Thursday 14 April 2011

Solar Panels and Soft Headedness

The Skipper has gone off for a walk into the village of Kegworth, about a mile along a very busy main road, so while he is away I’m making the most of the computer and having my say for a change. As you know he loves the walk but he‘ll be in a foul mood when he gets back since he doesn’t like the stress of busy road traffic anymore. He not only reckons that the fumes poison him but that the continuous noise gives him a headache!
The poor old man..... I do think he’s going a bit soft in the head really.
For the third time since leaving Warwick about a month ago, he is paying for a mooring would you believe and we are moored up at a little builders yard called East Midland Boat Services, on the River Soar about a mile upstream from Kegworth Deep Lock. It’s actually a wonderful little place and looks quite ancient. But maybe the fact that it has one of the ‘Dunkirk Little Ships’, which is even older than my ‘JP2’, tied up in front of it that makes it look that way.
Most of the numerous moorings are taken up by small dirty white cruisers and I am by far the biggest girl there. I am tied up stern to the bank alongside a rickety old landing stage about three feet long and even moored diagonally into the river my bow sticks out far beyond any of my neighbours.  It makes me feel quite self conscious and gangling.
So what are we doing, sitting here doing nothing again after having made such swift progress over the last week or so? I even had hopes that the old man had decided to turn over a new leaf and get on with this cruising business and not dawdle so much.
But no there is method in his madness.
He has decided to buy a solar panel to help keep my batteries charged up and we are staying here for a few days, using East Midlands Boat Services as the delivery address. So being here is quite a good idea I suppose, though I’m not so sold on the solar Panel as he is.
If we cruised every day, like I want him to, then the alternator driven by the engine would keep me well charged up anyway. But he does have these silly ideas of wanting to stay moored for longer than one day sometimes and since we have on board a hungry electric fridge that never lets up, the engine needs to be run every day to keep me charged up.
He thinks and has been advised that the solar panel will provide more than enough power to keep the fridge going on its own. So he’s taken the plunge. Time will tell!
But I see the Skipper coming in through the front gate laden down with bags and with a frown on his face so I had better close!
See you later!


Sunrise on the River Soar


Sunshine on the River Soar

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