Beards, Hats and Horns

Did anyone notice the comment from David regarding my post on Friday about the “missing” public footpath.  He pointed me in the direction of a website where you can view the majority of the public right of ways (ROW) in the UK.  The link is http://www.rowmaps.com/ highlights.  Unfortunately one of the few shires that hasn’t made it’s right of ways available is Warwickshire so I can’t check the missing footpath against the information from the Warwickshire “Definitive Map”.  However the data on the ROW website can be downloaded in GPX (gps) or KML (Google Earth) format.  It appears to be a good website if you want to plan a walk and download the information.  I’ve kept the link because it will enable me to download the paths rather than having to physically trace them on the OS website myself.

I have a question for more experienced boaters.  Thus far approximately 95% of the solo boaters we have passed or met have a beard and dog.  Is it a prerequisite for solo boaters to have a beard?  OK, we’ve only passed one solo female boater who didn’t have a beard but she was wearing a panda bear hat!

Nothing very exciting happened today.  We winded Waiouru at Braunston junction by reversing on the triangle and then reversed into Braunston Marina for a pump-out.  The pump-out machine works on a token purchased from the marina office (£12).  It’s self-service and you get 8 minutes of pumping.  Unfortunately the damned machine didn’t actually start to suck until after three minutes had elapsed and we just managed to empty the tank before it stopped.  The tank didn’t get a rinse which rather annoyed us.  But then £12 is the cheapest pump-out we’ve had to date.

As we were leaving Jan noticed nb Uccello moored in Braunston.  There was no sign of life aboard so I decided to sound our horn.  It didn’t work!  When we had passed the linear carpark I tried the horn again and it still wouldn’t work.  One advantage of the Empirbus DC 12V system is when a switch is pressed or activated a small LED flashes on the node (distribution board).  So once we had moored I asked Jan to observe the node whilst I pressed the horn button.  If the LED didn’t illuminate then I would know the problem was a faulty switch.  If it did illuminate then it would be the horn that had the fault.  Of course I knew it wouldn’t be a fault with my wiring!  So I pressed the horn button and the damned thing sounded.   Now I’m not sure if we have an intermittent fault or  it’s a failure to correctly press the button with my earlier attempts.  No doubt all the farmers will hear me testing the horn tomorrow as we’ve decided we have spent enough time in Braunston and will start heading back north.