Stanthorn lock Middlewich - to Stanthorn lock Middlewich Rain batteries and solar panels !

As forecast it's rained all day from when we rose this morning to now as I'm typing the just after 8pm. 

So we've had quite a lazy day. Last night it was a bit full on with real strong winds rocking the boat and heavy rain lashing against the side. We took a walk into Middlewich not having stopped here before. I've ridden my bike here before and watched the summer antics at the junction. Antics as there is only one place to moor for the Wardle lock which is about 80 yards in with two approaches on the Trent and Mersey, north and south obviously. It's a reason we do the four counties clock wise as one year we did it the other way and were involved in a large and difficult queue for Wardle lock with boaters having to agree who's turn it is and boats coming out of the Kings lock with no where to moor for the turn - it was chaotic. Lets hope its as quiet as its been today but I suspect there will be a lot more boats moving for the next few days  catching up as we will be trying to get off the T&M in two days onto the Macclesfield canal.

Looking back to the lock on opening the stern doors this morning - our boaty neighbour left early 

We walked to Morrisons for supplies and then had food in the big lock pub which was fair priced and good. We eventually found the town centre and Rachel did a charity shop or two. Then a wet walk back to Percy. 

Having days off puts pressure on the batteries and knowing we were planning this cruise and also our batteries we starting to show their age so early August I swapped out the two big AGM's for similar spec. I thought about going hybrid lithium but my charging and monitoring is well set up and we got 5 years out of the last batteries Last battery install in finding that link they went in February 2019 so five and a half years. They were measured as the new ones were a tad bigger in physical size but they slotted in and were swapped over on a hour or so. But they were flippin heavy I took my time getting them in and out of the boat  think they were about 40kg a piece.

Waiting for their turn .. ordered at 11am and delivered 10am the next day.

The old ones looking forward to going to the scrap yard 15 quid a piece iirc

Queued up ready

They came full charged

A nice fit  - only just 

A little earlier in July I swapped out the old now 14 years? 140w solar panel that was really used to keep the batteries topped up while we were away from the boat with a new 380w spare I had from a test install at home. Not the prettiest but very efficient. It was wackin in over 14 amps and the new batteries love it !!

Right lets hope we get a good road tomorrow ...