Sunday, 11 November 2012

Sunday in the sun

It's been another stonking day here, bright sun all day; at one point the solar panel had pushed the voltage up to 14.1v. We've been taking it quietly after the hard work of yesterday, pottering about in the boat for most of the morning, with just a couple of trips out to the shop. Firstly for the paper and then for bread, after we remembered just before lunchtime that we'd scoffed the last bread on the boat making peanut butter and greengage jam sarnies last thing last night*.

This gourmet lifestyle is just amazing.

After lunch, we did venture forth to walk round the marina; Sheila had run a washload during the morning, so she put most of it in the tumble drier as we set out, and it was well on the way to being done by the time we got back.

We had taken a break whilst crossing the entrance bridge to watch three boats manoeuvring; one coming off the service wharf, one leaving the marina and one coming in. They managed this with some skill and neither bad temper nor contact between the boats.

Full marks to them, though it did leave us feeling something of the discontent of the Ramsbottoms in Albert and the Lion:

They didn't think much to the ocean, 
The waves they were piddlin' and small.
There were no wrecks and nobody drownded,
'Fact, nothin' to laugh at at all!

But we didn't set off to the zoo, with or without sticks with horse's heads handles.

Back at the boat, we've had a peaceful cup of tea and read a) the paper and b) the December issue of Canal Boat. Sheila also looked up the answers to yesterday's giant general knowledge crossword. We didn't do so well this week, but it's still fun tracking the answers down.

Tomorrow, we'll be a bit busier, helping Elanor with some decorating in the morning, and going to the optician in the afternoon.

*OK, purists, I know there's no primary verb in this sentence, but I'm trying to be stylistically creative here...

2 comments:

Domestic & General Insulation Ltd said...

Does the solar panel provide all of the power you need for the boat? Appliances etc-wise I mean!

Bruce in Sanity said...

Hi

Sorry, I've only just realised I never responded to this – blame the decorating!

The answer is no, not all the power. In the summer, we can go several days without running the engine to charge the batteries if it's very sunny, but we never quite catch up with the drain running the fridge overnight.

In spring and autumn, it's a useful extra supply, but not enough to keep us going all day, usually. On our previous boat, we needed to run the engine an average of 3.5 hours per day, whereas on this one it's more like 2, but of course we've also got less demand, having fitted LED lights and a more efficient fridge.

Hope this helps – in summary, we find the panel well worthwhile, but not the complete answer to our power needs. There's more discussion of these issues in the ebook...

All the best

Bruce