After his exertions yesterday, Macc stayed in bed until about 8 this morning — very late for him. And even on his breakfast time walk he still seemed weary. At least it wasn’t foggy like it has been.
We pottered around during the morning, and to get Macc used to being left alone we both made a trip to the Elsan! Macc complained, but he’s got to get used to being left so we need to do more of this. We watched the ceremony at the Cenotaph, then as it was a completely still day, decided it would be a good time to turn the boat around. We went in forwards when we arrived mostly as we use the bow for getting on and off so it made sense. But the boat next to us is quite short, so being the other way round would give us a better view from the saloon, and the lack of people walking past the front of the boat should mean Macc has fewer things to be annoyed by!
So we unplugged the power, untied, and reversed out of the space. As we’re very close to the end of the marina there’s not a lot of room for turning.
Our berth is on the far side of the middle jetty in the photo above. Anyway we slowly turned around and reversed in. With the power socket so close to the jetty the cable needed rolling right up; but water will be more difficult — in fact we need to buy an additional one, already needed since one of ours burst.
Everything currently seems a bit odd as we’re now round the other way. Macc was definitely confused when we took him out. But if we don’t like it after a week or so, we can turn around again!
Oh dear – rolling up an electric cable when it’s in use is bad practice and potentially unsafe. It turns the cable into an inductor which has a number of effects. It causes electrical losses which is a waste of your money, and the losses produce heat which can cause it to overheat, and it can smooth our electrical surges so, in the event of an electrical fault it may stop the circuit breaker from tripping, or at least delay the tripping, with disastrous results.
That’s why, whenever you buy a 13A extension cable which comes wound on a drum, the instructions clearly say to unwind it all the way when it’s in use.
Most of the time, when you are only drawing small currents, you will not notice a problem then, one day when you are drawing a higher than usual current, possibly during a fault, you find out the hard way.
it’s much better to run the cable along the roof and back again (or somewhere it’s not going to form a tripping hazard) so it’s not coiled.
Paul (from Waterway Routes). Chartered Electrical Engineer (retired) and Chartered Safety Practitioner (retired).