The one that prompted this post is gas. Our gas locker is in the bow of the boat and there is room for two big gas bottles in it. However with two bottles there is no room for anyone to get down into the locker so we usually keep a spare bottle in the cratch (bow deck) rather than in the locker. Every so often we check the status of the bottle which is in use. There is no scientific way of doing this. We get down in the locker, lift the bottle up and judge by the 'feel' of how heavy it is whether we need to change the bottles over or not.
Phil is a great fan of 'brinkmanship'. He will often joke about which one of us has the most 'guts' and who will give way first when things need changing over. The one we disagree about most is the toilet cassette. The one thing I really couldn't tolerate is an over full cassette, the consequences don't bear thinking about! We used to only possess one cassette, but we soon realised that two are vital and the spare one kept within easy reach. Before we bought a spare I would often be found walking up to the disposal point late at night, because I couldn't be sure that the wee in the middle of the night would be the tipping point. I no longer have to make those late night journeys as we are able to take a full one out and slip in the empty one and then dispose of the full one at our leisure.
We have been caught out once with an empty water tank halfway through a washing machine programme. There was a dreadful noise as the pump tried to pump fresh air and it very nearly got completely burnt out. Lesson learned .... I fill up with water every weekend now whether we need it or not.
Last week was the first time we have been caught out on the gas supply. We had checked it a couple of weeks ago and Phil had his 'mean head' on. He decided he wasn't going to change over a gas bottle with the possibility of there being enough gas in it for another few meals, so he assured me that there was 'plenty in the bottle'. Famous last words .... halfway through cooking a roast dinner I was wondering why the potatoes had failed to come to the boil, only to discover that the gas had run out. Unfortunately it was about 7pm and freezing fog outside, so it was not the best time to be pirouetting on the edge of the a very slippery bow deck, inches from the canal trying to ease a full (very heavy) gas bottle into the locker. Having said that, every cloud has a silver lining and it was nice to know that we had used every last once of gas and hadn't wasted any!
That cylinder probably lasted us about 5 months and it costs £26 to replace it, so that works out at about £5 per month for all our cooking. Our electric bill this quarter was £37 and that included power for a wall mounted storage heater, which in the cold weather is on all day and just takes the chill off the boat. All of our wood for the fire is free, because I either forage for it or we get it from friends who have been doing DIY and have left over fences, offcuts etc. We do buy them a few beers but still the cost is negligible. We have used quite a bit of coal recently as the weather has been very cold and we neede to use about 2 bags of coal every week which cost £7 each. The only other fuel expense is diesel for our central heating which we have on for a couple of hours first thing in the morning until we get the wood burner up and running. One 20 litre can costs about £15 and we put this amount in every week, but this is only during the coldest few weeks of the year. This means that our fuel at this time of year (which is the heaviest usage) costs us a total of £33 per week. This probably sounds like quite alot, but bear in mind that this is the coldest time of year and in summer we use hardly any, (although we would use more diesel for cruising).
The other problem at this time of year is damp. I have mentioned this on numerous occasions and I have tried all sorts of solutions, including damp collecting tubs which are relatively cheap and leaving the wardrobe doors open all the time. Nothing has worked! Most of the boat is fine, it is just the bedroom which is a problem, the wardrobes and under the bed, because it is the furthest away from the fire. We have decided to buy a dehumidifier and I will keep you posted on whether it solves the problem. The one we are looking at costs about £180 and the running costs are about the same as the storage heater so won't impact our fuel bills at all really.
I have been busy catching up with work stuff recently but we managed to have a lovely walk at Coniston last week. The mist was in the valley and once we got above it the skies were clear:
The canal froze the other day and we have had some snow, but it is not as cold as it was a couple of years ago:
The ducks didn't have anywhere to swim though!
I haven't been posting regularly as life just seems to be so busy at the moment but I hope to start again on more regular updates on our life afloat.
Al :)
