General Witterings -
Keeping Warm on Rosy

USEFUL INFORMATION

I have just discovered a new, Belgian waterways map.  It is four separate, paper, fold-up maps housed in a neat plastic wallet.  One map shows the west(ish) of Belgium, one the centre and one the east.  There are reasonable overlaps on the edges of these maps.  The fourth map has some general information (bridge and lock opening times, etc.) and larger scale maps of the major ports (Dunkirk, Zeebrugge, Brugge (a.k.a Bruges, Gent, Nieuport etc.).

It is called the Geocart Watermap ISBN 90 6736 132 1 and costs about 20 Euros.

EASY QUIZ

What is the following an example of?

A MAN A PLAN A CANAL PANAMA

(see the end of these witterings for the answer)

HOME NEWS

The winter hibernation continues on Rosy.  We're having a fairly idle time, except for writing articles.  I have hopes of one being published in Canal Boat Magazine in the near(ish) future, and getting something in to Waterways World sometime in the New Year.  Other than that … I've been catching up with the TV.

I followed the programmes about the Auschwitz Concentration Camp (in Poland).  I didn't visit it when we were in Poland, though I have visited other camps in Germany - Belsen, Ravensbruck and Saschenhausen.  I find them deeply depressing and disturbing.  It is not only the awfulness of what happened in these places.  It is also the fact of how easy it is to persuade normal human beings to behave in such in-human ways. 

In the 1960s, Milgram demonstrated this in a controversial experiment.  The experiments were rigged, so that no-one actually got hurt.  The participants had to ask questions of a stooge subject, and to give the subject an electric shock for wrong answers.  The 'overseer' encouraged the participants to inflict stronger and stronger currents to the stooge, even when the stooge was writhing in agony, and the faked instruments indicated that the shocks were above the 'lethal' limit.  The participants fully believed that they were inflicting extremely severe pain upon other people.  It is all too easy to persuade torturers to torture.  And since those being tortured want the torture to stop, they are all to willing to admit to anything - whether they did it or not!!  Hence, the 'information' elicited via torture is likely to be corrupt.

I am not doing very much maintenance on Rosy.  There is quite a bit to do - for starters, she needs a re-paint.  The present weather is wintry, chilly and wettish, so I'm promising myself to do it the spring.  I need to make a cushion cover for the back cabin, so I'll steel myself to be a bit more productive … soon.  The major problem is to find a large enough area when I can lay out the material in order to mark and cut it.

BOAT MEASUREMENTS

Although I like to think of myself as a reasonably honest sort of chap, it is often useful to be a bit flexible when it comes to boat measurements.

An example.  When I bought Rosy in UK, the documentation prepared by the original builders of the hull stated that she was 53 ft long.  Whether that is the overall length of the waterline length, I do not know.  How accurate that measurement is, I do not know.  When I came to register Rosy on the Small Ships Register (SSR), they wanted her length, which I gave as 53 ft, and which they translated as 16.04 metres.  (How they got to that number, I don't know - I reckon it ought to be 16.15m).  Anyway, if I knew then what I know now, I would have reported it as 15.95 metres, as moorings often seem to have 16 metres as break-point in their charging structure - some charge extra for over 16 metres, and others for 16 metres and over.

Similarly, although it as well to know the draught of your boat, its interpretation is tricky.  First of all the draught will vary depending on how the boat is loaded - during a cruise the draught will decrease as one munches through the food and drinks the beer (assuming that bodily outgoings go overboard); and as the engine consumes the diesel; and as showers are taken.

Also, although the design draught might be 75 cm, if the boat is down at the stern (as Rosy is when a new load of fuel is taken on) then there could be several centimetres difference in the draught between the bows and the stern.

Thus, when a waterways official asks what the boat is drawing, it is as well indulge in a bit of to dissimulation.  Their only reason for asking is because there will be a depth restriction ahead, and, as they don't want you to get stuck, they are likely to understate the depth.  Hence you want to know what they are stating the depth to be.  That allows you to decide whether you can get through or not.  If you believe that you can, then its as well to report a draught at least 5 cm less than their stated depth.

A particular warning is required about weight.  The weight of the boat is not shown on the SSR.  Feel free to be a bit breezy about the tonnage as tons can mean different things to different people.  For a start the metric tonne is, more and more, pronounced 'ton' rather than the Anglicised 'tunny'.  Other tons ('Thames Tonnage' for example) are based on volume rather than weight.  The only time you need to be honest and truthful is where cranes are involved.  However, be aware that (I am reliably informed) vessels over 15 tons navigating the Rhine and the Elbe are required to have (and, hence, to pay for) a properly qualified pilot on board.

BROWN BOOTS

Once upon a time, long long ago, when I was a tiddler, we were told a tale of an agricultural relation who went to a gents' outfitters to arrange for the hire of a morning suit - his daughter was getting married.  As he was departing, the fitter said 'And don't forget not to wear your brown boots with it!'

Later, when I was a bit more dashing, sturdy brown shoes (Veldtshoen?) were worn with cavalry twill trousers, tweed jacket and a fawn, 'west of England' cloth waist-coat.  Black shoes were essential for evening wear, and for 'smart' city wear, with a suit.  More generally, brown shoes were casual and for the country, black shoes were for more formal and city occasions.

Being, at that time, fairly accepting of conventions, I never questioned this, but, recently, a radio programme offered a reasonable explanation for all this conformity.

In the beginning, all leather shoes and boots were brown, because that was the colour imparted to the leather by the tanning processes then known.

Tanning leather black was a process developed abroad (Germany, I think).  As it was a more expensive process, only richer people wore black shoes, and then, only on special occasions.  Over time, black footwear became associated with more formal dress - and hence with business and cities - whilst brown footwear remained associated with the countryside and informality.

Isn't it nice - the way bits of information come along, and transmute the seemingly random into logical.

However, since these witterings are supposed to be orientated towards boats …

At this time of year, one of the first questions people ask is 'Isn't it cold on a boat in winter?'

The answer, of course, is that if the boat wasn't insulated; and if there was no way of generating heat on board; then, yes, it would be cold.  However, not being a total nitwit, the average live-aboard boater makes sure that their boat has a certain amount of thermal insulation built into it, and has heat making facilities.

On 'Rosy' we have a variety of heat sources.

Level 1: This is a trick learned from Stan and Judy Voets - Americans who spent several years exploring the UK canals.  I use it on chilly, late spring and early autumn days.  Take a flower-pot.  NOT a plastic one, but a proper, red, unglazed, pottery one.  Stand it upside down over a gas ring on a gas cooker.  Turn on the gas, ignite it, and turn it right down.  The flower pot seems to radiate the heat AND it seems to prevent condensation.

Level 2: The back cabin on Rosy has a solid fuel stove, so on cold days, at least we can sleep warmly.  (Many live-aboards use lots of solid fuel in the form of wood, large bits of which can be found floating in the cut.  A saw, a saw bench and a bit of hard work not only provides free heat, but also tidies up the cut).

Level 3: There is a diesel fired stove in the main cabin, with a radiator in the 'office' cabin, and a heated towel rail in the bathroom.  The stove circulates water by convection through the radiator and towel rail - if you get things right, there is no need to have an electric pump to circulate the hot water.

(What to do if (when?) UK and Belgian boaters lose the cheap, red diesel, I'm not sure.  Running an oil stove on regular road diesel would double my heating costs, and I've not found anywhere on Rosy to fit a second 500 litre fuel tank.  A 500 litre tank is needed as that is the usual minimum delivery quantity.)

Level 4: I have a temporary, stand-by system available, in the form of three rather smart paraffin pressure lamps (a Tilley, an Aladdin and a Petromax) that give good light and a reasonable amount of heat.  We also have a small paraffin pressure stove for emergency cooking, and if that fails there is the barbecue).

Level 5: Finally, there is a 1 kw electric fan heater, for use when there is tons of cheap electricity, or when it is really cold.  I've not had any reason to use it for a couple of years.

The main problem in an extended freeze is the dreaded bucket - a.k.a.  the loo.  Over here, boat owners usually have standard marine toilets, whereby bodily outgoings are pumped directly over the side.  That is a bit hi-tech for me, so I have a rather smart bucket, which I use on Rosy, and then tip the contents over the side.  This doesn't work too well when the cut is covered in ice.  Luckily, on our winter mooring, there is a normal land-lubbers standard loo in the club house, which is only about 150 metres away, so, in extremis, I could always walk (trot?) round to that.

Answer to the Quiz: It might not be a very good one, but it is, in fact, a palindrome - the same backwards as it is forwards).

Toodle pip!!

Bill