Solar Flare-up

Cowley as the light fades

Today, Saturday started well enough. The sun shone and we ate a hearty breakfast (in McDonald's!). We had decided to buy a set of solar panels from a nearby store where they were on special offer. This would help to keep the batteries charged when we were moored up for a few days. So, after a taxi ride to get the incredibly heavy box back to the boat, we set about mounting them on the roof. All went to plan and soon after, we had a shiny array of panels on the roof. I then set about connecting them into the electrical system. This too went well, and we soon had solar power flowing into the batteries. I decided to  sort out the problem we had had on Friday with the tunnel light, and apart from a small spark when accidentaly shorting out two terminals whilst connecting things up, this too was successful. That is the end of the good bits! A sort while later, and all the lights on the electrical panels were flashing and the control system reported rapidly discharging batteries and wildly fluctuating voltages. After disconnecting the solar panels, the problem remained. We decided to set off anyway, since staying put would have meant no hot water and no power by the evening. We pushed hard across west London, pausing only to remove debris tangled around the propeller. We made it to our planned destination at Cowley near Uxbridge and are currently moored in a pleasant stretch of canal by the Packet Boat Marina. Having spent most of the journey thinking about what might have gone wrong, I had a thought, and within minutes of tying up, the electrical system was back to normal. The spark I mentioned above, had blown an obscure fuse which lead to a seemingly unrelated set of faults - phew! With a feeling of considerable relief, we have therefore been able to sleep through the Eurovison Song Contest!!