Ronalan

When we take our boat with the motorbike on the front to France, do we have to register the bike in France? How do we insure it for the roads without a French address?

Ian has crewed with us twice now. A great help through lock flights on the Grand Union. He's good company and easy to keep, by just plying him with food and coffee! We highly recommend him especially if you are single handed.

Today was our 2nd day of crew help from Ian who we met through this forum. A pleasant easy-going chappie. He helped crew last week from Cowroast through the Marsworth locks on the Grand Union. Today he met us near Leighton Buzzard to go to Milton Keynes. A long day made a lot easier with his help and company, especially as we're on a bit of a schedule now. He's very easy to keep, all he needs is coffee and food for his time! He even got a ride back to his car on the back of our Fazer 1000 motorbike, which we keep in the bow! We highly recommend him, especially if you are single handed.

Thanks Richard

Here goes...the technical specs.. We have a 175amp 3 stage smart alternator that solely charges the domestic batteries. Our solution has been to buy an isolator with a larger capacity of 300amps. The BSS guy, if making comparison with MOT testers (which my partner is) should only point out the fault then and not give a solution. If he's not responsible for testing/checking the load/pipe diameters etc, he shouldn't be telling us how to fix the fault. "Alternator main cable to be connected to outlet side of master switch" Then it's up to the customer to seek the correct advice and remedy before final inspection. This makes sure the fault is corrected appropriately.

I knew this was going to get too technical for me! A Hella 6EK is the number on the new switch. Alan's gone to collect the new alternator so will have to get more technical later.

I agree. It's seems the mistake was not having an isolator fit for the load. However as it was installed by the manufacturers we didn't query the load when asked to re-route the wiring by the BSS guy. Question now is.. how do we wire it safely when the new alternator turns up? 300amp fuse? Return wiring to original?

Hi Richard The safety guy was SO insistent that the was the only way to do it. In hindsight Alan should have put the wire back after the visit. Major expense now, new alternator on order. Rona

That's awful! So sorry to hear that, especially if it's another boater. We're supposed to be a caring community, us boaters. We're heading to Weedon for Christmas to a family owned mooring. Will spread the word.

Thanks to insistence by our safety cert guy to wire the alternator through the master switch, we've spent the last day and a half without power! Fried switch,alternator is also buggered. Too much load for the switch,175amps+ going through a 100amp switch! Here's hoping the 3 month old batteries have survived. Hired a generator which the inverter wouldn't use, needed sine wave jenny. Emergency,my son dropped work to borrow father's caravan jenny and drive 80 miles to us last night. Have phoned the safety guy, Grrr! He'll take it up with the office. BOAT....

Denham marina has one replacement glass window if we can get to them, but we're moving north now. I knew it was youths because.... Afterwards I heard voices shouting and saw lights outside. When I looked out there was someone with a torch further up and he was shouting to someone in the field beside. I shouted out ' what's going on out there'. He flashed his torch at me and ran off down the towpath! I thought maybe I frightened him off being only partly dressed at the time! Anyway it hasn't put us off. We've moved further up the canal now. Ours are removable glass portholes so not too much of a chore to replace, just annoying.

We're at Boxmoor alongside the river Bulbourne. Moving on tomorrow thank goodness. We've been out visiting family all day. The police didn't seem interested of course but we have a crime number now.

Thanks Ian will let you know. Yeah we really should report it when we return. Have been out all day from early. Was really angry at the time. So mindless. Thanks Ian will let you know.

We had our bedroom window smashed in at 2am this morning by youths on the towpath, Hemel Hempstead. Showering us and the bed with toughened glass bits. Little tykes,drown them!

Hmmm, think maybe a cat flap isn't such a good idea after reading your posts. She's too scared by people/bikes on the towpath to go out during the day and I don't want her to get into trouble if we aren't around. Last night she miaowed at me to come out with her (only cat owners will understand!) and walked several boats along with me until I turned round! Rona