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.








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