Very busy three miles!

We woke up to a heavy frost which made things very pretty outside with the chimney just letting out some gentle smoke.

After our weekend of sport (Rugby, Football, and Grand Prix) and chopping wood, we really needed a change of scenery today.

This was the first time the Lithium batteries had been below 6 degrees, and when checking they were saying "Charging disabled" and an alarm had come on by the boat management system (BMS)

Lithium batteries don't like being charged in cold temperatures, so this can be a problem through the winter months.. So when you look at the Colour controller (CCGX) the solar panels had been turned off and alternator charging was also off..   So we have to get round this problem by warming up the engine room, either by the engine, the central heating boiler, or running a heater of some form till they are warm enough. On each battery there is a temperature sensor and it has to be above 5 degrees. We have set this to 6 degrees just to be safe. Watch this space to see how we get on during the coming months.
Anyway, by the time we did set off the sun had broken through the fog and the batteries were ok to be charged, so it was all systems go for us.. We stopped at Grove Lock marina and picked up a couple of bags of coal for keeping the fire in overnight.

We then dropped down the lock and headed towards Leighton Buzzard.

Our second stop was on the water point and Del filled Derwent6 and got rid of the rubbish, while Al walked into town and posted a parcel and also brought some new boots.

While she was away another boat turned up so Del moved on to the Tesco's moorings and waited there, and Al turned up with a lovely surprise of a Costa coffee and a nice bun.

The Aldi is closed here until December as it is being refurbished so we had to use Tesco's and stock up all the cupboard space.. We eventually got on our way and then met a queue at the lock with the hire boats going out for this week with the kids off school for half term..
We went down the lock with a guy moving a boat for someone, so we let him go as he was on a bit of a mission.. We trickled along for the next couple of miles past the Globe Inn pub.

We then reached our mooring and was surprised how busy it was round there.

Its a nice feeling sorting out Derwent6 knowing you going into a warm and snuggy boat as the fire had been going all day..
It had been a very funny day, as we hadn't gone very far, but we seemed to have done a lot.
Now with all the cupboards full of food it was time to tuck in!

Battery update and AES enabled

We have relaxed here at Grove for a bit as the weather hasn't been too good. We had a good day when we moored up and managed to do some washing, but then the weather turned and we had very little solar..
We have been running a bit low on food, but we are using everything up and we have the pub here at Grove Lock (albeit that this pub is a bit expensive). We have made some bread using the bread maker on the batteries and it coped fine..

So we have found so far that with no solar we have had to run the engine every couple of days and then the batteries drop down to about 50% and then charge back up to around 85%.

We have now changed the inverter settings, putting on low power AES (auto energy saving) mode, which is an energy saving setting which takes out one of the waves and drops the voltage to 110v when nothing is turned on.. This saves the battery life overnight and only turns on to 230v when something like the fridge comes on..  This can be adjusted and we are still playing with it. This saved 5% on the SOC (state of charge) overnight..
Anyone with a Victron Inverter will have this setting, and for boats its a big saving on your battery discharge.. You can adjust it by plugging into it by VE Config and then ticking the box AES enabled..

When we have to run the engine the graph looks like this.

Del has also found out that the solar panel brackets will tilt stern to bow, which is handy when we are facing East or West.. If its not windy then just one stay can be used, but if it is windy then two stays are a must.. This is another advantage against the brackets that just tilt side to side..

All Brightening Up

There was a heavy mist outside of the porthole this morning which is always a good sign that the weather could change for the better. It was cold but nothing would stop us cruising with a few layers on..

It was very autumnal as we set of in the gloom like in Pirates of the Caribbean, but things soon started to clear just as we went through the swingbridge and onto the first lock at Ivinghoe.

This time the pound was full and there were even boats moored in it, "good luck with that" we thought as we passed them. We met a lovely Alsatian dog here who followed us and kept picking up a stick and dropping it to throw.

She was so sweet and held us up a bit as we played catch.. She must have came off of one of the boats in the pound..
We spotted the gliding club towing gliders up and that is another good sign as it meant the weather was going to brighten up..

We said our goodbyes for another year to Ivinghoe Beacon here in the background.

We then passed through the next lock as it felt a bit brighter and warmer.

And it was clear why this lock would be having a stoppage during the winter works..

Sure enough the weather did brighten up and we had clear blue skies.

We got to Slapton lock and decided to top up with water. We had to wait for a boat to finish filling but it was only small and we pulled back to fill the tank.

It was just wonderful cruising in bright sunshine all the way up to Church lock. Al decided to get some more washing on as there was a chance it might dry in the now pleasant sunshine.

  We then looked for a mooring and was surprised to see they had cut down all the reeds up to Grove lock which had opened up some more moorings here..

With the washing done, the washing line was put out, solar panels up and telly sorted out.. It turned out to be a very warm afternoon.. So we are low on wood and don't have any kindling so tomorrow might be a wood chopping day..

Fair weather boaters

As anyone following this blog will know, we are fair weather boaters, and we just don't see the point of travelling in the rain, if we don't have to. Let's be honest October has been a very wet month.
We were caught out getting here at Pitstone and it just take a bit of the fun out of cruising.
So we stayed put for the weekend as we wanted to watch the Rugby and other stuff including Al's Strictly.
We haven't been able to do much as it stopped us getting outside, but to be honest is has just been nice to do nothing but lard in front of the telly watching sport! We have laid off the drink for a bit as well and both lost a bit of weight, because we needed to..
It has just got cold enough that we now have to light the fire, and to get to the fire we put the central heating on for an hour, and Derwent6 is always warm and snug.. We planned to move off Monday but the weather still looked iffy. So here for another day with good signals and views..
Today was the day we lost Alf, (Al's dad) five years ago, it is amazing how much it leaves a big hole in your life. RIP to all our loved one's..

Sun before eleven!

It was a lovely cold start to the morning, so we lit the fire, set off at 9.00am, and turned outside Cowroast marina.

We had to turn here because the weeds were so bad on the winding hole we feared stuff getting round the propeller. We then crept past all the boats and headed into the wooded section past Tring station again.

It was very pretty as the sunshine shone through the trees and gave it all a mystic look.

We reached the water point and a widebeam was on it attached to the water point.. This is how the conversation went.
WB "Do you want water mate"
D6  "Yes mate, but it's a fast tap so we will wait thanks"
WB "Oh I've filled, but I want to jet wash the boat off"
D6 " Oh right we will get our water first then please"

We filled with water and made our way up to the lock..
A boat was coming out as we turned up with the volunteers at the ready.

 With the locks in our favour we progressed down the flight with ease, with sunshine at the top.

And clouds at the bottom.

We passed the Aylesbury Arm and it was just starting to spit with rain but we just wanted to get through the last two locks on the flight.

By this time it was pouring down and we were getting a tad wet. Luckily our mooring was available and we sorted ourselves out and wrapped up by the fire.

The nights are drawing in now and its dark by 6.30pm and after our dinner and Al's Strictly "It takes two" we turned off the telly and listened to the radio. It's a very therapeutic thing to do on a autumnal evening.

Meeting up with Mochyn Du

It was rain first thing this morning (just to make a change) but it did clear up at about 11.00am.
There was some sunshine so Del got cracking on the brasses and removing the Tooty cat footprints off the roof..
We now have to tip the solar panels to get the maximum amps to the batteries because the sun is so low..

In the evening we met up with Mark and Sian on n.b Mochyn Du and had a few drinks down at the Valiant Trooper at Aldbury.

We had a good catch up and got back at 11.00pm

Getting out for lunch!

The weather hasn't been very good over the last few days and it just feels like we have had so much rain.. It's great that the rain must be topping up those low reservoirs, but when living on a boat, and you're part of the outdoors, it can be a bit of a pain sometimes.. We did come down the GU because the towpaths here are a lot better than other parts of the system, but it just so happens where we are at Cowroast the paths are very muddy..
So today we decided to go out as the sun was trying to poke through. We took the bus to Berkhamsted and treated ourselves to a nice Italian lunch.

We went to Per Tutti which did a lunchtime special for £9.60 for two courses and it turned out to be very good value. The service was amazing and the quality of the food so fresh and filling.. It was very busy which always tells a story and we enjoyed every second of it.

We then pottered around town picking up some bits for Derwent6 including a new broom head and Yes! we got another test lamp to replace the one Del has lost somewhere (it will probably turn up now). After a bit of shopping in M and S we made our way back to Derwent6 on the bus. With just that little bit of sun it was good to see the batteries back at 100%. We have had to run the engine once to give us some hot water and keep them topped up..
We had a relaxing night in front of the telly to finish the day, what's in store for tomorrow? Life's an adventure..

Raining at the Garage

Well we knew the weather wasn't going to be all that, but it has felt like it hasn't stopped raining for three days solid.. We have been warm and snug inside Derwent6 with the fire on and heating if we felt we needed it.. The batteries haven't had any solar to talk about so we have had to run the engine for a couple of hours over these three days. This is still a massive improvement compared to the length of time we were running the engine before.
So Al has been into Berkhamsted for a day while Del pottered around doing some engine room sorting.. We have misplaced a testing light for checking feeds (live wires) on Derwent6. We have had a starting problem where the ignition lights dim, but the starter doesn't turn on the engine.. Del thinks it might be the ignition switch, and brought one just in case it turned out to be that, and put it with the testing lamp in a safe place.. Well we can't find both items, they are gone, disappeared, vanished, and we had the fault again when we tried to start the engine, but was unable to test the wiring. It seems to happen once in a blue moon, but we are sure as the winter closes in this fault will rear up..
On the Saturday it was raining again and we got the train down to London.. Not wanting to walk in the rain, we decided to get the bus to Berkhamsted and got the train from there..

Just as we brought our tickets all the trains said "cancelled" and on chatting to the ticket office guy we found out there was a problem at Bletchley. After a few coffees in the platform coffee shop (and two hours later) a train turned up with people packed in like sardines.

We squeezed in and managed to get to Euston, where we found out there had been a suicide jumper on the tracks which is why things were closed.
We then went to Highbury Corner and met up with friends Maxine and Graham and Zoe and Greg, in a pub close to the station.. We then moved on for food in the Brewhouse and Kitchen, which was very nice.

Some nice ales were drunk and we then went to The Garage venue where we were seeing a couple of guys we all liked called The Pierce Brother's, and we managed to get right on the barriers..

It was a fantastic night of entertainment.

They play a bit of everything, even off the walls.

If you get the chance to see them then go, because the lads are just so much fun and mingle with the crowd.

We had another quick beer afterwards and then all split in different directions back home..

We arrived back on Derwent6 at 1.30am, after getting a cab from the station as it was chucking it down!..