dmr

They do swim well and will sometimes choose to go into the water if they want to get to the other side. A few weeks ago while moored in a small town I was woken at about 4am by heavy banging on boat, went out full of fear expecting to see a gang of drunk lads on the roof, but it was a deer fallen down into the gap between boat and bank. Went back in to get boots on before attempting a rescue, but as I came back out it had climbed out onto the bank. It then jumped back in, behind the boat, to swim to the other side.

Top of Crofton flight to top of Wootton Rivers flight via the Bruce tunnel and Burbage Wharf.

A nice thing about the Arduino project is that there are a lot of ready made code libraries, especially for hardware drivers, so you can get going quickly without doing too much nitty gritty stuff. I think getting a mix of hobbyists and professional into the same project was a good way to go. Software is pretty easy, give it a go, if you can design electronics you can almost certainly write the software for it.

I've used the nano quite a bit, but it still eats too much power. I like high level languages, my first ever proper job was writing assembler and I promised myself never to do it again. Personally I don't like C and the "curly brace" syntax but its actually a very good language for Arduino/mico controller stuff, and has the advantage over assembler that it might be possible to re use the code on a different controller. I think there are a fair few electronic engineers and firmware writers on this forum.

The Arduino is a bit power hungry for a device that needs to be on all the time and running off the boat batteries. There are some new impressive looking micro controllers now available and I think some might be compatible with the Arduino IDE. I have not investigated these myself but a www search might be worthwhile. I think some how integrated Bluetooth etc.

The CRT phone anseering folk are a bit variable, anything from really good to chocolate teapot. Leave it a couple of days and phone again and you might get a better one.

The Liverpool swing bridges are entertaining, everything one is different, keep an anti vandal and a BW key in your pocket. Unless its changed, the most entaining one has a power console with a BW key, the lights flash, barriers come down, and then nothing....you have to go and swing the bridge by hand.

I don't know, there has been trouble in the past from local youth (can't say more in these politically correct times), but once a place on the cut gets a bad reputation it appears to take at least 20 years to get over it. Hardings wood is a nice spot, tunnel entrance is all dark in a bit of a cutting so stop at Hardings. Went in there ages ago and it was no good, but think it has changed hands since and now looks more tempting. I think it was lager only/no handpumps when I went in. Bluebell still has good beer but its not quite as unique as it used to be.

I don't think the BlueBell is quite as good as it used to be, but still well worth a visit.

There is a long mooring one lock down from the tunnel pound, Hardings Wood. I know one boat who had trouble there several years ago but otherwise its safe and usually has several boats moored there. Easy walk to a big shop (Tesco?) and also to the BlueBell pub which used to be, and probably still is, a must visit place for beer drinkers. We have stayed there many times with no issues.

Tanks usually have a big BSP connection for the filler hose, but I note that the delivery man does not use that, he just dangles his hose into the big inspection cover, and he does sometimes ask me to confirm that there is space available.

A fuse blowing with heat and sparks etc and igniting any hydrogen given off by the batteries. Should not apply to Lithiums, also it is possible to get enclosed safe fuses.

My guess is that they (or somebody else who they know) have had an unpleasant visit from Cusoms and Excise or Trading Standards or whoever, and it has been found that their metering system was not accurate for small quantities of fuel, and they have possibly over-reacted to this a bit.

I believe so, and possibly the origin of the saying "getting the sh*ty end of the stick"

sponge on a stick ? 😀