Jen-in-Wellies

CaRT should put a stoppage on the Leicester line while they investigate the disappearance.

The important parameter to control for LED's is the current. Too much will kill them. The sort that @nicknorman describes typically have a small integrated circuit, an inductor and a couple of other components on the circuit board with the LED's themselves to set the current flowing through the LED's. They will produce the same light output with input voltages across the entire range from 9 to 30V, so are immune to the state of battery charge, still lighting when the battery is essentially flat. Not that this is a good thing to try! Cheap LED's use resistors to limit the current, but the current then depends directly on the input voltage. These will dim as the batteries go flat and can be killed by high voltages and spikes.

Railways and canals both have similar limitations on climbing hills and both tend to go between the same populated and industrial areas, even if the industry has now disappeared. As a consequence, they often follow a similar, if not identical route. At the Watford gap, you have the Roman Watling Street (A5), the GU Leicester line canal, the railway and the M1 all within yards of each other to use a gap in a line of hills, before the canal and railway are forced to tunnel. Civil engineers over nearly two thousand years have come to the same conclusion. If the railway is still there and if there is enough population to keep the station open, particularly for a commute to a city, then there is a good chance that a station isn't too far from the canal. From experience, much of the S&SYN, L&L, HNC, Rochdale, W&B are like this. Many others too. In a lot of cases, the canal was also used to help in the construction of the railway, as at Standedge tunnel.

Actually, DVLA civil servants over the last year and have half have either been at the office catching COVID in huge numbers and having to go off sick and sometimes dying, or on strike because they can't work from home and watch Netflix and not catch COVID and get sick, or die. Any of these, being sick, being dead, or being on strike results in you not being able to talk to one. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58171769

Don't buy a Victron dc-dc charger. Having a Victron and Mastervolt product in use on the same boat will cause an opening in the structure of space-time, leading to an expanding region of negation and bringing about the end of the universe. So don't do that OK?

The problem is having the beer in a rucksack. If the beer were transferred to the stomach before cycling back, it will be closer to the centre of mass of the body. People who drink a lot of beer tend to have a lot of centre of mass around the stomach, from what I've seen! You will also be nicely aneathetised and won't notice when you wobble in to a ditch, the cut, or the path of an oncoming artic.

No, but prevention, or more likely delay is a good idea.

The price difference between horrible modified sine wave inverters and pure sine wave seems to have dropped a lot in recent years. A small pure sine wave inverter isn't terribly expensive these days.

I don't do that sort of thing any more, if I can help it. Now have a bike trailer for the big shop as I was concerned about the cumulative spinal damage!

What input voltage does the laptop take? There are car adaptors for laptops that will take 12V and convert it and take out any spikes. @TheBiscuits beat me to it!

I don't know about allow. I do know that 20 litres of diesel in jerry can in a backpack on a push bike is not terribly stable to cycle. Was very glad it was only a few miles! Jen

However, based in Sheffield and environs, a boat over 6'10" still gives a huge cruising range. Up to Ripon, over to Liverpool, down to Nottingham, Market Harborough and almost to Burton on Trent, over to Boston. Beam isn't the only limitation, too much draft (depth below the water line), air draft (height above the water), cabin shape (square is more limiting), will affect where you can go too. Jen

No limitation at all for a narrowboat (<=60' long). Possibly limited for some under powered cruisers on rivers, particularly the tidal section of the Trent. Quite a few boats based in Sheffield, either at the basin, Jonathon Wilson's boat yard, or Tinsley and cruise the whole connected system. I came to Sheffield temporarily. Still here ten years later! The big limitation of being canal based in Sheffield is having to book the Tinsley lock flight ahead of time, then the time it takes to descend and ascend it. Means that a weekend away doesn't get you very far. Mooring further out, there is a yard in Rotherham, then little till you get to Thorne. These give you more options for a few days cruising. Jen

Whenever I review and regret some of my career choices, I console myself with the thought that Faecal Analyst appears nowhere on my CV! 😀

The article doesn't say if it is cassette, or pump out. Doesn't need to really. Pump out just isn't that smart. 😀 Could the smartness lead to better composting?

Boats with old thump thump diesel engines you can hear, but can't see as they are shrouded in a travelling cloud of clag. When boats are being legged, you can only hear the heavy breathing and effing and blinding of the leggers.

Only required on selected waterways. I won't go in to how most narrowboats with nav lights don't have them fitted correctly my boat included. I did come across a boat with nav lights on in a tunnel travelling in the same direction. Without knowing that the nav lights were on it was impossible to tell if it was coming or going. The rear white light could have easily been a dim tunnel light heading towards me, with no nav lights lit as normal practice. The fact that it wasn't getting any closer as we progressed led me to conclude it was travelling in the same direction. The only way a white rear light would work would be if all boats had nav lights and had to use them in tunnels, so you could tell from the red/green as well as the tunnel light that one was travelling towards you. Chances of that being mandated are zero.

What you should look for is what is described as a warm white LED, rather than a cool white so as to not get that stark dentists surgery vibe. A warm white will be more yellow, rather than the stark blueish light from a cool white LED. Alternatively, look for a lower colour temperature. of around 3000K. Cool white will be 4000K or more. How are you planning to recharge your rechargeable lights? If they are being recharged off the boat batteries, then you might as well use those batteries to run the lights directly, without a built in battery in the lights.

If you remove them, can you light the oven? 😆