The silence was almost deafening

Thursday 8th May to Saturday 10th May 2014

Relatively early on Thursday morning I moved the boat about 200 metres with a bit of wind about and reversed it into the allocated space that we had - as is usually the case there was no-one about to see it done perfectly - even Diane was still in bed.

The reason for this is to have solar panels fitted - Tim Davies at Onboard Solar was doing job - a 9:30 start and just over 2 hours later they were all installed.

The irony of all of this is that the rain virtually did not stop the whole time; the overcast skies weren't the ideal situation to see how well the system was working, but it still was producing 1-2 amps.

I think we understood that it would be much better in sunny conditions - even on cloudy dry days.

After coughing up the payment we set off - without the rain - and we were heading down the River Soar.

Hard to tell from a distance - is it snow or blossom?

Approaching Kegworth Deep Lock

Still on locking duties whilst the skipper's knee is on the mend

After 2 hours cruising along the river, we looked at the skies and decided that it would be wise to moor up and avoid a drenching - almost minute perfect - all tied up; pram hood up and we were inside and the rain started.

That was it for the day; we had positioned the panels to catch anything that may come forth later.

We would normally have run the engine for a bit longer after mooring but we decided to test the system - nothing to lose.

The rain did stop, the amps started to flow and the batteries were being topped up.

Looked very promising - and naturally we were looking almost constantly to see what was happening - guess we might be doing that for awhile until we get more used to it.

It was not from the excitement of the thought of having the panels and most probably reducing the running of the engine for our power that interrupted sleep that night - seems we were moored on the flight path to East Midlands airport - no wonder it was deserted.

Next day we were heading to Loughborough and it was only just over a 2 hour run; just short of the turn we moored up and let the sun do the rest whilst we went off to do some shopping.

Sunny days - warmth on the back

another house that Diane would buy if we won the lottery -
yes it has a mooring for the Dutch barge

we saw the motorhome moored parked in the pub car park and
immediately thought of Elaine and Paul (mh Manly Ferry)

Yes, when we returned we checked out all of the input figures and it was going very well -  varying between 5 and 15 amps; batteries were up over 13 Volts - very happy.

Weather reports for Saturday suggested that it would be a good day to not move much - we took it as not move at all and so we did - not move that is.

No need to have to run the engine - peace and quiet all day

The new addition - if not for the fact that we have to move, they
almost replace the engine.

There were some showers; some cloud but mostly there was sun and we remained silent - keys left on the hook inside whilst we got stuck into some work inside the boat -  finally got around to finishing off the surround of the fireplace - only been waiting since last August - well it is well progressed and almost done.

All through this we kept checking and smiling - are we happy about it - so far you have to say yes.

11 Miles, 7 Locks

Totals: 2428 Miles, 1752  Locks, 77 Tunnels, 32 Lift Bridges, 147 Swing Bridges