Domestic and Family affairs

 Saturday July 17 Looking after the batteries at Quedgeley and a visit to Evesham 

This morning, the engine is running, while we do two loads of washing, then run the dishwasher. If you have a 2500W device running, just over 100 amperes are drawn from the 24 volt batteries, but with engine running the engine’s alternator can supply over 50 amperes, reducing the drain and potential damage to batteries. Our new (to us) 300W solar panels are doing a great job keeping our batteries fully charged, so we don’t need to run the engine daily when not moving, normally. 

John reckons they supply about 5A at best, at around 50volts to the MPPT controller. The charging power is often only about 70-150W, but this is enough to cope with our new, more efficient fridge and maintain the batteries at 100% during the sunny summer months.

Honeypie is not too keen on the engine, but other boaters remark on its quietness.

The bridge keeper has been painting his bridge, while waiting for boats.

Evesham is about an hour from us, Newport and Leicester, so we are meeting up with daughters Jo and Sarah there today - hooray! A picnic lunch in the shade was planned, and we had a tasty picnic in the scenic park.

Reaching Evesham riverside, we walked with Honeypie by the Avon, enjoying the shade on this hot day. Honeypie showed her swimming abilities as she kept cool in the Avon.

The Hampton chain ferry was operating, too.

Narrowboats and canoes came past as we all walked under the riverside trees, around the old Abbey grounds.