Overnight near London Bridge

That's the one over the Bridgewater at Stockton Heath rather than the one over the Thames near HMS Belfast, naturally! We stopped here yesterday to do some shopping and ended up staying the night when LottieD refused to fire up again. It was nothing more sinister that a parted plug on the wiring loom, probably resulting from me rummaging around the engine bay when tightening the stern gland packing. River and Canal Rescue soon fixed us up but we decided it was a little late to be moving on.
Actually, silver linings and all that, we were given some very useful information about our engine by the repair man, who also works for our engine manufacturer Beta Marine. Long story short, we have 2 alternators, one of which is a 170 amp job for charging the battery bank. We have, therefore, 2 pulleys on the crankshaft and the resistance from the big alternator puts a hell of a load on the connection to the larger pulley. Running at less than 1200rpm when charging the batteries is a big no no, apparently, and I know have a warning sticker from Beta Marine telling me so. Should this pulley work loose it could require a new crankshaft at mucho dinero to put things right so it's no more charging on tickover from now on plus big revs when using the washing machine.
Having walked down town, Stockton Heath is quite a smart place with thriving bars and restaurants. We will probably stay here again in the future but, for now, it's a diesel fill at Thorn Marine then off the Bridgewater and through Preston Brook tunnel. Better take the sat dish down just to be on the safe side!