Naughty Cal

We never saw any trouble and always felt safe moored on both the canal and on the river. We take places on face value and how we find them rather than listening to hearsay from people who have usually never been.

Must be a slow news day.

We have spent a lot of time moored in Nottingham over the years and have never had a problem either on the river or on the canal. I wouldn't say that one is any safer than the other.

On this day 2017 Dinghy rides in the salt marshes, Wells next the Sea On this day 2014 Waiting for the tide at Boston Grand Sluice On this day 2013 Passage planning for the next days voyage, Boston

It wasn't a brand we had heard of that came off. Platinum. We figured that by switching to Lithium then it only has to last 6 years to have been better value than buying a pair of FLA batteries twice (for the same useable capacity), assuming 3 years from the FLA's which is what we seemed to get on the boat.

Thank you. Much appreciated.

They don't prosecute hire boaters. So no cost added to stag do's at all.

On this day 2019 Gibraltar Point

A quick question for you knowledgeable people if I may? A bit of background first. Our van is fitted with a 3 way Thetford fridge. It runs on 12v only when the engine is running, 230v when on EHU or gas when off grid. Last year it developed a fault with the 12v input which meant we have used it most of the time on gas while the dealers waited for parts to be available to fix the fault. It is now fixed and working fine on 12v. (The fault occurred before we switched to a Lithium leisure battery and was a common, well documented fault with the PCB) We have since noticed that with the fridge running on 12v the voltage at the domestic battery never rises above 13.9v even after a long four hour run. Turn the fridge off and the voltage at the battery quickly rises to 14.2-14.3v so I’m pretty sure that there isn’t a problem with the alternator. (All voltages taken from the Bluetooth BMS fitted to the Lithium domestic battery.) The Thetford fridge is an absorption type and according to the Thetford blurb uses about 20amps continuously so it is a heavy drain which is why it is wired to only use 12v when the engine is running. Interestingly when sat in traffic the alternator can’t keep up with the fridge and the voltage gradually starts to drop back down again. So the question is will charging at 13.9v while driving damage the Lithium battery? The manufacturer suggests a charging voltage of 14.2-14.6v. When charged via the solar or the 230v battery charger it does reach between 14.2-14.4v, just not when being charged by the alternator when the fridge is running on 12v. We hadn’t noticed this with the previous lead acid battery due to lack of battery monitoring and it probably goes someway to explaining why the battery didn’t last too long. The lead acid battery we replaced was about 30 months old according to the dates on it. We would have expected longer given shallow discharges and the solar panel keeping it topped up for most of the year. With how the van is set up most of the high power appliances run off gas or 230v when plugged into EHU so for 10 months of the year the battery is only subject to very shallow discharges.

On this day 2015 Entering Wells next the Sea On this day 2016 Approaching Trent End

Ouch. Mustn't forget to a pay that then.

Nearly did that last year on our way back down from Scotland. We had called in at Tynemouth for a nights stop over. Will pay it straight away next time!

On this day 2011 Special delivery at Burton Waters We are up that way later in the year. We will be staying at Beadnell as well as Amble and Bamburgh.

A hire yard will have spare engines ready to change. They will have the engine out and a new(or reconditioned) one in in no time. Richardson's have a shed full of them for when theirs bream down.

Sounds odd for an engine that wouldn't have been running at the time!