie, Mary and Sonia (I am behind the camera and Obi is on the boat)

But after the later than planned start we decided to get to started on the Tardebigge in the morning and so stopped for Pizza at The Queens Head, this seems to be becoming a tradition (They have a 2 for 1 deal on Pizza’s between 5 and 6.30pm Monday to Thursday).

So we set the alarm for 7am so we could get an early start up the Tardebigge.

Long term Moorings

Looking for a marina or mooring for you boat, take a look at our map with information on 1000’s of mooring in over 850 sites around the UK canal and river network.

August 2023 – Part 1 – A little adventure, Droitwich to Birmingham
August 2023 – Part 2 – A really Tardebigge adventure
August 2023 – Part 3 – Birmingham Engine Lows and Highs
August 2023 – Part 4 – Lost dog and diner out at Ju Ju’s Cafe
August 2023 – Part 5 – Screwfix almost saves the day

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The Summer Adventure 2022 Part 3 – A New Start

20th – 22nd August To Birmingham

We are a little later getting away on our adventure, but just after noon we set off from the marina and by mid afternoon we are at the bottom of the Tardebigge ready to start the climb up the locks.

A 7:30am start on the Tardebigge Bottom Lock

At about 7:30am on the 21st August we start at The Tardebigge Botton Lock, it is a nice day for working hard, not as hot has it had been the week before, so by 12 noon we had reached the Tardebigge Top Lock, we are getting experts at these over the last few years we have been up and down them so many times.

Shortwood Tunnel

There are a couple of tunnels between starting with the Tardebigge Tunnel, 530m long, usefully there is a water point at the Tardebigge CRT yard just before the tunnel. Just a few bends later is the Shortwood Tunnel, 560m long, then back past Alvechurch Marina.

Exiting the Wast Hill Tunnel

By 4:30pm we where just exiting the much longer Wast Hill Tunnel, 2493m long, it is one of the longest canal tunnels in the UK and it is wide enough for two narrow boats, you can see oncoming boats a long way off in the dark, but is is very hard to estimate how far away they are until the last new minutes.

An hour later we moored up by a park, not sure exactly were, but Obi our dog needs a good run around before it got to dark.

Birmingham’s Gas Street Basin

The next morning, 22nd August, we moor up at near Gas Street Basin for a couple of days investigating Birmingham.

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