The evening of the 2nd day we had the CO (carbon monoxide) gas alarm go off, no matter how much we vented the boat we couldn't get the CO level back down to healthy levels. Engine was off, generator was off, heating was off and the cooker was only used a short time … what the…?

Eventually I took the alarm into the bow and found the levels sky high. The bow thrusters batteries were gassing and causing a caustic fug to be sucked through the boat. Despite regularly topping them up with distilled water they had kept boiling dry over the past few months, so I took them off charge and vented the bow with a desk fan. After a couple of hours the levels were good again and we could go back into the warm from deck.

At least we had found the reason for the occasional CO alarms that we had been getting for many months. The batteries were officially declared ‘knackered' and turned off. I re-wired the essential pumps and charger to a pair of smaller leisure batteries that had been redundant and started looking for replacement batteries for the bow thruster. These old ones were our recycled 220 AH domestic batteries so were not ideal for the high currents that a bow thruster demands. Members of the DBA, on the email list, suggested that AGM batteries were ideal as they were sealed and could cope with high currents etc. They don't come cheap but then, barging doesn't. We will get some over the winter and then have a full power bow thruster again.

We carried on along the Somme passing through very small bridges at some locks and beautiful countryside. At Corbie we found a perfect quayside with electricity and water so tied up there for what we thought would be 2 weeks, so I could go to work. Then we were told that the lock in front of us is being rebuilt over the next 3 months. The canal is too narrow for us to turn around and we can't go forward now. So... we either stay put for 3 months or back up 6-7 km to a winding hole so we can go the other way. It's a nice town with a really nice mooring so we decided to stay put and chill out, maybe for the winter.

We can start doing jobs on Waterdog to be ready for next season's cruising; we will probably start that in Feb or March of 2009. I've started chipping and painting the decks to arrest the rust, Lorna is oiling the wheelhouse and doing other woodwork tasks. On wet days there is the empty back 3rd of the interior to line out, so we won't be idle in Corbie. Meanwhile there are walks to do and croissants to buy, more French to learn and Friday markets to attend.