Harborough to Gallows Hill

Yesterday morning we moved to Gallows Hill as we had a customer waiting there who needed coal. The fishermen were out in force along the way.

Keith started to paint one of the new water cans with a coat of primer after repairing the side handle, which fell off in Jo's hand as she was passing out to Keith from the hold. The solder joints had failed but 4 brass bolts, nuts and washers have made a substantial repair. He will leave painting the other can until he can buy some more nuts and bolts, just to be on the safe side. The handle on the other can seems to be better attached, but he doesn't want to take any chances seeing as we want to actually use them to hold water. Far easier to make a decent repair before he paints it and hopefully no one will notice.

He refitted the new tyres to the trolley, they must be gold plated inside, as they cost just over £86! Each tyre was £30.13 and each inner tube was £12.92. Makes us glad we no longer have a car with 5 tyres!!

He also reset the Kohler generator speed so that the output was at 52.5Hz under no-load condition, as recommended by the manufacturers, but not quoted in their manual. Under load the frequency drops, as noticed by Simon when he checked our Victron Invertor/Charger the other week. When the generator was delivered it was set incorrrectly at 60Hz for the USA, despite all the signs and badges on it saying it was 50Hz. Keith had readjusted it, but of course he set it to 50Hz under no-load. Although it hasn't caused any problems so far, he is happier now it is set correctly. Life is so much better and easier when you know all the facts.

Our replacement battery had arrived at Union Wharf, which we picked up whilst we were there, and fitted in place of the damaged one. I take my hat off to Kuranda for sorting it out for us. They managed to persuade Victron that it should be replaced under warranty, which is excellent. We would also like to thank them for sorting out the problems with our Victron Invertor/Charger, with a visit by Simon whilst we were at Crick, which is working perfectly again. All this was despite the fact that both Darren and Brett were going firstly to the IWA National at Beale Park, and then the Southampton Boat Show which made life interesting for the pair of them. It was a recommendation by Roger Fuller our boat builder to have Kuranda supply all our major electrics, and we are glad now that we did. It certains has paid off getting all our kit from one supplier as we only have to contact one place, and all their kit is known to work together. No having one company saying, "Nothing wrong with our kit, it's the other guys stuff!" and the other saying the same. Unfortunately they will have to wait till next summer to get Jo's cake she will bake for them when we get to Whaley Bridge.