markgregoryuk2000

This Friday 8PM on channel 5 Starts with the Grand union

Just to help the crimp needed rotating 90 degrees before crimping, the split edge means that only one side was holding the compression after crimping and the cable could escape out of the split edge. hopefully the picture will work.

Came across this for people that do not have google earth installed https://www.watersidemooring.com/Search?Coordinates=53.8008%2C-1.5491&Location=leeds&DistanceMiles=30

A friend has had smoke puff out of the vents on windy days, for him a longer chimney fixed the problem.

Round the back side of the loop above Blakes Lock are the closest moorings, quite a few narrow boats wintering there at the moment. I think the Bel & Dragon may have it's own moorings as well. Going up to the second lock keep an eye on the first road bridge after the lights (this section is one way upto the second lock), if the Kennet is running this is the one to watch coming back down.

Coming down from Oxford I would also recommend Beale park for a nice overnight mooring. At reading the Tesco's mooring is good below Caversham lock, I also think all your boats would get up through blakes lock on the Kennet and if the Loop is not too silted up there are moorings round by the Prison. Smaller boat might like to take the short trip up to the next lock on the Kennet through the oracle (not recommended if the Kennet is running). There are also bank moorings below the Kennet but depth might be an issue. The next big mooring area would be Henley At Weybridge there are mooring just below the lock where the Wey joins, spent a couple of nights there with a 70' dutch barge. Hampton court has a few moorings but getting these in the Summer might be difficult Kingston has good moorings, or you could push on to Teddington Lock, lots there

Coming out of lime house, I am not sure of the current requirements search tidal thames, Brentford you just need to call a few days before to arrange passage (takes about an hour on the incoming tide). A 1 day license should easily get you to the River Wey but note you will need another license for the Wey and the Basingstoke (I do not think the BW license covers these 2, NT I think). When you come out of the wey do so in the morning and a 1 day license should get you to the kennet but as they have said with Blakes closed you might be better off where you are or looking up the grand union

Thanks all for the comments, being in the Ts & Cs makes more sense. I must admit on a day when it is chucking it down with rain the one thing I don't want to do is walk dripping through the inside of the boat although it could be argued that in the rain the gunnels are even more dangerous. Perhaps it was because the boat I hired had side doors on both sides which did make walking the gunnels a little more tricky.

When we picked up a boat on the Kennet and Avon this year we were told it is now an offence to walk along the gunnels or along the roof while the boat is moving. Apparently there have been a lot of accidents in the midlands so they have made it illegal on hire boats. Anyone else come across this? Or should I be looking over my shoulder for mister plod.

The 1 day is enough to transit Teddington to the Wey or Reading to Oxford. The one week would allow transit Teddington to Oxford The one month would allow the full Thames with side trips on one License. If you plan on dong the wey and possibly the Basingstoke Canal then starting with a 1 day license might be best. Note a 1 day license is actually 1 night so can be upto 2 days depending on time of entry onto the Thames.

It might be worth looking at fibreglass cruisers at this time of year, control the boat from inside. Norfolk broads should avoid stoppages at this time of year. Other alternatives are the Seven and Avon or the Cambridgeshire waterways (Ooze).

Your heating system and engine cooling should have antifreeze so should not be a problem. always worth checking (bought a car with no antifreeze once!!!) It is the hot and cold water circuits that are at risk, a friend lost his water pump and his gas water heater the first year he had his boat after the water froze. Alright it was a particularly cold winter but it can happen.

Thames marina at Reading (Tingdean) usually has a few boats for sale, mix of narrow boats and yogurt pots. note come off M4 onto A329M and up A4 to Sonning to cross Thames as reading can get sticky.

Can be a good source of kindling, cut into ~6" lengths it is easy to split with a hand axe and the small amounts should not annoy the neighbours if it is treated.

About 20 years ago now I contacted Perkins Directly and they provided a printed manual for a reasonable price.

There is this on amazon that might do the job https://www.amazon.co.uk/APEXMETER-Electronic-Tachometer-Alternator-Programmable/dp/B014FFNFZ2/ref=sr_1_18?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1473781679&sr=1-18&keywords=tachometer

Met a boat coming through Braunston tunnel a few years ago with a 12" spot light on the front, by the time we were a boat length apart I could not see the front of the boat I was on or where I was in the tunnel. Needless to say this was followed by a bit of a bang as I glanced off their bow and a few cross words from both sides. With a bit more experience now I would suggest just watching the wall side of your own boat and trying to shield your eyes from the spot light as best you can.

I have just spent a week travelling from Falkirk, went to Edinburgh first and then to Glasgow. Timings were as follows. Falkirk wheel opens at 10am, so we stopped at the arm just before the wheel on Tuesday night so we could be at the wheel 10am Wednesday (there are moorings at the top lock but they are right beside the canal). We booked 10am at the wheel, 12:30 at bonny bridge which was supposed to mean we clear the locks at 14:15. Pass through Auchinstary at 15:15 and Kirkintilloch at 16:15. On the day they held us back till 13:00 at Bonny bridge which mean they had to work overtime to get us through Kirkintilloch (cannot be opened between 16:45 and 17:15). Note once through Kirkintilloch Glasgow is 2.5 to 3 hours away and there was only one bollard mooring at the canal center, we spent the night roped to the railings opposite but there are a lot more in the basin if you can book through the bridge at the canal center. Coming back the other way 11:00 at Kirkintilloch, 11:45 at Auchinstary, 13:00 start the locks, 15:00 Bonny bridge (had to wait for 2 additional boats to come through the lock) Note Bonny Bridge closes at 16:00, a lot more traffic crossing this bridge around rush hour and if you want to go through the wheel as well you will probably need to start earlier This was a lot less rushed than going the other way.

Once disconnected a shore line (at the boat end) only to find I was hold a blue circular plug rather than a socket. Quickly sent the owner off to disconnect from the Bollard while I held onto the plug. I know, should always disconnect bollard end first, so there's no chance of dropping a live socket in the water.

The Description from this link https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ve.direct:mpptprefs suggests the software should display Equalisation mode = off rather than 0 days, I wonder if it is in permanent equalisation mode hence the need to drop the equalisation voltage.

The RCD looks for differences in current between the live and neutral (due to leakage to earth), if the fault is not on the boat IE voltage coming from the shore line earth then the RCD will not trip. Unfortunately leakage to an unearthed boat shell would also not trip an RCD until some one provided that earth.

You can get what they call a humidity absorber from b&q etc. no power required http://www.diy.com/departments/unibond-humidity-absorber-refill/272121_BQ.prd?gclid=CP6RycfOz80CFdYV0wodwkcI8Q&ppc_type=shopping&ecamp=SEAPLA272121_BQ&ss_kwcid=AL!3454!3!{creative}!{matchtype}!{placement}!{network}!{product_partition_id}!{keyword}&CAWELAID=120147360000319468&CAGPSPN={ifpla:pla}{ifdyn:dyn}&CAAGID={adgroupid}&CATCI={targetid}&ef_id=Vz3hMAAABYdV25aY:20160630110955:s

I thought the whole idea of the isolation transformer or galvanic isolator was so the shore line earth was not connected to the boat as sometimes the shoreline earth is poor and will send current through the boat. The ONE critical Item is that the boat is being blacked so is out of the water, in this case the boat should be connected to the shore line earth as it cannot earth through the water. ETA Had a problem with tingling off of copper pipes at old house so added a new earth spike there to fix it.

Small transformer do not like MSW, they overheat and blow the thermal fuse. Lost a few phone charger a while back until we worked out what was happening. Nowadays the chargers tend to be switch mode so not a problem but the base for the electric tooth brush is the primary side of transformer, the secondary being built into the tooth brush.

I installed a new (SSD) hard disk when I upgraded to Windows 10 so did a clean install on the new disk using the Windows 10 DVD created from the ISO down loaded vie the following Microsoft link. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10 This can also be used to update machines saving some bandwidth if you can get a friend to download the ISO. The machine really needs 4GB ram in my experience and I was annoyed that AMD had not produced W10 drivers for HD4000 series graphics cards although the default drivers did at least get the machine working. Nvidia appear to have been better at creating W10 drivers for older hardware. Note the tool to download the ISO will also get around the problem of installing/updating windows 10 if it thinks the hardware is incompatible (I replaced a graphics card on 1 machine that the windows 10 compatibility checker refused to see). For the original question, as far as I know Microsoft keep track of upgraded machines so if you lose your hard disk you can reinstall windows 10 using the windows7/8 license code (don't throw it away after the update).