in this video we'll continue along the journey that i took in autumn along the
heartbreak hill section or the cheshire locks but before that let's have a look at something
that's causing me a lot of worry yep that's right it's my batteries they're not charging
with the engine running and they seem to have gone completely dead i'm really useless at electronics
so i need some help here and my main worry is it's gonna cost me a lot of money to sort out
i've read up and trained myself as much as i can on 12 volt electricity but
this one i'm gonna have to call in the experts for having had these batteries put in over five
years ago i have completely battered them and now the charge reads at 11.9 volts which is
approximately 40 percent which is approximately a dead battery! there are certain jobs that
i can do myself on the boat when it comes to electronics for example this charge controller
i swapped it over from the old one quite easily but i really wanted to get ed shiers from four
counties marine along again he's fitted a fridge for me in the past and he's just been brilliant
he's taking out my old batteries they will go to the scrap heap now and ed will be able to get some
money back for them and then as quick as you like he's just fitted the new ones before i can even
get the camera ready they're in there but it's not really testing ed's capabilities to the full
all we're doing is swapping in new batteries for old although i have upgraded my domestics
these are the ones at the top two six volt ones there are actually larger in size so
there's more capacity there meaning that i've got more energy to charge up my various gadgets with
ed was able to easily fit another socket for me as well through this fuse box that i've got
at the back and that'll allow me to charge up my iphone and my gopro lighting etc etc right at the
back of the boat another problem i was having was not being able to charge the batteries properly
from my engine there was a voltage drop occurring between the alternator and the actual batteries
themselves and that was happening not with the alternator that's fine it's pushing at the
maximum it could but it was along the wire that was connecting the two so we rewired look at all
these old wires that he's got to deal with i think possibly using a thicker cable and went straight
to the domestic batteries although i could be wrong on that one either way we minimised the
voltage drop and now i can charge up my batteries using my engine perfect yeah so that's it
ed's taking away my old deep cycle batteries but i'm keeping the starter battery
if only for ballast um so i can even out my boat on one side when the toilet tank fills up!!
but here are here my lovely new batteries they're all in there i've got that 12 volt starter 100 amp
hour and then i've got two 260 amp hour 6 volt trojan deep cycle batteries with no money left
but 100 per cent power we're ready now to crank it through the cheshire locks here we go!
i love these lock pairs because sometimes one lock is maybe a little bit defective this one has got
some subsidence on one side you can see where all the stone has shifted creating the narrower lock
whereas the other one is actually fine so i've got a choice there if my boat is on the wide side
in my research on this canal i found out that originally these were just
single locks all along the stretch and they only doubled them up in the 1830s about 60 years after
the canal had first been built and that was to relieve congestion and speed things up for
the sheer amount of working boats that were passing through
what i'm going to show you now is a bypass weir and i love these things because
you sort of pass by them all the time and when you're from a boat you just sort of
disregard them but you need them to get the water from the upper pound down into the lower pounds
so that's basically the water going around the lock when the locks closed like this
but i just love the varying designs you get i don't know why it's
split like that but it's a really interesting extra addition
to a lock which i already find fascinating it was then that i found something really strange - not
this piece of wood that's going to be firewood for later we'll have that - it was the sound
that the water was making as it once again flowed down through the weir check this out
by slowing it down in the editing process i can hear that the wind is affecting the sound of the
water rushing in and because perhaps it's coming from two different angles as i'm panning across
there's a real strange swirling and swishing that
i just think is incredible i'm so glad i caught that
this vlog is sponsored by the following people who have been so generous to sign up to my patreon
group the crank it crew we've got michael price gwen sinclair
and sean james cameron who joins as a producer thank you all so much
without your help i would have to get a proper job so thank you very much indeed
the second of these locks at hassall green takes us underneath the m6 and for me it's quite strange
because i've driven across this motorway many times before and seen these exact locks
and wondering when would i get my chance to actually take my boat through them
quite an unusual thing happens now going under this m6 bridge
and that is it's a lot quieter than either either side it's really quite
strange i can hear some rumblings of cars going over but
nothing at all compared to what it's going to be like as we exit
apart from the motorway this is a really nice stretch of the canal and for a single hander
like myself doing all the locks is a great little break as you pass your way through the countryside
and yeah on a cold day it keeps you warm but i can't moor up here and stay around this area for
too long because my water tank is now nearing empty so i've got to go fill that up again
if only there was some way of filtering the water from the canal
i think there is but yeah perhaps it's not quite a consumer level yet!
this lock starts the wheel lock flight which will take us to our destination so we're not far we've
just got to get through eight locks but i'm doing it all on my own and i'm struggling with this lock
i just need to let in a bit more water so it can equalise properly there we go we're away
easy!
i've just seen some logs on what i think is canal and river trust land
so um yeah i'm just gonna take them to the fire no one else wants them
wow this looks interesting we've got this barrier that's i don't know seen better days
that's collapsed there but this is an old lock that's been turned into a bypass weir
so this has got two bypass weirs one here
and another one over there
i often look up places after i've passed by them and this is one of the malkins bank sidearm it's
just a little bit that comes off the canal doesn't go very far but i don't have any more
information than that i'm afraid so if you know anything please drop me a comment and let me know
often when there are holes in the lock walls like this when the lock is full water collects within
it and then releases once it's being emptied but this is worrying me slightly because it's
just the right angle to go right down my chimney and put my fire out!
nearly got me there!
ah luckily the fire is still going still going strong
it's not wet inside so that's good
well i might be at the end of the heartbreak hill Cheshire lock section of this canal but i've still
got a fair bit to do here in Wheelock in Cheshire i've got to fill up the water tank for the boat
empty some rubbish
and get some food because i'm absolutely starving after all that
that's great thank you
I
got a few supplies but so disappointing no proper food
this chip shop closed it's a pub here as well but that's closed too and a restaurant as well
so normally i wouldn't go hungry but being it's a sunday and a pandemic there's not a lot open sadly
hot!
yeah that'll do
so i'm here after over six miles and 25 locks i feel like i've reached the end of whatever
they would term heartbreak hill and the only heartbreak for me is that i won't be able to
do it again for a while because yeah i'm going this way still don't know why they
call it heartbreak hill or while the old boatman used to call it the cheshire locks
because they're all so spread out and they seem to belong to separate little flights rather than
be one long one so it's strange isn't it but some of the best locks i've ever been through
every single one was a joy to go down i don't know about coming up maybe it's a different story but
all the little touches like you've got the rubbing strips you can see or the little pieces of stone
or metal that help with your feet um in gaining purchase when you're pushing the gates open
all those little things i mean those locks just
so well designed and it was so interesting to see how some had fallen into disrepair
some had been given new leases of life and some had been sort of um yeah turned into
a feature for a house but all in all a pleasant stretch of the canal i'd happily revisit but
the next leg of my journey sees me carrying on up to middlewich and beyond so yeah i'll
see what i can find around the next corner thanks so much for watching this video take care bye-bye
you