Sydknee

Just had the call ssa back on! Glad we pushed and got to Oundle!

Only saw two boats moving on the whole trip. They were both near Irthlingborough and were too big to be powered by an outboard.

We just came through OK. Set out from Gayton Marina on Wednesday and arrived in Oundle late Friday afternoon. We were warned about the sand bank but not given any details of exactly where it was. Think we went over it at a junction not far after billing. Heard a scrape underneath and saw a bit of gravel under the water. We could have been lucky and hit the best bit. We were a little right of the middle. There were a couple of locks that seemed fast cant remember their names but they were the two before lilford. Wouldn't want to do them locks on my own, especially the three manual guilatines! Hope you get through OK and will see you in March soon. Forgot to mention Islip bridge is very low headroom. Couldn't get my chimney off but the bridge managed it for me!

I like your idea Paul! Many years ago while fitting an alarm to my mates Ford Escort Mk II fitted a small button connected to his horn under the dash board on the passengers side. When going a long I would duck down and bib the horn at people (mainly girls with a good personality!). He used to get well anoyed! This was just for something to do while there was nothing on TV but talentless Shows and trying to come up with projects to go on the boat. Digital Dashboard was my first idea then thought that needs to much work.

I don't know if its me, that I'm new to boating, my age or a general thing but when out on the water I can never remember how many blasts of the horn mean what. Not that I have ever heard anyone else in my few months of boating using theirs either so I'm not sure how usefull this little device would be. Your comments are very welcome! If anyone is interested in this and would like the code (which is very simple) and the circuit diagram let me know. So back at home I started playing around with an Arduino (well a breadboard version as I'm a cheap skate)to while away the hours until I can get the boat down the Nene. I was looking for ideas and suddenly thought of a Horn Blaster! So after writing the code and programing the Arduino it works (In Theory as not connected in the boat yet). 7 Buttons, one Relay board and a small Speaker is all that is needed (other than the Arduino) The Relay board would be connected to the Horn Switch and the control box could be placed in an easy to reach location. These units use very little power as they can be powered by USB so less than 500mA. A 9V battery or 4 AA would power this for a long time if you didn't want to connect it to your 12v supply. There are Seven Buttons 1 - Going to the Right 2 - Going to the Left 3 - I'm Stopping or going Backwards 4 - Turing Round to the Right 5 - Turning Round to the Left 6 - I Can't Manoeuvre 7 - Manual

They are the same thing. Apply a current in one direction and one side gets cold and the other gets hot. Reverse the current and hot / cold side is revered. Apply heat to one side and they generate a small current. Amazing little devices and have fascinated me for years. Just brought our NB and one came with it, not sure if it works or not but I love watching it spinning round. If anyone has a IR thermal video camera then we could prove their usefulness. Would love one of them Stirling engines just to watch instead of the rubbish on TV.

Should I be concerned or is it just a change of scenery?

it's possible! All we know is they had a space available.

Congratulations she (assuming boats are female) looks really nice. Only got our first boat less than a month ago and really enjoying it.

Hopefully see you in March later in the year.

Did you make it? We were about a week behind you and had to give up. We are heading to Floods Ferry which isn't far from Foxes. Moored at Gayton Marina now until they finish all the works in March.

Depending on how far you want to go. One lock is closed until 28 March but if you have any doubts give one of the engineers a call, they are extremely helpful chaps.