Hi All,
Thanks John for organising the event.
It was lovely to meet you all in person.
Everyone seemed to have a great time - including myself.
I was surprised to get home at all after dealing the catalogue of small disasters during the weekend.
Sat
-Top-up charge, before leaving for JP's, failed, so started out with 90%
-Thought I knew better than the GPS - bad move - which added about 15 extra miles.
Sun
-Charging cable blew on top-up at Clapham - lost an hours charge there - thanks Chris for fixing it.
-Underestimated the impact of the South Downs - should have listened to Chris
-The timer on the charging post finished without me realising it - lost 30 mins charging time.
-The B&B that I found that in Petworth double booked me. So I volunteered to let one of the boozing party have it when he came banging on my door 2am.
-Nearly took this guys mobile when I was grabbing my stuff - luckily he rang it just as I was leaving.
-Overly optimistic that I could get back with the extra 4 hours and combination of rain, headlights and a dodgy vacuum pump meant that I had a roadside sleep in the van until day break. Still could not make good headway even at 25 mph.
-Luckily found a haulage company open at 6am you gave me an hours top-up.
-Arrived home at 7am o/c, original ETA was Sun mid-night.
-Oh yes - then found that I had lost my credit card somewhen during this palava.
Personal things learnt - to do better next time
-Very regularly check charging situation - even better, make an alarm to warn about loss of mains before end of charge.
-Listen to people with more experience, especially Chris
-Do current measurements and impact of all accessories.
-Fix the damned vacuum pump - so it does not annoy me !
-Stop and check the GPS if it starts complaining rather than ignoring.
Personal things learnt -
-Taking a long shallow hill (I think the A23) rather than the short steep (Ditchling) hill saved hammering the batteries (Chris - I think it only had to go to mid-orange for a minute or so).
-Need a yellow rotating light
-Being on an adventurous trip like that means I get a nice hug from the missus when I got in
Thanks to everyone for allowing me to share in the 'the adventure'
Once I recover from this one, we will have to do something else.
Regards,
Rob