With temperatures currently plummeting in the UK and at least a fortnight’s cold snap predicted with sub zero temperatures coming, it’s time to have a look at the main source of heating on my narrowboat, the Villager Puffin stove.
Once the Spring arrives and I go out continuous cruising on the canals, I will need a way to generate electricity. Ideally this would be done without running the engine. Hence the installation of solar panels. This is the video of that installation.
Come journey with me down into the depths of an English canal, to a lock at Banbury in Oxfordshire that was emptied for maintenance by the Canal and River Trust. Find out how the locks are maintained and what unusual things have been found at the bottom!
It’s rainy, cold and blowing a gale outside so I made a quick video about five simple things – three of them lightbulbs – that make my life nicer on board my canal boat!
A brief technical interlude before the video of the trip to Braunston because my battery charger packed up and suddenly the boat had no usable power. So in this video I explain how I diagnosed and resolved the problem.
In which I take stock of a few things that need doing on the canal boat and then do them. This involves drilling, screwing, and a whole lot more entirely unnecessary yet amusing innuendo.
Not content with my “patch it and hope” painting of the rusty spots along the gunwales of my canal boat as seen in the last episode, I decided to try to do it properly. This did not entirely come to fruition, as I explain in this video.
At long last the time has come for the excellent Justin Green of JG Marine to visit the boat and do lots of work on it including an engine service (oil, oil filter, air filter, fuel filter etc), add the Adverc charge controller, change the old engine mounts and much more.
It’s now 3 weeks since the narrowboat became properly mine and yet I’m still not aboard and still not afloat. It’s OK, there are various reasons for this. I knew it would take a little time. Oh my, but it’s very frustrating!
With my offer on the canal boat accepted, it was now time for a full survey to see if the boat has any problems.
What would Justin Green of JG Marine, Keith Meadowcroft of Voltmaster Systems and George Marshall of Audlem Boat Company find? And, will the vendor accept any haggling on the price afterwards?
This episode reveals all!
