Picnic No2

  25/05/2026. Weather forecast predicting Wind 11mph. Precipitation 0% and Temperature reaching 33 degrees. That's the hottest recorded temperature in a day of May in UK ever !!!! We're gonna be heading a little way up the Wharfe Valley to the spa town of Ilkley. On the motorsickle of course.. I'd seen on the Facebook Ilkley Knit and Natter that volunteers had been spring cleaning the towns Boating and Paddling Pool. Indeed interesting to me because once Cat's Paws the model yacht built from bits n bobs is complete this watery venue will possibly be just the ticket to set the yard arm into the wind and stretch the jib.

If you want to have your own 'sail fest' and find this pond -  Here's the link. 

Twas an early start so lets call it a 'Picnic Breakfast'. Sat poolside 9.00a.m. Mrs C well impressed with the healthiness of the menu. Today I'm serving - Muesli with a fresh strawberry topping and lashings of fully skimmed milk. 

So, the pool checked out as perfect for model boat sailing and water depth will facilitate any rescue simply by shoe and sock removal before entering to ankle deep..

Your Uncle Alb has not only been surprised at the find of this Victorian pool having lived in the Shireshireshire forever and a day, but more surprised that the name of this small patch of water is called 'Hainsworth Pond.' Note on the info plague gives the date...eeekkk 1927, also gives warning of cold winds...(not today though) Hey that was nearly 100 years ago. Trees have grown a bit since then...

So, there ya go....Not only picnic'd but educated too....What a jolly spiffing morning!!!

Getting picnic ready Part 3

  Greetings. Here's part 3 of the project to make my Military Boiling Vessel picnic ready for some action. You will remember that I had sourced one of china's finest 12v immersion heaters along with the appropriate sized Taps and Dies to make an adapter to fit it where once there was a tea tap. Why shouldn't the china heater be up to it? No reason...that's where all the worlds needs come from now. Before starting to make heater fit boiler I was thinking it would be wise to at least put 12v into it and see what happens.

My intention is not to risk connecting large current draws to my motor vehikle, I'll be hoping a battery may hold enough amps to supply hot snacks on a picnic mission. A 10amp hour motor sickle battery was put on trickle charge overnight.. Exciting stuff! Let's do the maths....First convert Watts to Amps. Immersion heater 12v 125w. Amps equals Watts/Volts. Then lets expect 1 hour of juice available from this 10 Amp electrity storage cell...at best!!!!!!

Wires connected...let the test begin. I have in the test jug 500mls of cold water.. Oh, there's heat transferring from heater to water.......must be it's throwing off bubbles...Beer thermometer doing a very steady count up of Celsius.....At the 40 minute mark the bubbling was slowing....Could mean 2 things. No juice left in the battery or the heater has max'd out...Temperature at end of first test 73.7 degree. Hot enough for food apparently. H&S in the catering world suggest serving at 63 degree..

Let's get that battery back on charge overnight and start where we left off. Set the water temperature to 73.0 degree and see if this little immersion heater has any more go in it. 

So, that's exactly what happened. Temperature rose in the second test to 91 degree. Wow! That once again took all the available juice in the battery.

 

Bigger battery needed then, and also some sort of thermostatic controller set maybe at say 68 degree.?..

Next job keep a look out for a free car battery....and secondly source a temperature controller.

Keep looking in for updates on The Military Boiling Vessel. Stay safe...Alb over and out.