pearley

http://www.middlelevel.gov.uk/ Just had a new look. Gives a date of 24 April now.

And apart from that, it seems to be possible to re-register a boat so you see old Springers with 56xxxx numbers.

It wasn't on target on Thursday. Chief Engineer of MLC said hopefully within next fortnight. Parts supposed to be arriving from Holland over Easter. Updates on their website. We can't wait for it to open. I know the Great Ouse and the Cam are good but you can have too much of a good thing.

Have been told today that they now hope to reopen in two weeks. Tide was let in yesterday - to check sealing? Have been offered a temporary mooring at Cathedral Marina in Ely, paid for by the contractor.

The version I have is 2004 and I was struck by the amount of serious omissions from it. It seems that all 'private' bridges (those to farms) are missed out from the maps. We went to Ramsey via the 16ft and 40ft drains but went back to March via the Old river. Just after Benwick there is a flat concrete span going to White Fen Farm and with almost empty water tank we couldn't get under which means it was lower than 1.9m. We had to move every heavy to the front of the boat, toolbox, full toilet cassettes, wine, and just scraped under. This bridge is not shown on the map in the guide but is on the pull-out guide at the back where it is shown as 2.3m. If I had looked closer at the free guide given to us at Stanground I would have noticed it and been prepared.

B******s! I don't know if I want to stay on the Great Ouse much longer. Jeannette and I are going stir crazy going between Cambridge and Ely. I wonder if their assistance runs to craning out?

News item on Radio 4 this morning stating that BW were enlisting the help of towpath walkers and boaters to report on wildlife along the waterways. Has anyone actually been contacted by BW about this? As licence holders they have both our snail mail and email address' so wouldn't have been nice to have heard about either before or at the same time as the general public.

We have the same machine and it runs happily from our Victron 3000w inverter but won't run from our generator.

Having just phoned the keeper from St. Ives, Salters Lode is closed until at least Easter.

I had one about 10 years ago. It was too heavy and the one size fitts all head broke on the C & H.

Looks like any comments needed to be posted before 9 February. Besides the loss of the sanitary station (although not very sanitary when I used it last autumn) are the people who buy these houses then going to complain about the 'dirty' boats mooring opposite?

There is always the BW 14 day moorings at Cuckoo Wharf. Very secure with electric pillars. You will need BW card. 10 minute bus ride from city centre.

All our post goes to our son. He will either junk it or scan it and e-mail. If it is something that has to physically come to us then we use the Poste Restante system.

QUOTE (pearley @ Feb 9 2009, 04:59 PM) * The O ring on the inlet to the tank is not replaceable. If the O ring gets damaged, as one of ours was, you need to replace the complete cassette at a current cost of about £140. To give Leesan their due, when I complained they came to St. Ives, agreed it was a fault and gave us a new cassette. They even let us keep the cap from the old one as a spare. I have bought these o-rings for about a fiver (though never used them). I don't know why you were told they are not replaceable? If the o-rings on the cap of the cassette break, Leesan will tell you that you need to buy a new cap. However I just smeared some Marineflex (PU sealant) into the recess on the inside of the cap, let it go off overnight, and it's as good as new. I'm not talking about the O rings on the docking station but the one in the inlet valve on the cassette itself. You can remove the valve by undoing the 6 bolts but the O ring itself sits inside a sealed tube. I thought of cutting the end off to get at it but how to reseal it afterwards given that it has a dirty great spring inside? Unless you know different?

I thought that this is why one has children!

We have a Vacuflush cassette system on Joanie M. Yes, you need a spare cap as you will eventually drop it down the hole, although so far I've always managed to recover it. Don't use Vaseline on the O rings as it b*****s them, use silicone grease. Ours will last 2 people 2 days. If you keep the flush lever down for the length of time they say, the cassettes will fill quicker. If our son visits we make sure we are near a sanitary station as he can fill a cassette on his own in a day! The seal at the bottom of the bowl needs to be cleaned fairly often (every 2 weeks or so) and I also smear some silicone grease around it. On the one occasion it has blocked, a quick poke through the hole soon had it moving again. The O ring on the inlet to the tank is not replaceable. If the O ring gets damaged, as one of ours was, you need to replace the complete cassette at a current cost of about £140. To give Leesan their due, when I complained they came to St. Ives, agreed it was a fault and gave us a new cassette. They even let us keep the cap from the old one as a spare. Only thing we didn't like was the toilet seat that came with it. It is compressed wood sprayed white and it rubs off the edges. After 2 replacements FOC we gave up a bought a nice warm solid white plastic one from a bathroom store. You have to hunt a bit due to the slightly smaller size.

On motor vehicles, and it is not just cars but trucks and trailers using CAN. The CAN system, operating a speeds up to 1Mbps, is typically used for engine management, braking, steering and other safety systems. It is capable of two way transmission. The CAN bus may also connect with smaller control units known as LINs – Local Interconnect Network – which in turn control individual units. Eg Each door will have a LIN which will control the locking, window, speaker and mirror. Climate control and lighting are other typical LIN applications. LIN is a one way system with operating speeds up to 20Kbps. MOST, as its name suggests is used for media or infotainment systems. Again it is a one way system, using fibre optics, but is capable of a high speed of 24.8Kbps. Speeds of 150 kbps are now coming into use. As Tony states the biggest problem is connecting other systems to CAN, satnav requires a speed pulse, a tracker may require an ignition or engine run pulse, the steering wheel controls for your phone will be controlled by a LIN and even your alarm will require a CAN connection. The upside is that all these only require a one or two wire connection. The downside is that diagnosis can be very difficult. It must be said that CAN systems are very reliable but whilst dedicated diagnosis systems will tell which sensor, switch or ecu is not working correctly it often falls down on plain wiring faults. As Tony states, a VERY high speed occiliscope is needed. Given the relatively uncomplicated wiring on a narrowboat, I would do without it.

If they are made of cloth then be careful abiout mould from them getting damp from condensation, We eventually had new covers made from the same stuff as the cratch cover.

As I understand from the manual of my Victron 3000/12/100 multi-plus, it is not possible to isolate the ring main from the inverter. Onboard Energy confirm this but as 'Joanie M' is gas free we are never likely to want to turn the inverter off. It is very difficult to switch the unit to absorption mode but much easier if you have the optional remote. This allows you to easily set the inverter to the power assist feature. If it goes wrong you have to join the mains input and output leads together.

We went up the Derwent as far as Stamford Bridge and to Melbourne on the Pocklington in 1996. Didn't know that we were supposed to get permission from the YWT and the bods at the entrance lock didn't say anything. Nice moorings and pub in Melbourne but at Stamford B ridge we had to moor in the old lock almost directly under the bridge. Quite noisy. Most memorable bit was mooring for the night against a farmers field where a knigfisher had made his nest. Fantastic photos as he fed his young.

We are insured through them. As Ian said, easy to deal with and a lot cheaper than others. Had our Brompton bike added to the policy for about an extra £1.

There is a long thread about this on the Ownership forum. Lots of their boats seem to have been targeted.