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In 1977 we hired our first narrowboat from Anglo Welsh at Market Harborough.From that moment our destiny was set. In 2006 we finally purchased our own brand new 57' narrowboat which we named 'Free Spirit'. Our aim is to travel the length and breadth of all the navigable rivers and canals of the UK. This will be our story as it unfolds.

Tuesday 2 April 2024

Recent update

Blast, MB failed its MOT. For heaven’s sake, the amount of mileage done last year was almost non-existent. Yes, it was taken for a jaunt to Scotland by Marilyn and David, but the mileage would have been minimal. It failed because the front LED high lights didn't work, Ian was astounded, all the exterior lights worked when we were away, headlights, sidelights, reversing lights, indicators all good and even those high lights on the motorhome, front and sides. So it was baffling as to why those front ones had given up the ghost. Anyway, a retest would be needed within 10 days, so Ian set too to find the cause. Turns out after a bit of research that the Sargent Unit was the culprit and of course that had been sent away for repair! 

 What to do? Phoning the company repairing the unit, mainly to find out when it would be returned, he was told it was already on its way back. Good news you would think, well in a way yes but when he was told they could find nothing wrong, the worry now was why had the heating and lights failed when we were away!Anyway two days later the unit was back, and within an hour of it arriving, had been reinstalled in its rightful place and yes he was very glad of the photos taken to see where those wires went! Oh, and the interior lights started working as well,.. hmm, most strange. Anyway, Ian now had to find the cause of why the heating and hot water didn't work. and the only clue he had was that the error code on the control panel pointed to the fan. A company called Premier Technical Services was found in Cannock that dealt with these fans so that day it was sent off to await the verdict.


Heating fan

Well, two days later it was returned fixed. Something on the circuit board was the problem and yes it now worked a treat. So everything on MB is now all tickety-boo and yes it also passed the MOT. 

Whilst this was all going on, I had a birthday, a good one at that because lunch was had at our daughters and dinner at our sons. This all coincided with our son jetting off to Austria with the family for half-term, and we had the pleasure of Toffee's company for the week.



 
I think she's pleased to be back!
 

Next week we dock the boat. Weather so far has been awful and with the dock not being covered, I am keeping everything crossed for some dry weather.

New life had also arrived in the basin. A duck with her 13 ducklings, but how many will she keep? Too many Pike about in these waters, mores the pity, and then there are all the cats around here too. Poor ducklings, the odds are stacked against them!





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, glad to here you're back up and running ok and you had a wonderful Birthday with your family.
I was getting concerned as you hadn't posted for awhile, now I see why, as you were so busy.
Ian's amazing working out those problems and fixing 'the birds nest of wires etc'back in place!
Take care out there now. Ann xx

Dave Ward said...

It's possible that one (or more) of the pins in a multiway connector was making a poor contact. With not being used for a long time and the likelihood they could have got a bit damp, it doesn't take much surface corrosion to cause problems - despite them being silver plated! Even gold plated connectors used to fail back in my telecom days... If you get any future issues give them all a good "wiggle" or unplug & reinsert them several times. I'm glad you're up and running again.

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