Cruising England's canals and having a beer along the way.A blog of occasional news about our trips round England's canals firstly on Nb Eos - a share boat, and then our first boat Nb Notos and now Nb Hamwih.
Have received some alerts from my battery monitor*. It sends, via email, an alert if the battery drops to 60% and again at 50%. The only time I’ve received these in the past have been when we are on the boat and over using the inverter.
I’ve not received any warnings for several months, but in the last couple of weeks there have been 4 warnings. The chart below shows how the voltage of the battery rises during the day (thanks to the solar panel)and then declines during the night. Up until 3 weeks ago during the day the voltage would regularly reach 14 to 14.5 volts, but suddenly this has declined to 13 to 13.5 volts (The spike at the right is when I ran the engine for a couple of hours).
I’m not sure what is happening, but suspect there may be a battery problem. I have checked the levels in each battery and topped them up. Now it’s time to wait and see what happens.
*ChargeMetrix see here for post when I installed it.
For some time I’ve been thinking about using the space under the bed for storage. There is not much space because the black water tank is positioned under the bed. However there is a small gap between the tank and the bed edge.
There are three panels at the side of the bed and today I put a handle and hinges on one of them and there is space to store the electric drill and accessories.
Miles, Hours, Locks L/Ms per hour etc for the fourth year of Hamwih ownership : Jan to Dec 2021
Year
Total Days
Moored Days
Working on Boat Days
Upgrade 2018 Lockdown 20&21 Days
Cruising Days
Trips
Engine Hours
Cruising Hours*
Distance Miles
Locks
Avg Lock/Miles Per Hour
2021
365
180
39
87
53
10
297.3
286.2
530.25
337
2.92
2020
366
208
41
84
28
4
144.5
137.2
233.50
156
2.84
2019
365
224
45
96
10
570.3
541.7
902.25
747
2.89
2018
365
123
48
129
65
12
420.2
372.7
600.25
548
2.73
2017
161
99
22
40
2
189.7
170.7
308.75
157
2.46
* Cruising Hours are the total engine hours less those used for topping up the batteries, moving the boat to top up with water and/or fuel + winding in preparation for next trip.
For 2017 & 2018 about 90% of the engine hours were spent cruising. In November 2018 I fitted a solar panel and for 2019 & 2020 the cruising hours were approximately 95% of the total hours, in 2021 it was 96%. Up until the solar panel was fitted, when visiting the boat to keep an eye on it, I used to run the engine to top up the battery. Since the solar panel was fitted I’ve not had to do this, thus saving about 5% to 6% a year on fuel.
The engine hours recorded in the table below are the accumulation of the total hours the engine has been used since the previous fill up. Therefore the hours recorded at the first fill up for each year includes some hours from the previous year, whilst hours completed after the last fill up for the year are not counted until the following year. This explains the difference in hours recorded in the table above, where the engine hours are counted on a daily basis.
Year
Engine Hours
Litres
Litres per Hour
Cost
Cost per Litre
Overall Cost Per Hour
Central Heating Hours
Litres Used @ 0.5 per Hr
Cost Per Hour
Engine Litres Less CH
Litres Per Hour
Cost per Hour
2021
297.4
492.61
1.66
£398.59
£0.81
£1.34
65
32.5
£0.40p
460.1
1.55
£1.25
2020
151.2
259.00
1.71
£172.63
£0.67
£1.14
64
32.0
£0.33p
227.0
1.50
£1.00
2019
583.3
916.66
1.57
£777.93
£0.85
£1.33
167
83.5
£0.42p
833.2
1.43
£1.21
2018
430.2
624.02
1.45
£504.76
£0.81
£1.18
97
48.5
£0.41P
575.5
1.34
£1.08
2017*
159.8
353.90
2.21
£303.87
£0.86
£1.90
50
25.0
£0.43p
328.9
2.05
£1.77
* 2017 engine was a 38HP Beta Marine. Since 2018 the engine is a 43HP Beta Marine
Meeting some friends in Stourbridge for a drink on Saturday 27th November and decided to travel down by boat. A bus from my house takes about an hour, the trip by boat takes a day-and-a-half!
Started out at about midday on the Friday and managed to just get through Bratch before it got to dark. Moored just below Bratch and settled in for the evening, woken up during the night by heavy rain and winds. I didn’t know at the time, but this was Storm Arwen.
Woke up in the morning ready to set off, but discovered that snow had fallen overnight. I decided to wait until the snow melted before moving off, although this put me behind scheduled.
Snow below Bratch Locks 27th November 2021
The rest of day was uneventful until I reached Stourton Junction. I was about to turn into the locks when I was told that the third lock up was out of action (a gate was being replaced). So much for mooring in Stourbridge and going for a pub crawl. There was nothing for it, but to go through the bridge and moor opposite Stewpony Wharf.
Unfortunately I didn’t notice the tree that appeared to be half blocking the bridge hole and got stuck about half-way through. To cut a long story short the friends I was due to go drinking with came down to Stewpony and after much pulling on ropes and pushing with the boat-pole helped me through the bridge hole.
After mooring the boat we drove into Stourbridge for a drink and a meal. Then a taxi back to the boat later in the evening.
The plan for Sunday was to start the return journey and arrive back home sometime on the Monday. However a quick look at the fallen tree and it was clear that although I had managed to drive over it the previous afternoon there was no way I would be able to reverse back through the bridge hole.
Tree blocking bridge from aboveTree from Stewpony Wharf side
A quick call to C&RT established that due to storm Arwen several trees had been uprooted on the Staffs & Worcester and it was unlikely that that the tree would be removed on Sunday. So spent all day on the boat hoping that the tree would be cleared on Monday. Fortunately at about 10am on Monday a gang of contactors appeared and started to cut up & remove the tree.
I was back underway by midday and with the help of some some unseasonal weather (very warm & dry) I was able to make good progress and got home late on the Tuesday. 5 days just to have a Saturday evening drink with some mates, the joy of boating.
A few months ago we had some film applied to our street facing windows at home. From the off-cuts there was enough to use on the bow doors. This means that we can open the blinds to let light in, but not worry about people looking into the bedroom.
I finally got round to fitting/installing the film and am very pleased with the result as the photos below show. 2 with one door complete and the a couple showing both door windows covered.
A bright but fresh day for our first trip of the year. Delayed due to the Coronavirus lockdown.
We travelled to the winding hole just north of bridge 5 on the Shropshire Union. Approaching from the south and everything appeared fine, however as we went through the bridge hole we could see several pieces of brickwork and then turning round it was obvious that a section of the bridge had been demolished.
Bridge 5 (Before & After_
After winding we past the boat club and made our way to Autherley junction.
At Autherley we turned south. A really bright day enabled Josie to take advantage of the lock free section to walk Bruno. The sunny day also encouraged some volunteers to work on maintaing the tow path just past Two Pennants basin.
WE turned just below the lock at Dimingsdale to head back to our mooring.We turned and then stopped on the mooring rings above the lock for lunch. After lunch we had been travelling for about 10 minutes when we saw Tony & Erica (former sharers with us on Eos) on their boat ‘Gin & Tonica’. Stopped and chatted for about 15 minutes before making our way back home.
