After taking advice from David at Oxfordshire Narowboats, Mike set about replacing the suspect battery isolating switch. (the one on the right in the photo) Although it took the best part of an hour, it went as smoothly as these things do and: switch on! Yes, it seems that the switch was indeed the cause of the immediate problems. The old one must have been able to make some contact but not enough to deliver more than a limited amount of power. It is even possible that it contributed to earlier problems.
The journey back up through Wallingford was quite difficult, with a strong wind, and any stopping and starting - such as at a lock entrance - needed concentration: and a lot of luck!
Christine continued with her CAB studies and before long we felt that it was lunch time. Several marked mooring places passed with no obvious place to stop. We made an attempt just above Shillinford but the wind made it too difficult to moor. We did get one line ashore but Christine had to let it go so Mike took the boat around for another attempt, almost a complete about turn was nearly needed. In a second attempt we managed to get lines from both ends ashore but it was soon clear that we could not hold the boat safely whilst putting in mooring pins. So we quickly jumped back on and continued up to Day's Lock.
By late afternoon the wind dropped and Culham Lock was worked through with no difficulty - pity there was no lock keeper to watch! Finally we arrived at Abingdon where we knew there would be a good mooring - we called there on the way down.
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