Gemista was the dish of the day with some fries on the side. I ate that then finished off the Gigantes and potatoes from the other night. That did the trick. We watched Frost followed by BBT and that was about it.
I was awake before the alarm so lay inert for a few moments waiting for it to go off. I put collars on dogs, went outside and put collars on more dogs as well as my sandals on me. The sandals are showing their age as both now have holes in the sole. Still, the holes allow annoying small stones to fall out as well as provide drainage and ventilation. All the straps and fastenings are doing fine.
The Blue Moon did not belie its name which is nothing to do with colour. Apparently, the blue moon occurs approximately every two years or so. Another problem for the moon was the amount of cloud which rather got in the way. The moon was a lot higher than the previous day which provided plenty of light but then it sank into the clouds as it headed further west. I didn’t see it set, it simply plunged into the clouds. When it was shining, it was fine but otherwise…
There seemed to be a lot of activity first thing. Why don’t these people stay in bed so that we can have it all to ourselves? Roll on winter, I say! Two cars left the car park during our walk, one I suspect was a salt collector. Along the track there were a number of vans and one tent which has been here for a couple of weeks. If there was anyone on The Promontory, I didn’t see them but perhaps the dogs did.
With the help of the moonlight, progress was quite speedy so we were back by 06:40 and 07:20 for the first and second walks respectively. The girls were very active at the outset as Isabella brought two balls which provides more entertainment. At the end, I had them racing the length of the Big Beach chasing the two balls.
I contemplated and exercised my brain before riding to Petrakis as I needed some ingredients for the DDs. I stopped at Alonáki where I swam. Surprisingly, there were lots of people in the water. One man swam a long way in quite a short time.
I fed the dogs, made the DDs and some tea before settling down to do stuff. I had a text conversation with Ellis at Wisdom Sports about routers and his W7 computer which needs an upgrade to W10. I sent messages to Sue who will struggle if she tries to use TeamViewer after today. I wanted to see if she’d upgraded her laptop so I could complete its configuration.
A further email was sent to the nice man at TeamViewer whose job it is to persuade me to renew my license for another year. He accepted my reasoning for not renewing but says I can change my mind at any time.
I opened my package from e-Sofos which supplies nutritional yeast and the green stuff I thought I’d try. I had a bonus of a handmade, pure, luxury, soap! I need to decant the content of the large bags into smaller containers then find somewhere to store it. One for the nutritional yeast and a container for the green stuff. I didn’t buy much of the green stuff as I’m going to see what it’s like. The nutritional yeast is just the same as I bought last time. I have quite a liking for it now.
The DDs have been processed and the dogs briefly tried to inform me it was supper time however, I convinced them otherwise at least for now. At one point earlier, all of the dogs were inside the van although Luis decided he’d prefer to be outside for a bit. Obi is braver as he now, with a little encouragement from me, will hop past Maya who insists on always lying in the doorway. Here, she is a hazard to shipping for both man and dog as it’s necessary to negotiate her when entering or leaving the van. The problem is that I now have four larger dogs who take up proportionately more room.
In the winter, I’ll cover the lockers with foam mats and dog blankets which will make them more inviting but that’s too warm for this time of the year. Both Maya and Sasha prefer it cooler rather than warmer as Sasha was often with her head towards the van door sprawled in the entrance.
The problem of dogs lying in front of the fan heater will disappear as there will be no fan heater this winter. Any heating will come from above via the AC unit. The AC makes a much better job of distributing the air as it’s up high, has a wider spreader and is quieter than the small fan. Hopefully, it will also be much more efficient than the small fan heater.
Another problem I keep encountering is with the van electrics. The present setup has grown over time gradually expanding to fill various needs. The van has its own fuse box and power supply which comes from the inverter. I knew there were stability problems last winter when I installed the larger TV. This doesn’t really respond too well to voltage drops which occur when the electric kettle boils or the fan heater switches on and off. These two appliances need to be on a separate circuit to stop voltage sag. The remainder of the sockets supply mostly low power equipment except for the Pot which draws a kilowatt.
I’ve just ordered a consumer unit fully loaded with an RCD (Residual Current Detector), RCBOs (Like an RCD but for only one circuit) and a collection of MCBs (Mini Circuit Breakers). These are like fuses which will ‘blow’ or trip when the circuit current reaches the limit. They are protected by the RCD which looks for current leaking to ground as well as overload. The MCBs trip at 16A but the RCD will only trip at 65A in an overload scenario but will also trip with an earth fault. Something like water in the wires or a person grabbing hold of the live whilst standing on the ground. The plan is the RCD cuts the power before your heart stops beating.
The RCBOs will trip for a leak to earth but also at a lower current. These will have the air conditioners on them and Janne and Erica so if there’s an earth fault, everything else will keep going. RCBOs are great as they protect the live and neutral, do the same job as an RCD and an MCB but they’re quite expensive compared to an MCB. If one circuit on an MCB leaks to earth this will trip the RCD so turning everything else off. However the RCBO will only turn off the circuit which has the earth fault.
The plan is to have a major upgrade, increase the wire size, separate the circuits and put the bigger loads on their own circuits. This should provide much greater safely and get rid of power sags. Quite a good idea when living all-electric in a metal box with a metal frame next to it complete with solar panels and tons of stuff including a 5KVA inverter! Time to get real!
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