DandV

Same moon different hemisphere a few minutes ago

I do hope Boris recovers. I wish him well, both obviously for his own sake, but also for Britain's in these extraordinarily stressful times.. You have far more then enough on your plate without being inflicted with the stress of any other crucial changes at this time. Keep up the isolating, and search and look for the good things.

I have to say I was taken in too

I was more or less doing this, and fully agree with your last sentence. Interpreting the meter readings was much better then waiting to the lights went out, or shortening the life of appliances by depriving them of volts. I suspect that low input voltage, but still above shutdown voltage would stress the Inverter with consequent life reduction. I don't know as the 12 yr old boat combi was still working when we sold, and the 14yr old holiday house combi is still working. The real problem was the house was family owned and two generations using it, "But the gauge said 70% and the lights went out" Solved that, sold my half share to my sister, but still have the use of it if her family are not.

Calculate? I just wanted to push buttons. For the holiday cottage I bought the BMV 712 in the same order as the Victron combi. And the other one I bought complete with a narrowboat!

The BMV 712 is a really useful bit of kit but the the percentage charge function should be used with extreme caution. When charging watching the charging amps decay and the voltage gives some idea of the success of that particular charging cycle. The comparitive rested voltages without load first thing in the morning, and then the voltage depression under the same comparitive load, say the fridge starting and then running, or on cranking the Ebersplutter up give an indication of battery well being. You do need gain experience of watching these unloaded and loaded battery voltages and charging voltages before and after running the engine and the duration of engine, shore power, and solar inputs, My experience of the BMV 712 was both on our narrow boat, and in an off grid house reliant on solar with occasional assistance from a generator. The indicated percentage charge became hopelessly optimistic as the battery condition faded. Probably could have continually reset it to guessed lower battery capacities.

I don't think he poses much of a danger outside his own country. Trump because he does pose a considerable danger outside the USA, (and a catostrophic danger within) is a very marginal omission from my list. Putin, here coronovirus could do the world a big favour.

Does it really matter who infected who? What is apparent is the distancing regime that these key operatives in a dire emergency were operating in were woefuly inadequate, even for the general population let alone key personal, to protect them from the consequences of the very emergency they need to manage. Hopefully, and probably, things have changed but the Government needs to be explicit in what they have done to keep their own house, and households in order, to lend credibility to what they expect of their constituents. The Trump mask fiasco or similar must be avoided at all costs. I have just spoken to a UK friend now hopefully recovering at home. It is apparent he has only just narrowly avoided being added to the death statistics. But because he made the decision that there was no way he was going to any hospital there is probably no official record of his infection and no contact tracing. He just followed advice to self isolate, only and contact a hospital in an emergency. Therefore he has never been tested, would he ever be added to any statistics? Currently infected and contagious, recovered and no longer considered contagious, whatever. I wish Boris, and everybody else who contacts, this a speedy recovery, with the exception of perhaps only one or two leaders of countries in Eastern Europe, and Asia, those that are currently cementing their iron hold on ruthless power. The weather over your way is getting warmer, the air now less polluted, and for those of you with easy access or views of the outdoors, the wildlife, is probably enjoying a respite from human activities and therefore more visable. Grab what pleasures you can get. Good luck

Those northern canals and taking a boat up into, (and even under) those high hills is something not to be missed. And up to those most Northern tips of the system, Ripon, the end of the Lancaster, and Skipton. Wonderful, those 70footers just don't know what they are missing out on. And remember that the popularity of that size, a disadvantage when buying, becomes a distinct advantage when the time come to sell.

Yes that's right, those leaking t&m gates deposited quite a lot of water down the engine hole, and that vac was most appreciated. And we enjoyed the chat. And yes I do now remember passing you on the South Oxford, with you waving furiously. We had a family of hitchhikers on board. A nice young family that had taken an interest in a boat locking up, so we took them for a short cruise on to where we were stopping anyway. Unfortunately my two children never made it over to the UK in the time we had the boat. One went back to NZ from 5 years in the UK just prior, and then decided to get married whilst we we cruising, so we had a 14day and horrendously expensive interruption to that cruise. And both had babies when we were away. That's the bugger with this lockdown thing, we are missing out on visits.

Well buying a boat is a lot simpler then buying a house as location is not important. A nice week or so cruising can change even the most inconvenient location to the most convenient.

On another thread there is a discussion on barbeques on the cut so I thought I would post some photos of ours. Folding charcoal barbeque was originally purchased to keep disposable barbeques off the ground, tables etc. We used a 50 50 mix of virgin charcoal and reused charcoal which we kept in a metal cake tin. Generally started it with white spirit dregs from paint brush cleaning as a convenient way of getting rid of them. The cake tin lid provided a convenient fan to liven up reluctant barbeques. After cooking, we would empty the still burning coals into the cake tin and quickly and accurately put the lid on to extinguish them. It was remarkable how quickly the cake tin then cooled down. Any way the photos

Again it depends on what you want the boat for? If it is for a post retirement part time cruising, for a just few years before decrepitude sets in, then buying a succession of boats may not be for you. If you want to go boating this summer once the lockdown is over MTB's suggested strategy makes a lot of sense. Now if you want cheap accommodation in London for a couple of years or so, stand by for a lot lot more then supportive advice from this forum.!! But whatever you want, once you decide to move on a particular boat, act quickly and decisively. You can only buy a boat that is for sale at the time. Perfection is unobtainable under these circumstances.

Thanks Peter. Brings back the memories of those early mornings being dropped off by taxi at the basin gate, me to take the bags down and board over the rear fender, and Val to head off over the canal and on the tow path to get the initial food supplies. At least that year, unlike the year before we remembered the combination for the lock! Actually we had remembered the number, but the locks had slightly frozen after six months and needed a strong pull to open first time. By that time we were in a right panic.

There should be two phases in buying a boat. The first phase, and probably the most difficult, is to determine what you actually want in a boat? Some hires, preferably in varied weather, tow path chats with boaters and seeing as many boats as possible, from any, and all brokers. Ask, ask, and ask. This forum is a good place for that. Ask opinions on different features, all have pros and cons and advocates. You will also get some idea of the varied competency of forum members to answer the subject of your particular question. But to help them, give them as much information as you can, on your situation, and what you want to use your boat for. A boat configured for 12month liveaboard, no family, will be quite different for a boat configured for holiday cruising, an occasional guests. You will then better know what the tolerable range of features and condition of what you want, and the market price of such boats and how that relates to your budget. From the web follow boats of interest on brokers sites progress through the market, when listed, any price reductions and time to get an offer, or even appear for sale elsewhere. You will get an idea of what boats have been priced realistically. Phase 2 is the search for THE BOAT. Not the perfect boat, but a boat somewhere near your budget, and a reasonable approximation to your must have, and nice to have list. If your list is close to most other peoples list expect keen competition and be prepared to comprimise on that list of nice to haves and must haves. Apart from asking questions on the forum all of this is difficult under lockdown. Good luck.