This ‘n’ that!

Jan woke to a cold morning and rose to start the Hurricane central heater before having a hot cuppa.  I sensibly stayed deep under the duvet either counting sleep or examining the inside of my eyelids!  There was no ice or frost outside and Waiouru was warmer inside than a few days ago.  I know this because there was no ice on the Houdini frames.  But it just seemed colder for some reason?  Last Friday ‘Towpath Bill’ informed us Newbury now has a Maplin and, with the idea there might be some opening specials, Jan headed to Newbury yesterday.  She was able to purchased a combination digital weather-station/clock at less than half the normal price.  It will replace the one she bought during our Hong Kong stop-over on the way to the UK.  For some reason (not battery related) the Hong Kong clock has decided to speed up.  I guess until it regains Hong Kong time!  Anyway, Jan is keeping an eye on the weather-station temperature and reporting (to me) any discrepancies between it and the Hurricane thermostat.  When we can afford some AAA batteries I’ll fit the weather-station’s external sensor in the cratch.

I’m optimistic that I’ve fixed the “noreply@blogger.com” problem for those of you who use Google Reader.  After reading a range of solutions obtained from Google I discovered none of them worked.  In the end I used my own logic (dangerous ground) and decided the problem was Google+ which I had joined last year.  I’d already deleted my Google+ account but obviously there was some left over “rubbish” somewhere in the settings of a Blogger related program.  Then I had a revelation.  The problem only appears in Google Reader which is getting its information from Blogger.  Both programs looked OK.  However between the two there is ‘Feedburner’.  Perhaps the Feedburner link had been changed by Google+.  First I deleted the existing link in Feedburner and then created a new one. I then deleted my own Google Reader subscription to our blog and resubscribed.  The noreply@blogger.com now been replaced by our correct email address.

So if I’ve fixed the problem can I ask you to do the following if you’re using Reader to follow our blog and still seeing noreply@blogger.com.

1. In Reader go to the left column of Blog name subscriptions
2. Scroll down until you reach nb Waiouru and hold your cursor over it.  A small down arrow will appear to the right of the name.
3. Click on the down arrow and a pop-up window will appear.
4. Click on the "’Unsubscribe’ option and delete our blog from Reader
5. Click on the large red ‘Subscribe’ button at the top of the column and re-subscribe to our blog (only if you want to keep reading all this old tat)

Hopefully that will have fixed the problem.

Generator

I’ve done further reading which has confirmed my calculations that a 1KW generator should produce approximately 40 amps of charge at 12V.  Following a few comments after my last post.  I wouldn’t store and petrol in the engine compartment.  It would be too dangerous.  The starboard cratch locker is a safety location.   However an empty generator could be stored beside the engine.  But thinking about storing the petrol made me realise it might be possible to store the generator in the cratch locker.  This afternoon I braved the elements and disappeared into the cratch with a tape measure.  The locker does have sufficient height to store a 1KW suitcase generator.  So everything looks positive except we don’t intend to spend any money on a generator at this time.  There are more important things we need to purchase… if only we had some money!

Heat Exchanger

We received some very interesting information from Nick Norman who has fitted a heat exchanger to his boat at a much lower price than I had previously posted.  He pointed me to the CWDF (Canal World Discussion Forum) where I read the thread with interest.  A system could probably be fitted for £100 (excluding labour) instead of my original estimate of £400.  This makes it a viable option.  Although, again it will have to be a potential future project as funding is currently so tight you can probably hear the orange pips crying.