Yes, the well trodden route – back to Norton junction, down thru Braunston tunnel – 3 or 4 boats met us, including an old boat with a dazzling headlamp and no leeway given. Luckily we shared all the locks with a nice group on their timeshare boat from Gayton (Malvolio) and as it was so busy, we had lots of boats coming up, so all the locks were ready for us. A brief stop for lunch and we decided that it was too busy & noisy here. We likes it rural we does. So, on to Willoughby – a regular stop. Under some trees and it was pushing 30 degrees – again!! Here’s some graphs from the weather station (faithfully erected everyday):
This shows the outside temperature from June until today (max was 33.1)
This shows days of sunshine plus how many hours! Most astonishing for Britain.
Some fairly recent babies . . .
Big, old and heavy gates but we did have lots of help. Just six to do.
Under some trees and that’s it for the day. 1300 and time to stop – easy life, eh?
Strange pose from my crew member/admiral? Speak no evil? The herb planter is looking good – thyme, savoury, mint x 2, parsley and marjoram! Plus the two pepper plants are now producing fruit. Not surprised in this tropical Summer.
A beef tagine has been cooking on the slow cooker – with apricots, chick peas and ras-al-hanout spices. Should be good.
Meanwhile, here’s the techy bit for today.
Steve’s new toy – the Victron BMV-712, battery monitor (with bluetooth – so you can see it all happening on your phone!). That’s the grey round dial. The Smartgauge, next to it is very good but it just gives you the %, which is nice but % of what exactly? Aha, the new gauge tells me how many amps have been eaten since we turned the engine off. Yesterday it was 36Ah and the Smartgauge said down to 91% – Oer, so that means, roughly that 100% should be about 370Ah? Hmm, our batteries are 3x200Ah=600Ah. So a fair bit down then, if this new bit of elastic trickery is to be believed. Still, the lights stay on and we can also watch TV, DVD player & sound bar . . . but I feel a new set of batteries will be due soon.
