Teddington to Weybridge

Not had very good signal here on the Thames.

So we stayed one night at Kingston on Thames then on up to outside Hampton Court.  Very nice.  I walked around to the otherside to take a picture and of course there is a river in the way so I had to go back to the Bridge follow road to over the river and I was told to go through a gap in the hedge but I didn't like the look of it (it looked like a Tramps Home) so I walked on and over the railway turned left into the School, round the playing fields then right when I got to the Thames again and all the way along till I was opposite the mooring.  Alan's boat was beautifully placed with the Palace in the background but I was too far down.  The picture I did get of my boat had a black dog in the background doing something unmentionable.  I think I will have to photoshop the dog out!

Hampton Court

Bananas having fun

Drunken fools at 11am in the morning?

Baxter

Then we travelled up to Shepperton and moored two nights on the 24hour moorings because of the bad weather.  We were breasted up under a tree.  Which of course dropped branches left right and centre.  Luckily the BIG branch landed next to my boat and not on top.

Today I have moved on to Weybridge and left Alan - we will meet up again next week probably as we are both headed to Godalming.  He has a gold licence but I have to get off the Thames as I only have a 7 day visitors licence.

Brentford to Teddington

New Batteries.

The Steca PR1010 is now correctly installed to reflect the new batteries which are normal lead acid not gel like the previous ones.

I now have to add checking levels to my list of chores.

On playing around with the Steca it would appear that it was incorrectly set up to begin with as it assumed there were no other forms of charge.

This explains the E03 error the Smartguage kept throwing up.  So all in all the fact that they have lasted 5 years is a miracle!!

Help I am a fool Anyone have a Steca PR1010 ?

I have completely flattened my batteries - attempting to recharge them - spending each evening in the dark with no electrics on at all so that each night I do not lose the charge I have managed to put in the day before.  I am hopeful that by the end of today / tomorrow I could be back to normal.

HOWEVER

In checking to see if my solar panels were still working I removed the fuse from the controller STECA PR1010 and replaced it.  Since then I have had an E06 error on the controller.  I have no manual.

anyone have an idea ?  I have of course pressed lots of buttons in various orders so may have inadvertently messed around with the original settings.  I have just sent an email to Steca as their downloadable manual is just one sheet with nothing useful on it all.

the other codes/settings I now have are

arrow battery arrow with 50C below it
moon arrow lightbulb - off
moon battery lightbulb PrE
sun battery lightbulb three columns of three dashes
battery 5n  (I have 6 batteries but 5 are together and one on the swim)
battery gel (I have gel batteries so I think that setting is still ok)

When you scroll through normally it is reading the battery status correctly agreeing with the smartgauge and the multimeter but it is

zero amps
sun to battery no amps
battery to lightbulb no amps
sun arrow 12.8kah
all with a non smiling face

Thanks in advance

Missing them a little

We have been dog sitting these two Patterdale Terriers for the last 10 days.  We renamed them Crank Shaft and Kick Start so we could tell them apart as their real names were Shadow and Shady.

Guarding the front door.  

As our garden is not fenced they either had to be on running lines or indoors.  The front door was open for fresh air and their bedtime cage put in the doorway to stop them escaping.  It was their favourite place   

A bed with a view

Their favourite occupation

Blending in with the rest of the motorbike spares!

View over Carsington Reservoir

I don't miss the 6.30am walks though.  Had a lovely lie in this morning.

How pleased am I

This has been my mooring since being kicked out of City Road Basin.

Very pleasant in an up and coming area of London.

Hip and happening

Friday we went to the Canal Museum then had a sandwich on the canal bank at Kings Cross.

We watched the man climb up the crane pausing for a rest halfway up.

Hanging off the hook had been a bag of some sort that I thought was a weight.

But once he got up there he turned the cabin , brought the hook in close and leaned out and grabbed the bag.

As far as we could tell he wasn't clipped on but he might have been.

That is the crane he was playing on.

We then walked into Kings Cross via a new walkway

but then changed our minds and had a look at St Pancras instead and Rob tried to see what John was looking at.

We then did a whistle stop tour of the Natural History and Science Museum.

Saturday I took the overland train to Camden and spent the day wandering the market.

I kept getting mislaid but eventually found my way back.

With some jesus sandals like what I wore in my yoof.

a hippy wrap around skirt and top

and a very nice jumper from one of the more

upmarket shops.

A goodly haul.

Today I persuaded my nieces to assist with my passage back through Camden.

They were wonderful.  Here they are operating St Pancreas Lock

While I lurked by the floating allotment, as there was nowhere to moor so not sure how I would have managed solo.

The above is why I didn't want to do Camden locks by myself!

We managed to meet up with my very first best friend from back when I was 3 and she was 2.

Famously we ran away AND crossed the main road at the end of our cul de sac - setting up camp in the back garden of a total stranger!!!

Escapees from Regents Park Zoo

and the reason I am so pleased?

Well the sun shone the whole day having started off wet, I have the last vacant spot in Paddington

and it has just started raining again.

Islington City Road Basin

Fireman playing with their hoses

Cormorant

Big enough to share ?

According to my map it should be long term down the left and visitor on the right where we are

can you see us?

there we are!

We have now moved to near Kingsland Basin and there are

lovely cafe's etc 

This one rob is in is no longer Portuguese / Brazilian 

and the name is changing from Ribeira to The Barge

We boris biked to the 39 steps play.  

and while missing intended routes we found this

We recommend the 39 steps it is hilarious.

That there lunnon

Spent 7 days in Paddington Basin and it is superb.  We stopped overnight at Alperton then moved up to Kensal Green and visited the cemetary and nearly got locked in.  Spooky.

On leaving Paddington our two boats (I have been in convoy since Paddington) filled up with water and stopped at a private mooring outside Kings Cross.  Free but only 24 hours.  They took our contact details etc.  We then spotted a lovely mooring in Islington Basin - bit confused as to why it was empty.  My map says should have long term and visitor moorings.  We were on what were the visitor moorings  at 5pm we were asked to move as apparently the charity has sole use of the whole basin - which is enormous.  Rob persuaded the man that was too late to move now and we would go in the morning early.  Fine.  Then at 9.30pm we got a knock and a woman said we had to go.  On hearing that 'john' had given us permission she was furious as he hadn't got the right and also hadn't told her.  Again we convinced her that we would be leaving early and 8am was agreed.  To sweeten the deal the donation we were going to put through the letterbox was handed across to her.  Then at 10.30 I got a text from Alan on the other boat saying a very irate man had thrown the donation back at him and said 'he 'john' was going to get into trouble.  Not sure who he was maybe the top boss or perhaps John himself?  Alan didn't recognise him.

 oh well maybe they will put up some signs now.  Even if it is just laminated paper cable tied to the bollards.

We have squeezed ourselves into a 14 day spot and will see what happens now.  The convoy has broken up and Alan is continuing on the Lee and Stort.