jetzi

But that's irrelevant as even if I was limited by WiFi speed, it is still faster than LTE. Besides, I am not above connecting an Ethernet cable to my laptop if it will improve my speed. No my phone doesn't receive 5G. It doesn't receive much of anything inside a 6mm thick steel box! I have a Teltonika RUT950 4G router with a Poynting omnidirectional 4G antenna on a 3m tall mast. The limiting factor is currently my 4G. It is often fine but video calls are sometimes just not quite up to scratch, which is a frustrating experience for both me and my clients. So yeah, 700 quid for a router is a lot, and I'd rather spend less, but I'm prepared to pay as much as it will cost to get the absolute best possible experience.

I did say it was expensive! I live aboard and work remotely, and 4G is only just, not quite fast enough. Plenty of people have iPhones which cost well over 700 quid. I also don't understand it, my phone cost 90 and does exactly the same job.

Not sure I understand the objection. Because it is faster than LTE/4G (~100Mbps)?

It is a good thing I don't have anything like 200k because this is obviously a world I know nothing about! Makes sense why but it is a really low thing to do.

There's a topic on a broads forum here: https://forum.norfolkbroadsnetwork.com/topic/23665-alphacraft-boatyard-at-st-olaves-up-for-auction/ Constant silting, regular flooding, ground is too marshy to build on, unlikely to get planning permission for anything other than light industrial, wreckage of boat moulds and parts everywhere, road access is very rough, and the folks on that forum seem to complain more about the broads authority than we do even about cart! Still, 200k guide price for 4 acres of river fronted property has to make one dream a little!

The other thread was talking about the broads authority making life hard for any purchaser. But given that there are basins there, what would be stopping the buyer just getting stuck in with a spade or JCB and clearing them? (Other than it being an enormous amount of work).

Thanks. So this technique is frowned upon because presumably you could damage the lock gates if you do it incorrectly?

I've seen there are now a few (expensive) 5G routers now on the market and my provider (EE) has pretty good 5G coverage at this point. One in particular I like the look of is the Robustel R5020 for £595 ex VAT (so, £715). Has anyone upgraded to a 5G router and noticed any difference? I have a Poynting 4G antenna. Will this work with 5G or should I upgrade the antenna as well? This particular company (3grouterstore) say they don't sell to residential customers because "Our Industrial 3G and 4G and 5G M2M IOT Routers ... usually have slower WiFi than a home router". This sounds like nonsense, surely the protocol is the protocol - if not, would I be correct in saying this Robustel R5020 is specced appropriately for high speed?

Can you explain what you mean by strapping-in?

I also just noticed that according to CART, the Barton Swing Aqueduct "can be seen operating daily, usually in late afternoon"! When I crossed the aqueduct I kind of assumed that since the MSC is rarely used these days, particularly by boats large enough to need the air draft, that the aqueduct was rarely used as well. How disappointing to have missed it, I will have to go back.

Looking for some new destinations to take my boat, and I'm a sucker for sightseeing. I'm on my way to the Standedge tunnel as it's the longest, highest and deepest canal tunnel in the UK. I counted 72 locks to get to the summit. I think this is the highest navigable point above sea level in the UK? What other waterways claims to fame are there? I feel like CART's list of seven wonders and IWA's silver propeller challenge are two good resources, but I feel like there are so many more that could be added.

But as you were transiting the top gates, you should have the top paddles open, thus giving a way for the water to enter from the pound into the lock? This is also a pretty good idea to try. Ideally you have a well-informed crew, one can try to slow the leakage from the bottom gates (reseating paddles, pole in the mitre, etc), one can perhaps try to deal with the boat (trying to reverse off the cill, trying to hang the boat up on the bollards to gain another precious minute or two), one can run up to the lock above to let water down (would not want to have to explain if there are other boaters in that lock or pound at the time!).

Ancient topic I know, but worth a bump in my opinion. I have been a full time live aboard for 3 years now so not exactly a newbie, but I have never considered that you could sink a boat entering/leaving a full lock from/into a low pound. Everyone should know about this, even though it is a rare event. Key takeaways for me, none of which I knew before this thread: Assess the depth of the pound and don't try enter a lock if there is a low pound above it. You can measure your draft with a tape measure from the skeg to the top of the water level in the wedhatch - then make a depth gauge mark on a pole (useful for many situations methinks!) If you do ground on the top cill you will have seconds to decide what to do - blast of thrust to try to get back to where you came from. A pole between the mitre of the gates can in a pinch slow the leakage. The only remedy for this kind of cilling is to run up to the next lock and let water down into the pound.

There was a thread about this a few weeks back, talking about the "swing bridge ahead" for paddlers on the L&L. I hope that it at least slowed the epidemic of paddlers paddling full pelt into the bridges?? These signs really are infuriating to see, completely useless being that they are within line of sight of the swing bridge, and since a few of the duly signposted swingbridges are in fact disused. So actually less than useless - inaccurate signage is even worse than useless signage. My pet peeve is shops that have a permanently illuminated "Open", which in my experience make up the larger proportion. It renders all "open" signs redundant because you can never know if it is accurate or not.

I classed it as "other" and "narrowboat". From the questions it would seem probably not aimed at narrowboats, as I can't really think of any particular issues eating. Nor for storage really... I figure if storage is a problem, either you have too much stuff or your boat is too small or both.

Gosh Alan, that sounds terrifying I am glad you, boat and family came out OK. What stopped the pump continuing to fill you up and sinking you? Just the fact that the water got into the tank and stopped the engines? Definitely think you did the right thing with the flare. Perhaps in retrospect you could have let the coast guard know that you had used one and managed to signal a boat as they suggested for a tow. But I would have thought they would be more understanding that this couldn't be a priority for you while you were in crisis. I like the CCTV on the engine idea. If you have it recording it could also help diagnose how things went wrong, as well as when.

I will try hunt down the volt drop. But it is really kind of a feature rather than a bug, because especially in the absence of a cooling system i dont want to overload the alts. Yeah, I'm aware that disconnecting the warning light wire only stops the alternator from starting, not from continuing to charge once the engine is running. I have been using it this way for some time now since during solar season I almost never need to use the alternator, I have to restart the engine if I want to stop the alternator from charging. I'm aware that they can spontaneously start due to residual charge, but so far I haven't experienced this. In the case this happens, id be relying on the BMS shutoff.

After a little experimentation, I connected my winter wire directly between the negative bus of my LiFePO4 bank, and the housing of the starter alternator. This has resulted in ~40A from the domestic and ~20A from the starter, which seems sufficiently low output to keep both alternators below 50 degrees centigrade. I tried a thicker cable here and got a similar result, but it looked like more of the current was coming from the domestic alternator in this case, so it doesn't seem like an improvement if I do that. I think I'll install a big on/off on my winter wire, so that I can have an extremely rudimentary version of Nick's "fast/slow" charge toggle, and then combined with my separate switch on for my alternators, I can have no charging, slow charging, fast charging. Rather ugly but it will do for the time being! I may spend a bit more time hunting down other sources of resistance to try to bring that 60A number up a bit, especially if I can do it in combination with more advanced alternator cooling, but 60A is sort of sufficient for my needs when outside of solar season anyway.

It seems malicious not to put the water back if all they are doing is warming it up...

What's the university data centre water extraction for? Do they use it to cool their systems or something?

Oh man, you are really selling it to me now! 21 locks down and up doesn't seem that bad for such a prize at the end.

Ooh, there's a guillotine lock at Slaithwaite?? Why didn't you say so, now I have incentive to go down at least the first 21 locks! I've never been through a guillotine lock gate before, would be nice to have a tiny bit of experience when I finally get to visit the East Anglian Fens!

It's my belief that anything that makes you look like you're not on your boat does more harm than good, this is particularly true for boats with padlocks and bolts across the doors - whenever I pass one of these I tut. Lights on a timer is more effective IMHO than any deadbolt. Your aim is first to deter, and then second to slow them down. Looking like you're home is the best deterrent, because most burglars are after stuff, not people. Boats that are obviously locked from the outside have a negative impact on deterrence. If I was in the OP's position and the doors were really that flimsy that they couldn't be locked with a mortise type lock, I would replace them with steel doors. You'd have to have them fabricated though so won't be as affordable or as DIYable as a bar across the door. This is obviously hyperbole, but there is a ring of truth to it. If someone is determined enough to get in, they will, and this applies equally to tents, boats, houses and even bank vaults. I'd hazard that a steel narrowboat with portholes too small to climb through and lockable steel doors is just as secure as a house (bricks through windows work with houses too). The real risk with boating in my view is that it's often done in secluded areas that are good hunting grounds for opportunists. Ironically, despite all the London-bashers on this forum who seem to have no experience of it, London is very much not that. On the contrary, the boating community is very strong in London, even if only because you need to coordinate breasting up. In London I always know my neighbours, and they tend to be younger, fitter and more streetwise than the retirees on the rest of the network. As a result, if I was going away for a week, I would sooner leave my boat in London than on a towpath on the L&L.

If the IG terminal is a voltage sense, then perhaps I can abuse that to get the alternator to put out current even when the domestic is running by connecting it to a lower voltage source?

The reason I said it was strange was this logic - if there is current flowing through the ignition->lamp->IG terminal wire, which it must be in order to energise the alternator, at it must be energising given that it's producing current, then the lamp should light? My "winter wiring" actually has this length already to keep the current to around 50A in order not to overheat the alternator. Interestingly the resistance on my domestic alternator is on the negative. The current seems to not like flowing through the engine block to the negative cable. Thanks for the encouragement, I will try this and see if it makes an improvement.