General Witterings -
Watery on Rosy

WINTER DRAWS ON …

My sincere apple orgies for not expressing the usual seasonal greetings to everyone who reads these witterings.  My sole excuse is SDD - Sunshine Deficit Disorder.  The sun has been a rare companion these last few months, and although the morale on Rosy is not low, it is not as high as it usually is in mid-summer in Europe (or all the year round in the Middle East!).  Over-wintering in the South of France is becoming more and more attractive!!

In truth, the weather could have been very much worse.  We have had snow on the ground for seven or eight days, and there have been some bitter winds, but in the main it hasn't been too bad.

HELP!!  BOOK WANTED

Has anyone got a spare copy of the book "Small boat in the Midi" by Roger Pilkington that they would be willing to sell to me?  I have borrowed a copy to read, and, although it is aging, it gives a lot of good information about the Canal du Midi, and the trip down the Rhone, so I would like a copy.  Of course, I'm happy to pay for it (and the postage).  If you happen to be a non-English speaking Dutch person (I admit that, since this text is all in English, it is an unlikely scenario) who wants to learn English, I could do a swap, as I happen to have a nearly new copy of the ANWB Taalgids Engels (rough translation 'English for Nitwits' book).  [N.B.  - Bill now has a copy of this book - Ed.]

INCIDENTALLY …

Aoccdrnig to smoe reshcear at an Elingsh uninervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is in the rghit pclae.  The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit any big porbelms.  Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Of late, I have been spectacularly idle.  Fanny-the-Woof requires her daily exercise, and without her I would have merely festered in the arm chair.  As it is, I've been listening to too much radio and watching far too much TV.  I like to think that I am a discriminating viewer, but there is a lot of good stuff on - some excellent films and documentaries.  When I first got satellite TV, I was an avid watcher of TCM - the Turner Movie Channel - and was much distressed when it ceased being on the Free to View package.

We are having a minor fuel crisis.  The fuel delivery man doesn't like delivering to boats, as we all want small (500 - 1000 litres) quantities, so it takes too much of his time.  We have our things crossed that he will be here soon - though we also had that promise last week!  I'm down to the last 40 litres.

Later …

He eventually arrived, and filled up a Belgian boat with 600 litres.  Then, as he moved to Temujin, it started to rain, and we got uncomfortably wet.  And cold.  Then he came to Rosy, and found that the nozzle on the end of his hose was too big for the UK standard size 'Fuel In' orifice, and he hadn't brought a smaller one with him.  So he filled up my four 20 litre containers and left.  Whilst he is happy to come back 'sometime' with the right sized nozzle, I doubt this, as I will be the only person needing fuel, and I can't take more than 400 litres and the minimum fuel drop is usually 500 litres.  The fall back position is to find a petrol station that sells red diesel (there are a few around) and hope that Mike will be kind enough to ferry me and my containers to and from it half a dozen times.

In fact, there is an up-coming crisis on Rosy, as she only has one fuel tank.  If the EU derogation on the use of low-duty fuel in pleasure boats engines in Belgium and UK expires, I might have to burn normal, high-duty, road diesel in Rosy's oil stove.  The only solution I can think of is to install a second fuel tank, and the problem is where to put it.  All the space obvious places are already in use.  Incidentally, the oil stove is a Kabola 'Old Dutch' model, and it seems to use twice as much fuel as the Reflex on the boat next door (with both of them on the lowest setting, and both boats warm inside).  So I may have to get a Reflex stove in order to save fuel.  I've calculated that even if the cheaper red diesel stays, a new Reflex could be paid for itself in fuel savings in two and half winters.

HOSES AND WATER

The bank-side water tap is a little way away - far enough to require Mike and I to link our hoses together.  Water hoses are vital bits of kit for boats.  I've never seen a boater using a proper 'food quality' hose.  Most folk use ordinary garden hoses.  A few people use the hoses that flat-pack onto a spool.  This means that they take up a minimum of storage space.  However, it would annoy me too much if I had to unroll the entire hose when the tap was only a couple of feet away from the boat tank.  My strategy was to buy a long length of ordinary garden hose, and to cut it into three lengths.  Each end terminates in a yellow and grey, plastic, snap-together connector, and there is a snap-in connector with a screw thread for the tap.  It is a simple matter to connect together as many lengths as are necessary.

I always take care to run water through the hose for a few minutes, to flush it out, before putting water into the boat tank.  Having filled the tank, I take care to drain the hose before neatly coiling it up.  For each coil, the two ends are clicked together to stop extraneous dirt getting into the hose.  This regime works quite well - the hose was not expensive (it's a cheapo green one with two yellow stripes running along it) but it is now five years old and still going strong, and still coils neatly.

I have only sterilised the water system twice - once when I bought the boat, and again a year later.  I guess I ought to do it again soon.  It is done by pouring some Milton (or similar chlorine based fluid) into a nearly empty main tank, the quantity used is according to the sterilising instructions on the bottle.  The tank is then filled, thereby mixing the solution.  Each tap is then opened for about three or four minutes to flush the pipes, and the system left for a while (overnight, perhaps).  Then the system is emptied, refilled with fresh water and each tap again opened for a few minutes.  Job done.

Some folk use a lower concentration of Milton, but then don't do that final rinse.  This saves a tank-full of water - on Rosy, that is some 3 or 400 litres of water.

In fact, the water usage on Rosy is quite low.  I've never run out, but fill up every two weeks, so at the most I use 28 litres a day.  A shower in lieu of a bath saves water, as does my bucket-and-chuckit loo.

They say that one flush of the average toilet uses as much water as the daily consumption of many third world people, so I feel that I'm doing my bit for the planet.

I was surprised to find, during our travels in Europe, that France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany all have metric and imperial plumbing requisites easily available in the d-i-y stores.  We didn't do any research in Poland to see if that holds true there.

Stay warm, folks.

Toodle pip!!

Bill