Monday 19th November 2018



We had kind of planned to move on today, but one of us was rather hungover. Harvey got his day off to a bad start. A dog went to nip him and he finished up in the canal. It is not the first time he has been in and it always greatly distresses him. At least this time he managed to keep himself on the surface as nobody was close at the time. Normally he sinks like a stone and you have to trawl for him.

In the pub last night, we were talking with some other live-aboard boat owners and the subject of energy management and conservation came up. We had noticed that these two boats run their engines at least twice per day. We came to the conclusion that, since having the electrical cupboard rewired and having the battery bank replaced and increasing the capacity, our electrical supply is about as well managed as it can be. The solar panels certainly help, keeping the batteries topped-up and lights are religiously switched off when not in use.

The stove is light now day and night and we have a kettle that sits atop of it and this is used to fill the main kettle for making tea or for cooking, filling the sink for washing dishes or the bathroom sink for a wash. This saves us gas and also reduces running of the engine for producing hot water.

This means that, when we are not moving, our engine is only run to produce hot water for a shower, or for running the washing machine or using the iron. We have been here for five days now and only had to run our engine once.

The inverter is generally only used when cooking as the fan requires a 240V supply. Whenever the inverter is on, all our chargers are plugged in, lap-tops, phones, power packs and kindles. These other boats are continuously running their inverters. One even still has a 240V fridge and freezer which is ridiculous in this day and age. The inverter would be the biggest consumer of electricity on board even when not producing any 240V supply. Neither of them quite realised this.

We walked up into the village for supplies and, apart from giving the roof tools another coat of paint, we have hunkered down and had a quiet day. We will decide tomorrow if we are going to move.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Thursday 6 th September 2018 We started off just before 10am in not too bad weather. The whole of the surface of the canal was covered in a kind of white dust. It turned out it was some kind of seed probably from trees, but it was a weird sight. We quickly came across the first lock of the day beside the Gallows Inn pub. We were going to stop here last night but we were both glad we hadn’t. The pub didn’t look very welcoming and the area didn’t seem the best. We had been warned that the locks on the Erewash Canal were heavy. And they are. Brenda was really struggling with many of them which is very unusual. Not just the weight of the gates but also the difficulty in operating the paddle gear. It is not a good idea to leave the boat unattended in a double lock when it is the only boat in there, but there were a few locks were we had to do just that and even I struggled mightily with the locks. Yesterday we saw just four boats on the move all day, and they were all go...
Read more
Image
Thursday 8 th August 2019 We had spoken with our neighbours yesterday, Ken and Mary, both in their mid-70’s who have lived on their boat, continuously cruising for 11 years. We had agreed to move up the river, doing the locks, together. After a couple of trips to Tesco’s, again taking the trolley right to the boat and buying a new cordless vacuum cleaner, we set off. It felt fantastic to be out on the Thames. At Caversham Lock, there seemed to be plenty of colour and lots of people watching the boats. We were held for a while at the lock with a queue of cabin cruisers ahead of us. It is necessary to hold an Environmental Agency licence for navigating on the Thames. We had been told at Blake’s Lock that we would be able to obtain one at Caversham, but the lock was being manned by a volunteer who did not have authority to issue licences. Beyond the lock was no doubt Reading’s better face and it looked lovely from the river. Reading Bridge was a particularly attractive brid...
Read more
Image
Friday 22 nd February 2019 The fog first thing this morning was so thick you could see no more than 50 yards. A harbinger of a nice day it turned out. We were on the move by 8am for the mile run-in to Atherstone and we moored just before the top lock near a road bridge that is very convenient for the town. We are opposite the derelict factory of Wilson and Stafford. This was a felt hat making enterprise that made hats that were exported all over the world until closure about 35 years ago. Apparently, slaves on the West Indies sugar plantations all wore hats made in Atherstone. The factory is a blight on the town. It has been sold several times for housing development and would make desirable apartments. The frontage of the building is listed but the problem lies inside. There are many chemicals absorbed into the fabric of the building including mercury, a heavy metal used in the making of hats and asbestos. It would cost a fortune to demolish or develop, including clos...
Read more