The most interesting technical thing on my trip on the Oxford canal was battery charging. After a lot of interesting surmises about complex problems I eventually came to the conclusion that my batteries are no good because they take far too long to recharge. The net effect was that I was running my engine for a few hours each day just to add current to the batteries at a rate of about 20 amps. At about 1 litre of diesel per hour that is expensive electricity. I am now searching for affordable new deep cycle batteries.
Another side of this puzzle is the large amount of power used by my inverter (to operate my 230v fridge freezer) even when the fridge is not running. I almost convinced myself that I should have paid the extra £400+ for a 12v fridge. But if I replace the batteries and need less generator hours the power saving from the 12v fridge will not justify the higher price.
The last few days have been very hot in Braunston and the fish have been swimming near the surface where you can see them. I have been amazed at the huge numbers - not just of tiny tiddlers, but also of medium and large fish. They are very hard to photograph as I don't have a polarizing lens for my camera. And there was one enormous fish - bigger than anything I have seen on a fishmongers slab.
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