Alway Swilby

You have to scroll down a bit (ignoring the map bit). Click on the "Boat" box and your boat(s) will apear, click on the relevant boat (if you only have one boat it will be the only one listed). Don't bother with dates, click on "Search" and a list of your sightings will appear. You can then, if you wish, use the "Functional Location" code to find that location on the map. The map doesn't show your boat.

Our Beko washing machine doesn't have just any old inverter. No, it has a Pro Smart Inverter. Anyway, it works fine on our Victron 3kw.

Yes. My thinking too. I asked them yesterday and they "aim to respond within 1 to 4 working days".

Has anyone ever programmed one of these before and managed to understand the erm...... "English isn't my first language" manual. I want the relay to operate when the voltage gets to 27.1V and release when it drops to 26.8V. . digital-relay-E1200.pdfdigital-relay-E1200.pdf

So, presumably a flashing red light at Castleford flood lock means don't lock up onto the river because it is in flood?

Good point. Maybe not such a good idea after all.

£15 per night including electricity is not expensive. Many marinas charge more than that for visitor moorings. Get the washing machine to work overtime and leave the immersion on. We can run our Alde gas boiler on 3Kw of shore power instead of gas when we are on un-metered hook up. We did think of taking a winter mooring in Liverpool and saving all our heating costs. But we would have had to stay the full five months and didn't fancy it.

I think that will be the case.

Do you think so? Our licence will show us as CC but we'll be in the same area for 4 months.

I agree. I expect to pay the CC rate all year. It's just that an extra £60 per year on top of that to change status seems unreasonable to me.

We can't be unusual in our mooring habits. Around about the beginning of March we leave a marina and change our status on the licencing website to CC. We stop paying the marina for the mooring at this point. We then CC all summer and sometime at the beginning of November we move back into the same marina or a different one depending on availability and start paying for a mooring again. We then declare our new home mooring on the web site. Up until now these change of statuses have been FOC. As it happens our licence renews on 1st January. It seems that the six month rule will mean we pay for a CC licence which is fair enough. BUT.... are we going to have to pay £30 for each change of status so £60 per year on top of the CC surcharge. If we don't update the status when we move back into a marina and leave it as CC what happens when we get spotted in the marina for 4 months? Will we get an overstay email?

Or just put a lead acid battery in parallel with the lithium(s) and if necessary a bit longer cable from said alternator and all is hunky dory. 😊

Yes, he is aware his web site is a bit naff. It's on his list to sort out. I don't see a reason why the BMS shouldn't be used as an on/off (its easier to type off than orf 🙂) switch. The supplier sells the batteries fully expecting them to be used as such and gives a 10 year guarantee whilst connected in a hybrid system.

The LFP/LA hybrid is ideal for people who don't have a clue about looking after batteries. The BMS looks after the LFP batteries for them. They are impossible to over charge or over discharge. Impossible to chronically under charge. The LA battery is kept fully charged nearly all the time which is just what LAs like. The system looks after itself and just works. There is a company called Life Batteries (https://www.lifebatteries.co.uk/) who sell LFP batteries and will set them up for a hybrid system before sending them out. They are fully aware of how the hybrid set up works and are very happy to sell you LFP batteries for use in a hybrid system. Their web site has a section explaining it all. https://www.lifebatteries.co.uk/blank-page

They are just bare batteries sitting on the swim. It's not too much of a problem while we are not there. The Multiplus and the mppt are both programmed not to charge if the temp is at or below zero. If we were there and wanted to start the engine then I would worry about the alternator putting out many amps. But that situation has never happened in seven years. Our batteries were the first lithiums that Finesse fitted, they are manufactured by ReLion and the BMS is not very good. I don't have access to the settings and I don't think Finesse did either. They are now about eight years old and one of the three has died. I am going to replace them with two self heating batteries from LiFe Batteries and get about three times the Ah (460) compared to the old ones.

They are sitting on the swim close to the engine bay vent. The vent is facing north so there will be a bit of a breeze through there. I blame Ricky, he put them there 😀

I must say I'm missing the little Christmas tree!

You could stay in Goole, then it would only be a two hour trip and you wouldn't be back where you started. Goole's nice by the way, you can watch ships coming and going. Tune into VHF channel 14 and you can listen in.

It doesn't take long to get to Goole from there, maybe a couple of hours. Two marinas sell diesel there.

Which are the NBTA candidates? If I know that I can miss them off the list.

Almost certainly. We had a 1/12th share (three weeks in season and one in winter) and ignoring the capatal cost, most of which we got back when we sold , it worked out about the same as one week on a hire boat. And even if they didn't use the second week someone else probably would.

When we had a share boat through Carefree Cruising it had some 1/24th shares. One week in season and one in winter.

Another video from Pink Hat Man. https://youtu.be/sdsOZi_q-jY?si=Ni5pFT_JogWZRKbR . I've spoken to him and he's aware he's over the towpath. Vigilance required on the way down!

I expected Pink Hat Man would have been safe moored in the cut below Pillings Lock. Seems not though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2pPcafmAJk

Is that the moveable towpath underthe M62 is no longer moveable?