Thursday 5 March 2009

Norbury Junction

David set off at 0630 this morning while I stayed in bed. He got cold. I didn’t.
We got to Norbury Junction at 0900 and moored up for the day.

Saw this plate on a bench by the canal. I want to know more. Who are the guys? Are they still around? What was the name of the boat? What is the West Riding Narrowboat Co-operative? What has it got to do with Norbury Junction?

We had dinner in The Junction pub along with a couple of boat crews from co-owner boats. One crew came from Cornwall and the other from Cumbria. The couple from Cornwall were on an ex-Challenger boat. Their syndicate had managed to find another operater so they are carrying on as before the Challenger Synicate went down.
Now a plea for help.
We have a Mastervolt inverter, Mastervolt battery charger and a Mastervolt MICC remote controller on our narrowboat.

The batteries are new but the remote will not allow the batteries to charge to 100%. Each time they are charged they go lower 97% then 91% then 83%; they are now at 76% and will not go higher. We were able to run our washing machine whilst on the move and the batteries higher than 80% but no more. The inverter gives a ‘low-battery’ reading.

The Mastervolt rep has visited twice reset the Mastervolt remote and has gone off to think. We have e-mailed Mastervolt in Holland- no reply! The rep cannot find the solution, do you have a solution? Have you heard of any similar problems with battery charging whilst cruising?

Most grateful for any pointers; we have tried most ideas (letting the batteries go below 50% and recharging, a different battery charger all no good); there’s lot of beer for a solution, (well a beer).

And finally the card

One I made for Caroline when she started her new job (almost a year ago, where does the time go? I used backing paper stuck to ¾ of a square card with a pink gingham ribbon down the join. A topper with sentiment at the top and a handbag and boot topper. I added a bit of ribbon and a gem on the bag and three gems on the boot and used rub-ons for the sentiment down the side.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Seat at Norbury commemorates three valued members of the co-op sadly no longer with us.

The Co-op has a boat - Cooperation - which is for the use of members.
The Co-op has been going since about 1983 and represents the cheapest, and most convivial, way to have canal holidays.

Very many of the commercial shared boat scheme started based on variations of the Co-op but an order of magnitude more expensive. Very roughly the cost to members is around 240 pounds per week. For more info look up West Riding Narrowboat Co-op.

ChrisK said...

The bench is of English Oak, and was made at Ingestre Sawmills, Staffordshire. It was planted there on a bitter cold morning, anchored in concrete and slabs laid in front. We commemorated the bench to the three deceased members, and I am pleased to say that the three widows were all in attendance at what was a happy occasion, despite the weather. We then repaired to the Junction Inn for a convivial lunch. I left the Co-Op some years ago when I bought my own boat, but i still make a point of sitting on the bench whenever I am at Norbury for a quiet moment of contemplation on 'absent friends'. Chris K.