Ernie

We have just completed a return trip along the section of the K&A between Melksham and Bathampton. Without a doubt, of all of the system we have travelled so far, this section takes the prize for the most moored boats. We have a habit of saying ‘hello’ to al the folks on the boats we pass. Generally, we get a pleasant response but this was not the case from many of the folk that seem to have formed into little communities. We will not be rushing back to this section of canal in a hurry which is such a shame as the scenery is so beautiful.

Now that is a really good idea I will try that when I get a spare moment. We have a 12v fridge and a 12v freezer, both built into kitchen units. It gets very warm behind them even though I have drilled a few 2” holes (discretely) at the top and bottom sides of the cabinets and added an old 12v computer fan (permanently running) to aid air circulation. Having some cool air coming up from the base plate should be a real help.

We tend to find a friendly Post Office or shop to take in our important mail. So far, we have found most to be helpful.

Agree with Adam, go for it Chris. You can just pop down for the day if you don't want to stay over night.

I have just been chatting with the chap on the boat moored two down from me. He has two large ( 2 feet by 3 feet – ish) solar panels on his roof and a controller. All were supplied and fitted for him and he doesn’t have a clue what they are rated at. They have been living on their boat for 6 years and don’t travel that much in the winter. They have a 12v fridge, diesel central heating and the normal lights and pumps etc. They watch TV for an hour or so most evenings. He only ever runs his engine when the controller indicates that the batteries ( 3 x 110A) are down to 12v. He finds that even in winter he can get away with running his engine for around one hour every two or three days. Before he had the panels fitted, he had to run his engine every day for an hour or two. Although not supplying all of his power needs, they are obviously a great help. BTW Chris, glad I gave you a laugh… And as for understanding the physics – I have a fair grasp – I spent most of my working life in the electronics industry – starting as a design engineer developing control systems for underwater weapons before moving into embedded control software then eventually being pushed into management. I just don’t find that the discussion of battery physics helps much in the context of solar panels. My guess is that most people think of solar panels as battery chargers and tend to compare their outputs with that of a battery charger. You give the impression that solar panels are of no use – that may well be the case on a power hungry boat but is certainly not the case on many boats with lesser power requirements.

We are currently moored on the K&A and have been watching the canoes taking part in the Devises to Westminster race. What guts and determination they have – much respect is due. They have been passing all night in temperatures of around minus two. I can only begin to think how cold their hands and feet must be. The very best of luck to them. The only downside is that our two Jack Russell’s bark every time a canoe goes past so we have been awake all night!!! http://www.dwrace.org.uk/main%20site/about_dw_write_up.htm

Firstly, let’s compare apples with apples, forget about the physics of battery charging, in Chris’s example, the panels should be compared with a 7A or 18A charger. To me, getting even 7A during the day would run my 12V fridge and freezer – I would be well pleased with that. Secondly, I meet lots of other CCing liveaboards on my travels and many of them have solar panels on their roofs and swear by them. The only thing stopping me buying and fitting a couple of panels myself is the fact that I have no room on my roof is it is covered with logs and stuff. Speak to people that actually have and live with these panels.

We came up through Woolhampton lock a short while ago – a real challenge with the flow on as it is today. Wouldn’t want to attempt it if the flow was much higher. Stopped off at Aldermaston Wharf to take on some diesel at Reading Marine (we phoned around yesterday and their diesel is the cheapest in this area at 61.5p per litre, the highest we were quoted was 71p). I asked if any of their hire fleet were due out this weekend and they said that they will ALL be out with the vast majority heading west up through the Woolhampton lock – should be interesting with all of those canoes coming down

Looking at the current state of the river (pun intended), I think we will make an early start tomorrow and push on eastward. If we can’t make reasonable headway (2MPH or so) we will moor up as soon as we fill up with water at Tyle Mill. If the weather is as bad as they say for the weekend, we will just moor up and sit it out. Thanks for the warnings about the canoes, one of our Jack Russell’s hates them and starts barking his head off as soon as he hears them coming. We think he thinks they are some kind of strange animal – maybe he is right

Thanks Dominic, I believe it is still the same and I have been advised to attack it as you did. Bloody rivers

Now you tell me I nearly sank the boat last Saturday at the traffic light below Reading town centre - VERY strong flow there. Beginning to dislike rivers again. Oh - and got spat on by youths from a foot bridge in the town centre - great day all in all. Edited to add link to full story in case it may help save someone else from repeating my stupid mistake. http://www.erniesplace.com/_BoatingDiaries..._Burghfield.htm

We could do without any more rain. We are currently sitting on a flooded river Kennet near Reading. BW advises us not to move due to the very strong flow. Hope to be able to move tomorrow. Don’t need any more rain this weekend!!!

I went for a Stihl due to the wide availability of spare parts and service agents. It's buit like the proverbial Brick Sh*t House. As I mentioned early - it needs a great deal of respect......

Chainsaws certainly require a great deal of respect. I recently upgraded from an 1800W electric chainsaw to a 55cc petrol version. Both versions are capable of doing a great deal of damage in a very short space of time. The electric one is a bit safer in so much as the chain stops moving almost as soon as you let go of the trigger whereas the petrol one can run on for several seconds or more. Personally, I wouldn’t be without one now as we collect and burn a great deal of wood over the winter months and a chainsaw really is the easiest way of harvesting it and chopping it all up into stove sized logs. I took a look at the B&Q chainsaw but was advised by a garden tool shop that it would be unlikely to last long when used the way I intended to use it – regularly and for an hour or so at a time. Could be just the garden centre trying to get me to buy one of their much more expensive options which I didn’t. Edit to add: There was a report in the papers recently of a guy that killed himself with a chainsaw while cutting logs in his garden. It sounds like the chainsaw kicked back (they can do this if the top edge of the chain at the bar ends hits something). Anyway, he cut his throat with it.

I was chatting with a guy last week in Oxford. He stopped to chat about our boat name. I asked if he had been in the area long and he told me that he had been moored there for quite a few years. He is moored on the river, not the canal. He went on to say that he hadn’t had a license for the last four years as the price has gone up so much that he just can’t afford to pay any longer. He went on to say that he gets ticketed every now and then but he just throws them away. I believe there is a real likely hood that if license fees continue to rise at the rate they are, it will not have the desired effect of increasing income for BW/EA, it will have the negative effect of increasing the number of boats on the system without licenses.

With the continual rise in the cost of boating on the inland waterways, I believe there is a very real danger that many boaters will give up and find something cheaper to entertain themselves with. Or, more people will just stop paying for a license and will use the waterways illegally. Either way, BW and the EA (government) could see it as less licenses being purchased therefore less people wanting to use the system therefore less need to maintain it all. Or am I just being overly pessimistic??

We left Oxford at 07:00 Friday and arrived on the K&A yesterday morning. Total time on the move was just over 12 hours. Many of the locks were against us, unmanned and un-powered which would have slowed us down a bit. The one day license cost us £32. Thanks for all of the advice.

I think I will give Sterling a call one of these days. The volt meter is connected to the clams connected to the battery terminals. All is clean and tight. Batteries all only just over a year old.....

Hi Mike,When the batteries are truly fully charged, when I turn the charger on, it quickly drops to a charge level of a couple of amps or so. When they are not fully charged and I turn the charger on, the charge current will be much higher – depending on the state of charge. I have learnt to guestimate the state of charge by looking at the charging current. My only 12V loads are my fridge and freezer and I can turn them off from a single switch right next to the charge switch so I know that any current flow is going into the batteries and not other boat loads.I also have a BEP battery monitor which although is not accurate, it gives a reasonably indication of battery charge level. Hi Nick,All cables etc. are in good condition and well over rated current carrying capacity wise.I have an independent volt meter and a battery monitor all connected directly to the battery terminals and everything looks fine.The charger seems to go through the bulk cycle OK as I can see the voltage climb to 14.8 ish (measured at battery terminals) and then see the charger switch to constant voltage mode. Problem then is that it doesn’t stay in constant voltage mode for anywhere near long enough before switching to trickle charge mode.Sometime it works but most times it gets it's times wrong.

Passed a boat last week with a fairly large open frame petrol generator running in under the cratch cover – only one side of the cratch cover open – doors leading from cratch into boat closed but probably very leaky. I was half tempted to knock on the window and advise the owner of the danger but was afraid of the response I would probably have received. It wasn’t raining so the generator could/should have been out on the towpath. I generally see petrol generators running either on the towpath or chained up on the stern decks. When we moved onto the boat, I didn’t want petrol on board so ended up buying a 4kw Honda EX4D silent (it is far from silent!!) diesel generator which is mounted in the cratch with exhaust extended and exiting out of the front of the cratch board. It cost us about twice the price of an equivalent power petrol generator but with the added safety, peace of mind and cost of diesel I believe it was worth it. If I was ever lucky enough to commission a new build, I would definitely have a stand alone diesel generator built in. As it turns out, we now carry a small amount of petrol on board for the chainsaw. It is stored in a steel locker that has drain holes in the bottom that drain over the side. Slightly off topic – in my youth, I used to re-build motorbike engines on a regular basis. I would often be sitting in my garage over a washing up bowl half full of petrol (it was cheap then), cleaning bits of engine internals with a fag in my mouth – madness!!!

The strange thing is Chris, sometimes they work as you would expect. I do run them from my generator but like you, I don't think this is the problem. They are on now and behaving tonight….

I have two Sterling Pro Digital chargers and I find them to be a right pain most of the time. The boat was fitted with a 30Amp charger when I bought it. I upgraded the battery bank from 330ah to 660ah just over a year ago. At the same time as upgrading the batteries in preparation for living on board, I also purchased a 50Amp Pro Digital charger to charge the bigger bank of batteries. The problem I find is that the chargers frequently run a very short acceptance charge and switch to float mode while the batteries are still a long way from being charged. For example, the charger will put 50Amps into the batteries for say 20 minutes then switch to acceptance mode putting say 30 amps into the batteries. For no apparent reason, the charger will randomly (no warning) switch to float mode and drop the charge rate to an amp or so. If I turn the charger off and then on again, it runs through a quick bulk charge cycle then switches to acceptance mode and continues to charge at around the 25 amps or so, decreasing until the batteries are better charged – I doubt that they ever get to the 100% charge state. Both my Sterling chargers exhibit the same behaviour. Basically, when charging my batteries in the evenings from the generator, I have to keep getting up every 15 minutes or so to check the ammeter reading to see that everything is OK – a real pain!! The charger gets it wrong almost every night and I have to switch it off and on to reset it. My experience confirms Gibbo’s statement that these chargers that try to be clever and calculate the acceptance charge time are not so clever at all. I can’t speak about other chargers as I only have experience with my two Sterlings.

Hi Sue, We have both a manual and a 12V pump out kit but the big problem is finding places suitable for self pumpout. Our pump out kits paid for themselves may times over when we had moorings near Braunston. Now we are CCing, we find that self pump out stations are very few and far between