General Witterings -
All Set for the Winter on Rosy

After our year of wandering, it has taken a while to settle down. I've spent forever trying to get Rosy clean and tidy, but once everything is tidied away, I can't find anything, so I've given up on the tidying to concentrate on the cleaning. Unfortunately, the cleaning reveals that there is a lot of painting and general maintenance that needs doing, and the easiest way of dealing with that is not to do the cleaning in the first place.

I got the colour slides processed, and I'm pretty pleased with them. They have given me enough encouragement to get writing, in the hope of getting something published in one of the waterway magazines. Unfortunately, I used Fuji film, which, for transparencies, I very much prefer. For reasons that I don't understand, getting the processor to copy the slides onto a CD ROM is amazingly expensive. I seem to remember that Kodak processors charged between 7 and 10 Euro to put the 36 exposures onto a CD. One Fuji processor said it could not be done, the other wanted 2 or 3 Euro per slide!! Over 100 Euro for a 36 exposure film!! I'll do without!! My printer/scanner doesn't have a facility to do transparencies. I've managed to catalogue all the slides.

David and Jacquie Long dropped by on their way back to UK, having put their narrow boat Falcon to bed for the winter. They brought some essential supplies from UK - like Marmite and talcum powder for me and some anodes for Rosy.

Mike and June (them next door on the narrow boat Temujin) have gone back to UK for a few weeks, but (fingers crossed) they will bring some goodies back with them - things like a double skinned chimney to stop coal tar leaking onto Rosy's roof when the coal fire is on.

I also had a visitor who stayed a few days - a round-the-world sailor who wanted to see what narrow boating was like. We had a three-hour trip out on Rosy, and all went very well.

There are a few jobs queuing up to be done. The main one is to make some new cushion covers for the back cabin. The big problem is to find space to measure and cut out the material. Perhaps I'll wait for a fine day, and do it on the roof.

I've also got some reading done, having visited Jeff who is the proprietor of the English Bookshop in Gent. One that I've wanted to read for a while is called 'Spectator in Hell' by Colin Rushton. It is an account of Arthur Dodd who was a Brit POW in Auschwitz - in the POW section of the camp. He survived. I believe that a video of the book was made a few years ago called 'Satan at his Best'. If anyone has a copy ...

Life is pretty good. The shops are not too far away, and there is a decent laundrette, so the annual washing of pillows, duvets and sleeping bags has taken place. Gent itself is cyclable and busable, so I've already seen 'The Adoration of the Lamb' twice.

LIVING ABOARD

I keep getting e-mails from folk who (typically) have got a job in London, and fancy living afloat, and who ask for advice about what sort of boat to buy. The number ONE piece of advice is to make contact with the Residential Boat Owners Association (RBOA). At the minimum, you need to get a copy of their booklet 'Living Afloat', and if you are really serious you should join the Association. Neither is particularly expensive. Check out their website at www.rboa.org.uk.

Looking for a boat is the wrong way of going about things!! There are hundreds of boats available. What there is a shortage of, is moorings. The number one piece of advice for potential live-aboards is: First find your mooring.

It may well come with a boat attached to it. If it doesn't, the mooring may determine the length and draught of the boat. It will certainly determine other parts of the boat. For example, if water is easily available, the water tank on the boat can be smaller than usual. If mains electricity is available then the use of 220 volt items (fridges, washing machines, TV etc etc) becomes a possibility. So: First find your mooring.

Yes!! I know I said that in the previous paragraph, but it really IS SO important that it is worth repeating: First find your mooring.

QUIZ TIME: You fancy living on a boat. What is the first thing you do? (Answer at the end of this episode.)

Right. Having found a mooring, the next thing to do is to find a boat. There are HUNDREDS advertised in the main waterway magazines, such as 'Canal Boat', 'Canal and River Boat' and 'Waterways World'. A few appear in the sailing magazines, but these are mainly sea-going vessels, and Exchange & Mart and Loot also have boats for sale..

I don't want to give a detailed description of all the systems on a prospective boat that you should check out - 'Living Afloat' will do that for you. But you do need to define your lifestyle.

For example:

1. If you are content to use laundrettes then, obviously, you don't need a washing machine on board. Washing machines take up space AND they use a lot of electricity.

2. Some people want to go down the 'no gas' road. This usually means cooking on electricity (a strain on the electrical system of the average boat, but, at a price, entirely do-able) or oil.

3. How will you heat the boat in the winter? The main options are:

a. Solid fuel. This could be timber, which can often be found floating on the canal. Some sort of saw and/or axe will also be required. Or it could be coal/anthracite/nuts or what have you. Us pessimists have a small, solid fuel range as a secondary source of warmth, and as a cooking appliance in case of an emergency which could deprive one of oil and electricity - because, perhaps, of having to live miles away from any other human beings during a 'flu epidemic.

b. Oil. This has been popular in the past, but there may soon be serious cost implications. At present, boat engines are permitted to use lower taxed red diesel. This is also ideal for use on oil stoves, oil central heating systems and oil fired cooking stoves (some of which heat as well). Unfortunately, there is a strong possibility that from Jan 2007 on, this 'perq' will be removed, and boats will have to use standard road diesel in their engines. This will mean that heating systems using the same fuel as the engine will be become extremely expensive to run. A solution will be to have two fuel tanks - one for the engine and one for the heating system.

c. Electricity. I have not yet come across a boat that uses only electricity for heating. I guess that one would need to be permanently attached to shore electricity for this. It is possible to have electric heating via a well noise-insulated (diesel powered?) generator, but very few folk go down this route.

d. Gas. I don't know of many live-aboards who rely solely on gas. Indeed, many folk aim to have a gas-free boat, as gas on boats is hazardous. The reason for this is that gas is heavier than air. In the average house, if any gas appliance leaks, the gas will drift downstairs to the ground floor, and roll out of the doors when they are opened. In a boat, the doors are above floor level, so it is entirely possible to get a layer of gas sitting in the bottom of the boat which is not too difficult to ignite. If you build gas into the specification of the boat, be aware that the RBOA has a scheme for providing its members with cheap bottled gas. I believe that at least one manufacturer makes a gas boiler designed for boats.

4. Electric power. Many people opt to do without 220v electricity, and to stick with the 12 or 24 volt type. This is getting easier to arrange. Chandleries and RoadPro and other similar companies provide a wide range of 12 and 24 volt equipment, including fridges, micro-wave ovens, TV, hi(ish)-fi, satellite (including 'Sky') boxes etc. Many folk continue to use a big inverter (1500 watts plus) to take 12volts DC from the battery bank and to convert it to 220 v AC). Others continue to use the little 150 watt inverters, designed to plug into a car cigarette lighter socket - this will power (for example) most (but not all!) computers.

5. Waste disposal (especially toilet waste). Whether you use a simple Elsan bucket, or have an electric loo complete with macerator, you will need facilities to deal with that which you do not want. Lugging a bucket of it to the nearest disposal point is no fun in the winter - indeed the fun quotient drops exponentially as the distance to the disposal point increases.

Er... That's all folks!! Except for...

THE ANSWER TO THE QUIZ: The first thing that you do is to find a mooring.

Toodle pip!!

Bill and Fanny the Woof