Our Day Off

[Kyle]At 1am, when it was raining in sheets, I went to go use the head. As I walked past, I checked our battery monitor and found that it was reading 10.8 volts at 92% of charge, which is not supposed to happen unless something is pretty wrong with our batteries. I went back to bed and slept on it and decided that one of our two house batteries must be faulty.

{Maryanne: Kyle tossed and turned so much that in the middle of the night I eventually pulled an electrical manual off the shelf and helped trouble shoot our battery issue - on dud battery was our combined effort of a diagnosis}

In the morning, I decided I needed to get everything out and have a better look with our voltammeter. This, of course, meant that we did not have access to battery power until the whole thing was sorted out. That meant we had no heat. It was now snowing outside – yes, snowing. I put on everything I had and got to work on the problem. Tony Smith once told me that I didn’t need heat. Scotland was not that cold and, besides, by the time I made a cup of tea, the boat would be nice and warm. I made a whole pot of coffee and the inside temperature did climb – all the way from 4.0 to 4.3C (39.2 to 39.74F) – not exactly shorts weather.

After a little bit of diagnosis, I determined that one of our house batteries was no longer able to hold a charge. I then reduced our two battery house bank to one battery and we were back in business. The heat was back on. Everything would be okay for the next couple of days until we could replace the batteries, so long as we didn’t go more than a couple of days between charging.

The day was alternating between sleet, hail and snow, so both Maryanne and I busied ourselves with various jobs. What I had intended as a nice leisurely day off in which to explore was turning into a freezing day of chores. The whole thing left me feeling pretty demoralized. What had I gotten us into?


Loch Oich


Eagle barge/pub - nice place for a wee dram
Around 5pm, the precipitation stopped and the sun started peeking through the clouds and it warmed up a little. Maryanne and I both jumped at the opportunity to get off the boat and go for a hike along the south side of the canal and then Loch Oich. Fresh air and a little exercise always makes me feel better. On the way back, we stopped at the local barge-cum-pub – the Eagle - for a wee dram. Their selection was very good and on the advice of the barmaid/owner, I selected a nice one called Old Pultney. The distillery is in Wick, which is on our way. I’m going to have to make a point of attending that tour.

Afterward, for a light dinner, Maryanne made mushroom soup from the recipe given us by the Oyster Inn in Connel. De-lish-us! The turnaround of my day was now complete.