Another blogger and the BMV is dishonest!

Surprisingly this morning I remembered to record the readings off the Victron BMV before starting the engine.  It was showing 95.5Ah had been taken from the batteries and the SOC was 92.9%.  The battery voltage was 12.6V.  The Smartgauge was showing the SOC as 79% and the voltage the same at 12.6V.
The capacity of the battery bank is 900Ah of which 50% (450Ah is available without damaging the batteries.  A couple of quick calculations meant the 95.5amp hours used equates to a remaining SOC of 89% at the total capacity of the battery bank (900Ah) or 79% at 450Ah.  So at the moment the BMV isn’t accurately reporting the SOC as a percentage.  However the Smartgauge was reporting the SOC as 79% which is ‘spot on’! It appears my recent attempt to synchronise the BMV hasn’t been successful.  We’ll have to try again and manually synchronise the monitor.
We moved off the mooring with the intention of moving to the water point at the base of the Foxton locks.  Meanwhile Jan walked ahead to open the pedestrian swing bridge before the junction.  There was a boat moored before the bridge and one of the crew had a friendly look on his face as I approached.  Just as I recognised the name of the boat the crewman said “Hello Tom…. I’m Derek” and I said “I read your blog!”…….  To which he replied “I read your blog”.  Derek then said to me “You’re coming for coffee.  But you probably didn’t know that!”  And that’s how I found out Jan had accepted an invitation to have coffee on board Uccello. 
It didn’t quite work out that easy.  We were able to get a 48 hour mooring beyond the water tap and the garden hose was just long enough to reach the inlet on the tank.  But the pressure was woeful.  By the time we’d topped up the tank it was lunch time so the walk back to Uccello was delayed until after lunch.
By the time we made it back to Uccello some liquid sunshine was starting to fall.  A light knock on the roof roused Bungie who promptly barked at Jan.  We received a warm welcome from Carrie and Derek despite our delayed appearance.

Derek & Carrie on nb Uccello.  Apparently Bungie doesn’t like rain drops!
We were both quite interested to note Uccello has a very similar reverse layout to Waiouru.  Actually there were many similarities.  Both were approximately the same length,  semi-trad, reverse layout, pump out (yes… we discussed toilets), open-plan interior, etc.
Derek & Carrie mentioned they had done some cruising in the company of fellow kiwi’s Dot & Derek (nb Gypsy Rover) before they returned to NZ.   All good things come to an end and Derek & Carrie have decided to sell Uccello after cruising the lovely waterways for approximately seven years.  If you’re interested in  finding out more about Uccello you might want to look at their blog site <click here for the link>.  
We haven’t yet decided which way we will turn when we reach the junction of the River Soar and the River Trent.  We’d been thinking of turning West towards Fradley Junction but then though we might go up the Erewash Canal as it’s so close to the junction.  Derek & Carrie have suggested we consider turning East and go down the Trent and on to Lincoln.  Looking on the map it appears possible to turn onto the Stainforth & Keadby Canal and then head towards Sheffield before heading north to the Calder.  We could possibly go as far as York returning via the Leeds & Liverpool.  Our only reservations are the thought of cruising on a large river (but then we did the Thames) and would we be able to also organise my visa application.  Some thinking to be done!