I run this ship!

By fletch Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Last night I had a realisation. The last ten days I’ve been living my life around the boat when really, it should be working for me!

Mainly it manifests as little worries when I’m out and about like “has the heating come on” and “are the batteries going flat” and I kind of feel the need to get back there and check it out. Every system on the boat relies on the other and generally if you lose one part then you’re fucked.

The batteries power the central heating gizmo, its waterpump, they start the engine (which will also eventually give you hot water), they supply electric directly to the sockets, power the tapwater and shower pumps as well as the sink & shower drains.

The engine charges the batteries and will also heat the water (only for the taps and not the central heating) and of course it needs diesel to run, as does the heating gizmo.

There are gas bottles in the front too that supply the oven and the hob which is essential for brews.

In short I’ve recently been going “batteries, diesel, gas, batteries, diesel, gas” trying to gauge when any or all of these things might run out, since I’m new to it all I’ve no idea what my rate of consumption is or how much “a lot” is.

What I didn’t think about.. was the water. Doh. I’ve been **ultra** fucking conservative with it and if there was one thing I was sure of, it was that I had got GALLONS of the stuff left. It came as a surprise therefore on Saturday morning when I ran out.

What usually happens is that every few miles on the Canal you pass a tap to which your Waterways licence key gets you access and you can just fill up. I last passed one a fortnight before and filled it to the brim and shortly pulled over to moor up. The boat was empty for a week and then I moved in.

This meant that my nearest tap was actually behind me, and narrowboats don’t really steer when they’re going backwards so I’d have to turn round… There’s more in the video below.

Water Torture! from fletch.cx on Vimeo.

I suppose as well as the slight worries I’ve also been trying a bit too hard to relax on board. Every day I’ve been kicking off a fire in the lounge and cracking open a beer, even if I’ve not got back till midnight when really the sensible thing is just to go to bed.

In short, today begins the day where I run the boat and not the other way around. I’ve set the heating to start warming the place after closing time tonight because I’m off out to the pub straight from work and the boat and bloody well sort itself out for when I get back.

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Hello! Fletch.cx has been going since 1999 in one form or another, yep incredible, when will it end? For more of my bullshit see last.fm, lluckj.com, facebook and if you really want a constant avalanche of musings, observations and lies then follow me on twitter..