Fall Ings Lock - Open day... Calder and Hebble

I'm not sure HOW , but we appeared to have today (Sunday 6th March) noted down as an open day at Fall Ing's lock here in Wakefield... It's also (here in the UK) Mothering Sunday btw - in case by some chance you'd been able to overlook it... I mean, it's not like it's EVERYWHERE you look in Supermarkets, petrol stations, tv adverts is it?

SO - first thing this morning, we donned our walking gear and headed off along the tow-path through town to take a look.

The tow-path through Wakefield is a bit hit and miss if we're honest...  you have to work it out by trial and error in places.  Not to worry - we know the town well enough so it isn't a problem for us.

Fall Ings Lock is the 1st lock on the Calder & Hebble Navigation from the River.  It's a wide, deep lock and although we've yet to boat through it, we're familiar with it from our walks along the canal. The workforce have put in that temporary road stuff they use in show grounds and "set up camp" by the lock for their open day.

This road, takes you by the residential moorings.  I think there are 8 in total - we did look at one that was up for auction a while back but decided it was a bit too dear for us... especially considering we still don't have a boat to put in it.  It does have a nice feel to it though so we'd never say never... that said, there are a lot of notices around warning would-be felons about 24 hour CCTV... perhaps they do the trick... if not, maybe this chap is scaring them off:

As we approached the lock, we were met and welcomed by some CRT volunteers.  Considering the cold morning (it'd been snowing a little earlier) they were all very jolly and approachable.  They'd set up a couple of stalls - and were touting various things aimed at getting some money off folk ... all fair enough really given how much is needed after the boxing day floods.  I did feel a bit tight NOT putting my hand into my pocket but considering I'm already a "friend" AND paying £1700 a year for a mooring we're not yet using, walked on by with a clear conscience.

I had a bit of natter to someone as we descended the scaffolding into the lock... I don't think it was Richard Parry... perhaps he was coming along later lol.  Actually, thinking about that chap - to give him due credit, he certainly does his fair share... he gets around all over the place... I'm always surprised when I've taken  a selfie that he's NOT in the background :-) 

Sorry if that's a bit photo heavy but don't they say a picture paints a 1000 words? - Consider this, my dissertation!

The new gates apparently cost £30k each... that's a lot of money but they'll last a long time.  There's a video here with a friendly Yorkshire bloke (we mostly are really) inviting you to come along... 

I hope they don't mind me linking to it...

It was quite interesting to be down in the lock with it relatively dry - even with stop planks either side, it was still taking a couple of large  pumps to keep the level so low.  I did spot an old boat anchor laying in the rubble.  We did say that despite it's depth, how surprised we both were at how little water there would be under your boat when empty...

The old gates are still laying nearby for people to look at - we've certainly seen worse ones still in use though.

We took a scenic (well scenic ish for Wakefield) route home, taking in a few land marks - I'll add some photos later though,  as I've a load of seedlings which need pricking out now.

Until next time...

The Barnsley Canal... un-navigable

So, you may remember that at the weekend, we went off for a walk along part of the Barnsley Canal.

When I say that, what I actually mean is we did a circular walk, taken from the Wakefield way:

Walk number 1 it was, that took us a long  part of the un-restored canal.  The Wakefield way as you can see from the photo I nicked, is a circular walk - around Wakefield of course.  The book of walks, splits it into sections that start and finish in the same place, using various public footpaths/carparks to make it easy to do.

The book we're working from is old - very old.  So old in fact, that lots of the landmarks used to navigate, have been removed or have died... such as "big tree near a fence" or "large gate next to a style".  It CAN lead to "interesting" moments trying to work out where on Earth you are - or rather where on Earth you should be going lol. 

Our plan THIS year, is to walk each walk, enough times to get it right... sort of a trial and error affair AND in the hope they will sink into our brains for retirement.  It was our 4th attempt at walk 1 ... it starts off at Wintersett reservoir, and goes into Haw Park wood.   There's a visitor centre there and "things to do" for kids - it also has helpful signs up in the wood to make things a little easier... These signs, however, do not help " Wakefield Way" walkers... 

They are quite helpful and interesting I suppose... especially if you're trying to make education fun... it took a while to get Andy on side but he now knows about "Oak trees" thanks to this.

/

IT's a slow burner (the learning process that is - not the tree) but we'll get there in time... 

About a mile into the walk, we  ended up alongside the old Barnsley Canal.   As you can see from the map, the canal used to link Barnsley with the Aire and Calder in Wakefield.

It's  a nice walk along the tow-path - which is in quite good condition... as is the canal itself.  It's easy to see how it could be brought back into life....in many places, it holds water well and the bridges we came cross aren't in too bad condition either.   If you're interested, you can read more about it here http://www.bddct.org.uk/home.html

I took a few photos as we wandered ...

I'm not too sure who those ugly buggers are but my new hat was very warm! ;-) 

Until next time...

Boat Heating - Part 3

We had a lovely walk yesterday along part of the old Barnsley canal... I took a few photos so will share them in a later post.

SO - back to HEATING... As well has having the multi fuel stove, we're also going to have a Webasto Thermotop C diesel powered, wet system:

A sexy bit of kit I'm sure you'll agree? - Basically it's a small diesel burner with a built in pump. Like the stove, it's Max output is circa 5.2kw.  When installed, it heats both the water in the calorifier (without the need to run the engine) and powers the wet radiators.   The kit can be had for a little over £1k - although you can buy refurbished ones for about £4-500 - that claim to have all new parts.  

We're tempted to "risk" a refurbished unit, given it won't be in use all the time... we'll have to think on that a while longer though as it would be a faff to replace once it's all plumbed in if it proved to be a false economy.

It "claims" to use between  0.3 and 0.61 litres of diesel per hour - which even at 99p a litre, isn't really that expensive... There's a link here to the official data sheet: http://www.webasto.com/fileadmin/webasto_files/documents/country-folder/usa/hd/Data-Sheet/usa-heavy-duty-datasheet-thermo-top-c.pdf

In our current layout, we plan to have 2 radiators in the lounge, 1 in the bedroom, 1 in the bathroom and 2 in the dinette cabin to the rear.  As well as the radiators, there will be a 2 fin rads in the dinette at floor level under each side and a couple in the wardrobes in the bedroom.  

Fin rads are basically tubes with metal fins on.  Hot water passes through the pipe, and heats the air in the fins causing it to rise and draw colder air in at the bottom to be circulated and warm the room.

The 2 in the dinette/rear cabin are to be 5 ft long and  each rated at 640 watts  - there will also be 1 small (400mm x 500mm) convector type radiator on each side to supplement these - rated at  356watts.  That's a theoretical maximum heating capacity in that room of 1992watts.  

Given it's only 6 ft square, we hope that will feel warm enough.  

Despite the output of the burner being rated at 5.2kw, in our current plan, the combined total rating for the radiators and finned rads is quite a bit higher... I don't have the exact figures to hand (they're  doodled on the wall) but it shouldn't be a problem.  Diesel burners respond better to having to work hard, rather then cycle on and off ... cycling on and off quickly can lead to them getting coked/sooted up - thus requiring more frequent maintenance. 

If we do discover certain radiators are not getting hot enough, we can simply turn one of the lounge ones off to "release" a bit more capacity.  We can do this by having a twin piped system throughout, with each radiator/fin rad, having a manual control valve at either end... it's going to be a bit of trial and error but I'd rather fit too many to start with than not enough.

In practice, I suspect once the stove is burning away, we'll probably only really need the ones in the rear cabin anyway...  from our previous experience with coal fired stoves, you can get the temperature quite high... to the point where it might be minus 5 degrees outside, but you are sitting in the boat  in your underpants with the doors and windows wide open!

TRY not to think about that one too much - for obvious reasons lol.

If money were no object, we'd be investigating an underfloor heating system.  It would be much neater than having wall mounted radiators and we'd feel much more comfortable with a hot floor - the reality is that for it to be efficient, you'd have to insulate the floor of the boat properly -  which given the ballast would be a ball-ache... and without doing so, a lot of the heat created would be wasted heating the water in the canal.    Underfloor heating on boats is the privilege of the wealthy I'm afraid... perhaps on the next boat.

Until next time...

Boat Heating... Part 2

Where were we? - solid fuel stoves... or rather Multi fuel as planned for our boat.

As I've already said, we plan on installing ours in the centre of the boat - the idea being that heat will be more evenly spread throughout the boat.  The addition of one of these at ceiling (ish) level:

will provide a means of ducting really hot air from the lounge ceiling, down to floor level in the bathroom behind.    There are a few reasons for using a computer case fan:  1) they run on 12v so don't require the inverter to be on for them to work. 2) they're pretty much silent. 3) the current draw (power) is minimal so they don't drain your batter bank and 4) most will tolerate voltage fluctuations.

The wonders of ebay means the following collection of parts should soon be winging their way in our direction:

Lounge Vent

Rear adaptor

Downpipe

Read Adaptor

Bathroom Floor vent

Once connected together, I hope the airflow will prove effective - I'll have a dry run in the garage before hand to test the system out.  

I've mentioned the position of the stove in the boat - as close to centre was possible.  It's also going to be as close to port (left for you non-nautical types).  The reason for this is that some of the tunnels around the system are 2 way traffic and when you meet a boat coming in the opposite direction, you pass each other on the right... now given the "roof" of the tunnel slopes, by having your chimney on the left, it will be at the point with the highest available headroom - ergo, shouldn't get knocked off.

Of course, as many tunnels are one way / narrow, the chimney would no longer be at the point with the greatest head room.... As with many things, there is never the perfect solution but having the fire set to port will at least fit the interior design plan better but who knows, it's theory but it might work

BACK to "vents" - as annoying as drafts can be, stoves need an awful lot of oxygen and if you don't have enough fixed ventilation, you could find yourself DEAD thanks to our old enemy Carbon Monoxide! (see a previous post)

British Standard (BS8511:2010) - Code of practice for the installation of solid fuel heating and cooking applicance in small craft.

This tells you what you need to know - the simplified version is to ensure  you have 1" square for each Kilowatt of heat output divided between vents, high and low.  Looking at our plan, we'll have the fixed rear and front vents (in the front and rear doors) and a mushroom vent in the centre of the lounge.  We'll need to ensure there are gaps, equal to the ventilation sizes under /over the doors separating the dinette and kitchen, and bathroom/bedroom.    I think this will provide a "flow" and source for the fire.... hopefully without killing us this time.

This is a quick snap of an easier working document from our "wall".

Part 3 (sorry about this) is to follow as it's Sunday morning now and we're heading out for an early morning walk down the old Barnsley and Dearne Canal - NOT restored yet, but hopefully one day it will be.

Until next time...

Boat Heating... Part 1

A question often asked of boaters: "Isn't it really cold in winter?" - to which the answer is of course "YES if you don't have effective heating... the same as in a house you muppet!" (I'm never sure whether the ! should go before or after the " " bits... if anyone reading this rubbish knows, I'd really appreciate a lesson in grammer.  Failing that, I'll ask a foreigner - they'll know,

ANYWAY ... the other morning, when I was about to leave for work, I checked the weather thing I have in the lounge to see whether I'd need to de-ice the car.  This is what it showed...

Ignoring both the clutter AND the fat finger obsuring the left hand corner (I couldn't make the crop thingy work for some reason) the bit we're interested in is the bottom left of the screen.  It was Minus 4.2 celious outside and 22.5 in the lounge.

I've never been one to tolerate cold very well - hence we leave the heatig on in the house 24/7.  When we eventually live on the boat this won't really be a viable option without it costing a fortune in fuel - AND don't forget everything on the boat needs fetching/carrying to it.

With that in mind, we're going to have 2 heating sources:  a solid fuel burning stove  AND a diesel powered radiator system.  

There are other ways of heating a boat such as warm air blown systems, gravity fed back boilers or just radiators heated by the engine.  The latter more of an engine cooling function than heating system.   Some folk when connected to shoreline power (think caravans with cables trailing to them) use oil filled radiators or little halogen heaters but as shoreline is not an option on our mooring, they'd be no use.

The primary source of heat though on most boats tends to be the solid/multifuel stove.  

Introducing the Morso Squirrel: 

(I stole the photo so if it's yours and you don't approve, please shout and I'll replace it with one of my own.)

This gives a  heating potential of 5kw... give or take.  The max output depends on certain veriables such as what fuel you are burning, how much ventilation you've got and external wind speeds (linked to air flow) etc.

Many folk have their stoves at the very front of the boat in the saloon - this is generally fine but if it's the only source of heat on the boat, by the time you get to the back end, it's freezing.  To counter this, there is a product called an "Eco fan" - it sits on top of the stove and uses electric generated by the heat of the stove, to power it's fan, thus pushing warm air in which ever direction it's pointing.  The result can be an increase of 4-5 degrees celius at the back,

On our design layout, the stove is slap bang in the middle of the boat, against the bathroom wall bulkhead and facing towards the back.  

My plan is to cut a 4 inch hole through the bulkhead into the bathroom, install a silent 12v computer fan and use ducting to direct hot air around the top of the stove, down the bathroom floor coming out at the base of the shower... with the bedroom door ajar, this should increase the temp in there too but more importantly mean the shower will feel nice and warm.

The Morso IS an expensive stove but it's cast iron as opposed to the steel versions we'd considered before... the cheapest I've found is a little under £900 for the stove and by the time you'd added a twin wall (thanks Europe) flue kit, we're looking at about £1500 before we fit it.

It has to be done...

I have to go to work now,  part 2 will follow shortly.

Until next time...

Carbon Monoxide Alarms...

Our latest purchase for the boat are CO Alarms  (Carbon Monoxide)... oh I know it's a bit premature but they're something we DON'T want to forget about.  Why? - well because a couple of years ago, Andy  and I ended up in hospital during a summer camping trip (on my birthday as it happens) due to use of a camping gas heater in the tent.  

Totally self inflicted but I'd had said heater (and used it safely more times than I can remember) for over 10 years... inside a well ventilated tent.  SCHOOL boy error that last time was new tent... more "weather proof" - less ventilation and too much wine to think straight.

We zipped up the tent (30ft x 8 ft) about 9pm and watched Skyfall on the laptop, finishing off the box of wine we'd started earlier.. it's odd, but  I  took a photo at the time - with no idea I'd be writing about it a couple of years later:

There was a distinct chill in the air - despite it being early June, so we thought we'd leave the fire on in the centre of the tent and retire for the night...

About 6am I woke up needing the loo and noticed the flame on the fire was flickering and looked odd -So I turned it off thinking "bugger, the gas is nearly out - 'hope there's enough left to cook breakfast".... 

Andy got up about 8 and went into the other bedroom (read camping toilet) and shortly after that I heard a "thump" and on investigating found aforementioned partner, unconscious on the floor near the loo.  

Bit of a panic (well lot of a panic actually) trying to call an ambulance but no phone signal - something clicked in my brain about the fire so I dragged him outside as quickly as possible... feeling a bit rough myself but presuming it was hangover.  Other half put in recovery position and me running around the riverside trying to get a phone signal - when eventually found, 999 dialled only to find estimated time before ambulance would arrive was about 1 hour... ( I later found out there had been industrial action over something).  On return, he'd come around enough to talk but looked terrible and was crying like a banshee.

SO - into car, windows, sunroof open and speedy drive to the nearest A and E I could think of (Friarage hospital in Northallerton)  - all a bit vague from there as I just about passed out in the car park and the next thing I remember was waking up on a trolley with hi flow oxygen being pumped.  Andy  was very poorly -  me being 2 stone heavier, I could absorb more with least effect if you follow...  there was some talk about  him being sent to hull for the decompression chamber...We were both sent off to cdu a while later (still on hi flow) and spent the night being checked every hour or so.  

Luckily for us, by noon the next day, the doc came and said we could go home and discharged us to the care of our gp.  No  noticeable lasting issues other than memory problems but that could be down to age anyway.

SINCE then -  as you might imagine, we've got alarms in the camping gear, take one with us on hire boats and have 2 in the house.  I doubt we would be so lucky again.... also, we  never camp or moor in a place with no phone signal... or without noting the address (part of the panic was not knowing the post code of the camp site) or bridge nearest bridge number / gps data.  It's out plan to have a little chalk board at the back of the boat and intend to record out position every night when we moor up.

All in all a scary, humbling experience and one of those times when you realise first hand, how fragile we all are.

If you've not got a CO and smoke alarm, then get them and test them regularly folks   - they could be all that's between YOU and the grim reaper!

Until next time...

Life's 'Understudies'...

OK... this has nothing at all to do with narrow boating but I've been thinking about something.

A while back, we went to the cinema for the first time in about 8 years.  It's all changed!

The first thing that hit us was the lack of people working in them now - you no longer go in, queue up and ask for 2 tickets for whatever film you want... oh no.  NOW you have to stand, looking at a ticket machine.

Sorry madam - I hope you don't mind being included in this photo... let me know if you do and I'll cut you out and re-post it

When you eventually work out how to move around the on-screen menus, you can select your film, pay for it by card (they don't take cash)... PAYING  a 'processing fee' on top of the ticket price, and then you're free to go to the concessions stand.  Why it's called a concessions stand is beyond me because given the price of popcorn, it's anything BUT a concession.

Apparently, you can also buy tickets that we'd just bought at the machines at the concessions stand too - it's not obvious... the signage telling you this is none existent as they clearly don't want you to bother them with ticket sales...

SO, once you've bought a bag of popcorn and a drink the running total for part self-service trip out is circa £30 for  2 people!  If you're not in shock yet, you will be by the time you work out which theatre is showing your film... the "person" who takes a glance at your tickets as you walk past him/her doesn't direct you... no, it's expected you can work it out.  Now OK - it IS on your ticket but it's very faint print I bet many folk wander in to the wrong screen.

Once you're  settled *read cleared away the rubbish left by the previous occupants* you then endure about 20 mins of adverts before getting to the film you've paid to see.

In short, it's horrible... no staff, no effort just a money grabbing operation that, if you want to see a current film, you have to endure.

The good thing about it however is that it planted a seed within - we decided in future, to wait a few months, buy the DVD, watch it and then either sell it on  via eBay for half it's cost or give it to a Charity shop... either way, we'd be £20 up on the deal AND be able to pause the film to nip for a wee!

Andy then got to thinking... he decided that perhaps we could  go to theatre more often instead of the cimena...  yes, I know it's not an "apples for apples" comparison but it still offers a night out, you still can eat popcorn  but more importantly you get a good feeling that you're supporting a good cause... not forgetting you also mingle and therefore easily interact with many like-minded people.

In Wakefield, we're very lucky to have a beautiful old Theatre - The Theatre Royal.

Since Andy's Epiphany, we've been a few times ...(the plan is once a month but life doesn't always allow that) and on Friday we went again.  This time neither of us had actually looked at what the show was.  I know most folk will think that barmy, but even if I we don't like something, we can appreciate the effort and time that has gone in to it's production...  On Friday, this WAS one of those occurrences - well certainly to begin with.

The show was simply called "Dance, Sing & Act" (well those words in whatever order).  It was a production from performance academy.  You can read about it here if you like: http://www.theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk/join-in/performance-academy/ 

The beginning of the show was awful - the infant class having a stab at "The Wizard of Oz" - when it started I looked at Andy in disbelief...  I'm not a fan of kids in general and he knew fine well I'd be grumbling at having paid to watch a school play.

As it went on and the next age groups  came on, it got better.... when I say better, I mean more tolerable. NO matter - you have to admire the commitment, energy and sheer determination the preformers put in.   I have no doubt that every single one of them was trying their hardest.

Which leads me to the point (eventually) of this post.   Understudies!  At one part of the show, one of the MC's came out and said the next song will be sung tonight by "so and so" as the original cast member was ill and unable to perform.  SO the understudy leaps into action.

Which got me thinking - It's hard work mentally for an understudy... KNOWING you weren't "judged" good enough to get the part in the first place, but to be "USED"  to bale them out when things go wrong.  This triggered a bit of inward thinking and it occurred to me, that Andy and I are understudies of sorts.  We spend our entire lives beavering away in the background, wearing ourselves out for other people/organisation's benefit - rarely getting even a thank you for our efforts.

So, to ALL the other understudies of the world - WE SALUTE YOU!

Until next time,,,

Toilet talk...

We can't avoid this conversation much longer folks - the time has come for the 'Toilet discussion' ... well when I say discussion, as the comment function on here is a bit temperamental, it's more of a soliloquy - no matter lol 

Right then... for those of you who don't know, boating and toilet talk go together like rhubarb and custard.  The other day, when aboard Mick's boat, within seconds we were talking about his pump out toilet and how he'd rather the boat had a cassette..

Toilets on-board come in 3 forms:  Pump out, Cassette and of late, composting.  There can be slight variations on each but they all follow the basic description

Let's start with pump outs.   As the name suggests,  these are basically a loo that disposes of it's contents into a holding tank somewhere on the boat... which when full, gets "pumped out" ashore.

The pump out, comes in 3 main guises too:

The Macerator - which contains a pump and cutting head which chomps it's way through whatever is put down it.

This is going to be our "main toilet - if you're a bit nerdy, feel free to watch their lovely installation video on you tube - it's just over 6 minutes of your life you won't get back but they do make it sound very glamorous...

As well as the macerator pump out, there are also 2 others; the "dump through" - which is a simple as it sounds - the loo it'self sits directly ON the holding tank and the waste drops through into it.  These are simpple, usuallly unblockable and do have the advantage of the user being able to see through when the tank is about full - the down side, ALSO being that you CAN see in when it's about full...  NOT for the faint hearted.

Sorry it's not the best photo - I stole it from another blog but you get the idea... loo sits over a tank and you usually depress a lever with your foot which turns a balll around to open the bowl to the tank and hey presto - gravity does the rest.

The other pump-out kind, is the "Vacuum" loo: 

These are like the ones installed on planes and cruise-ships.  We quite like the idea of them as they use less water to flush  - which would mean less pump-outs and less wasted water from the freshwater tank... they are however a bit more expensive (there's a surprise) so our old friend "compromise" has come into play again and we've settled on the following kit from Sanimarin:

http://www.leesan.com/index.asp?m=3&cat1=2&cat2=41&p=29&t=75+Gallon+Holding+Tank%2C+SaniMarin+SN35+12v+DC%2C+Stainless+Fittings++

 "Another" £1000 to spend...  - that 'boat' thing, is certainly looking just that at the moment!

We may get lucky at Crick show and find one on offer but for now, it's on the "wall"!

where were we? -  ah yes, TOILET types...

Cassettes are simple - they vary in form but basically it's a reasonable sized plastic bowl (sometimes ceramic if you want to spend more) that sits over a removable cassette.  When the user has finished, they pull a lever usually to allow the contents to drop into the holding cassette beneath.. I think I'd be inclined to open it before I do anything to reduce the effort of the flush .  This is the one we're having as a 2nd loo:

There's a video file here: Thetford

which might be of interest...  

I suppose  the main advantage of having a cassette type is that it's free to empty them around the system... (pump-outs incur a typical cost of around £20 in the north - more in the south) and also, if you get frozen in somewhere with a full loo, you can at least trailer a cassette along the tow-path to the nearest emptying point...most people carry a spare one which we'll also be doing.  The downside being that you have no choice and end up getting rather close to the contents of the cassette when emptying...  I'm told if we ever  use it for more than number 1's, that will be my job... - no pun intended!

The final option is the 'Composting' toilet...

Basically, the unit is designed as such, to keep the solids and liquids separate - the liquid is then poured away whilst the solids begin to breakdown in the "bucket"underneath ... apparently if fitted, and used "properly" they DON'T smell and take about 3 months to fill - at which time you need to be able to store a bucket  somewhere for about 6-9 months before the compost is finished...

Some boaters swear by them and they DO offer another FREE way of  handling waste...  we don't think they're for us... not yet anyway... I'm sure as we meet more and more boaters with them, we'll become more enlightened!

Crikey - this has become a long post...who'd have thought taking a crap  visit could be so involved?

Until next time...

A New friend called "Mick"...

Yesterday, after a morning in the garden sowing various seeds and rigging up my "Heath Robinson" electric propagators in the lean-to behind the summerhouse - oh and after washing all 3 cars AND having a general tidy up in the garage, we took a drive up to Stanley Ferry again.  That sentence is way too long  - I'm sorry! 

The sun was shining and despite the wind, it was a nice day for a walk  so we headed up along the tow-path to do a small circular route that would bring us back - passing our mooring spot.   Along the way, we encountered the usual ramblers and cyclists and it must have been the sunshine making everyone "happy" as  everyone we came upon, was keen to say hello for a change.    As we approached our mooring, we noticed a grumpy looking chap getting on and off his boat doing "stuff" - when we got closer we realised he was on one of the boats either side of us.  This chap, looked as miserable as it was possible to be on such a bright day.   It wasn't long until we were right near him and I decded now was as good a time as any to start a conversation with him in the hope of introducing ourselves as eventual new neighbours.

I can't actually remember what my opening line was - I get nervous around new people sometimes... looking at him, we'd both assumed he was going to be hard work.  On the contrary, he turned out to be the nicest old chap you could wish to be moored near.  Within moments, he invited me on to his boat to have a good look around at his layout, heating and solar charging systems.  OK, so within a second of stepping on-board, I could tell he wasn't house proud but his genuine warmth and hospitality WAS apparent.    That's the thing about most boaters... they DO care about other people and DO want to help where they can... Thinking about it though, a general capacity to care about others and willingness to do good or help out is abundant in society -  It just doesn't get much airplay in the news.  It's very easy sometimes to assume the worst of people or imagine everyone is out to screw you over... that just ins't the case.

Don't get me wrong, there are a few bad buggers about - but for the most part the world is a nice place to be... you just have to look at it through good eyes.

SO Mick is our new friend and I have no doubt, once the boat arrives, he'll be a great neighbour.  We both look forward to sharing a beer with him in the future... meanwhile, I need to do a bit more searching for macerator toilets again... I read something on canalworld about leessan having a bit of a sale.

Until next time...

Back to boat related stuff with retail therapy!

Ok - so yesterday I was peeved off with 'work'... TODAY is Saturday and despite having planned to go in for 5 hours this morning, I decided at 5am when Andy's alarm went off that I wouldn't and laid in bed until nearly 7 (in my world this is defined as a 'lay in')...

Sorry about yesterdays rant - like I said, this place (as in blog thingy) is my 'dear diary' where I can vent without having much risk I'll offend someone.  ANYWAY, moving on, today I've been out for a wander down the canal briefly  - a quick circular route up and over a wobbly bridge and passed our mooring place.  As I was walking down the towpath, wishing I'd brought a hat with me, I spotted a chap taking his toilet cassette to the disposal point.

This is a common enough occurrence but he was lugging this thing - presumably full of unmentionables  by carrying it at chest height.  To me this seemed rather a hard way to do it... Surely a  25 litre container must be blooming heavy - it looked heavy to me at any rate.  Having already given quite a lot of thought to this, we've bought a folding sack barrow for lack of a better term.  It's got a telescopic handle to reduce the need to stoop and will easily accommodate 2 "full" cassettes or perhaps a 20 litre jerry(gerry?) can of diesel.

  

When folded it takes up no space at all

And when full extended, it's a comfortable height.

It was only £20 from Maplins and it feels quite sturdy - according to the blurb on the packaging, it can hold up to 70kgs...

You may notice however, it doesn't specify being useful to carry poo off your boat ;-)   ... well I suppose MOST people buying them, won't be doing that will they?

For the most part, neither will we I suppose  - we're having 2 toilets on our boat... the main being the macerator which will feed to a tank under the bed in the main bedroom/cabin.  Our 2nd one being for emergency use WHEN the macerator breaks down or we get iced in somewhere... and even then only for liquid use unless it's an absolute emergency... 

It's a certainty that after a few minutes chatting with a boater, the conversation WILL end up heading down the 'pump out verses cassette' debate...  when it does, we'll of course be ready for it by having both!  You could argue that taking up a 2ft wide space of the available 41ft having a 2nd toilet is wasteful but it's our boat and we want the option.  Pump outs of the main tank currently cost about £20 a time...  so there may come a point in the future when we DO use the cassette in a bid to save money and if that is the case, we'll change over in the main bathroom and then turn the 2nd loo in to a wardrobe or granny flat!

Until next time...