Bartimaeus

This morning, we had a visit from Ortomarine's Rob and Paul as promised.  We've met Rob many times, but Paul is a new face for us.  The two of them have been responsible for a lot of the work involved during the conversion - it was good to meet Paul and show our appreciation for what has been done.

They showed us a number of features that we hadn't started exploring.  We were all crowded on the back deck when the generator got started.  It was fairly quiet even without the engine bay cover, and impressively quiet with it.  We still intend to spend very little time listening to it.  The extra solar panels will help, but the other option is to leave it running while go for a walk or shopping, or even to the pub.

The previous arrangement needed the engine to be firmly secured to the hull so that the propeller shaft remained aligned.  The new version is on a softer connection as its sole output is electricity via some cables.  The engine itself is much smaller, intended to produce just over 6KW of electricity, which is the most our batteries can absorb.  By contrast our previous engine had a peak power output of 35KW.  These figures measure different things, so the comparison is imprecise.

The water source heat pump is not fully commissioned yet, but Paul and Rob did various experiments to try to better understand some communication issues.  They also bled a lot of air out of the various different circuits.  A minor software error resulted in the temperature under the hull being recorded as 655.35°C - none of us remembered entering a lava field.

For a short while, we had all the radiators in the boat heated up to around 40°C, by cooling the canal water under the boat and pumping the heat in to the radiator circuit.  If someone had done that a few days earlier, a fight might have broken out, but today's weather wasn't so extreme.  There is more to do before we can use the heat pump properly, but it was good to see it works in principle.

We talked about a number of other issues that still need to be resolved, but we were careful to stress that we had noticed all the good work that had been done already.  For example, now that the roof is more thoroughly covered with solar panels a new place has had to be found for the pole and boat hook.  They now live just under the ceiling in the cabin - and very smart they look too if you notice them at all.  We only use them rarely - we'll have to wipe them after use in future.

It is very nearly 5 years since we first came aboard Bartimaeus.  During that time I have discovered that I don't really like living in a marina.  So once Rob and Paul had left, and we'd had some lunch, we cast off for the first time in the new configuration.

The controls were not complicated before, but they are much simpler now.  Turn the key inside to energise everything, then push the throttle forwards to go forwards - and back to slow down or reverse.  Clare was being timid about this to start, so she worked the staircase lock instead.  Five years ago she was timid about that too, but volunteer lock-keepers sent her on to the next lock.  This time she read and followed the instructions and everything went flawlessly.

We were not surprised by the M5 Tunnel this time, and with a completely clear roof and low water levels there was no doubt we'd fit under.  I gave Clare the controls and worked the remaining locks in to Vines Park in Droitwich.

We were both impressed at how much quieter the drive feels, even compared to the old system running on electric.  This bodes well for happy peaceful cruising in the future.