Staniland Marina welcomes visitors. We have been before and had a very friendly reception. For our boat it is £60 a week to stay there and the first two nights are free. There is a club bar, a good chandlery and all facilities. Electricity is included. We are returning home for 10 days, so an idle day today, although some jobs got done. Pat used the launderette and I spent some time making up a board on which to mount the base of the windturbine which we have decided to add to the boat. When charging the batteries with the engine there is first a mighty rush of electrons giving typically 60 amps or so. This gradually tails off as the battery voltage rises. This will get really slow for the last 20% which can take almost as long as the first 80%. It just seems wrong to me to have this huge lump of iron reciprocating around wearing itself out all for a measly 2 or 3 amps over a few hours. The solar panels could fit this bill and can for the most part when the sun is shining in summer, but we haven't had much sun recently but lots of wind! Our cruising pattern is changing, and I guess when we were doing 8 hours a day it didn't matter much, the batteries always got charged properly. Now we have slowed down, the wind turbine should solve our problem and lead to quieter evenings. It had taken a while to get a plan together for (a) the turbine (Rudland 914i) (b) the installation and rigging and (c) actually getting it to the boat. There's a lot to think about, such as location, wiring run, location of the regulator etc., but I think we are ready. I have to make holes in the roof and I have to get it right first time.
Regarding the Eberspacher boiler, I have decided to take it out and return to London with it. While we are there dealing with daughter's wedding I might be able to get it serviced. Last service was 6 years ago. It's an easy job to get it out. Not quite so easy getting it back in.
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