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Sorry, having a super special moment (too many windows open at once) and posted this in the wrong place - now can't figure out how to delete my post???!

Having just read through this topic, I am just about to The gutters don't seem to have much/any water in, though, and yet the windows are still damp beneath.

The insulation is just sheets of polystyrene type stuff. The windows do appear to have things that let the water out of the gutter, to the outside. They're damp below the gutters though. Help/advice muchly appreciated! Edit: Having just gone to look at them, it's a particular point that seems to collect damp/water. They've got curved corners to the gutters, but square corners to the actual wooden frame, and water collects in the gap between the square corner and the rounded corner. Kind of hard to explain - imagine this <c sort of thing, but with the c and the v shape pushed together - the point of the v gets damp. It's worse in the bedroom than anywhere else. Is it really bad to have the insides of the steel wet? What do we do about it? We dried it off when we took the panals off, and have been making sure the boat si better ventilated, which has helped as far as the windows are concerned, but will the dampness behind the insulation dry off? Is it possible to retrospectively foam fill behind the walls?

Further to this... We've been living on our NB for nearly a year now. We get condensation on the windows, like most others seem to. However, yesterday, I noticed a line of drip marks in the bedroom, running down from beloe the gunwhale. We took the lining, wood and insulation panels out to have a look see what was causing it, and the inside of the steel superstructure was damp all across behind the insulation. The water was coming from below the window. It was coming out at the point it was purely because there was a drilled hole, with no screw in it, in the wood panel at that point. I'm assuming this is condensation leaking down behind the wall panels. What do we do about it? Do other people get this? We wonder if the window is leaking slightly? Our windows have a sort of metal gutter thing at the bottom, should this feed water to outside? I don't really know what I'm looking for! I haven't yet dared to look behind the panels elsewhere on the boat - not least because it took hours of unscrewing and drilling out rivets to look at the bit we did! The NB is only 2 years old. The inside of the steel shell seemed to have some lines of lumpy bits of corrosion - would this be expected? Help! Cat

Hi all, We've just been given half a ton of charcoal, and as it is currently filling our shed and it's unlikely we'll use that much of it BBQing given the current weather, we were wondering if we can burn it in our Morso Squirrel for heat over winter? Google searches have produced vague reference to problems with carbon monoxide production. We're getting half a ton of coal as well! Any experiences/ideas? Cat and Mike and Bryn the dog (living aboard in Rickmansworth)

Well, I've been living on NB Wild Lady at Rickmansworth for 2 whole weeks now. I do appreciate that I have been extremely lucky with the weather and things may change in winter but... Things I love: Waking up to birds rather than cars. Wanting to get up in the mornings because it is so lovely. Sleeping the whole way through the night because it is so peaceful. Being able to take the dog for amazing walks right on my doorstep. Being able to go to Tescos shopping by canoe. Being able to walk to my local canoe club. Having my own private space (have always house-shared previously). Having an utterly beautiful boat. Having an utterly beautiful little garden where I can sit in the sunshine and do my marking. Having barbecues. All the time. Having a dog-friendly pub a short walk down the canal. Having cormorants and parrots and geese and swans and ducks and moorhens out the window. My friendly, helpful neighbours, who actually speak to eachother (unlike in a house). Things I don't love: Having to leave my boat and go to work. Umm, that's it. My friends and family were all initially a bit wary of the idea of living on a boat, but they are now very jealous. I've never been so popular - my friends are desperate to come round all the time cos it's so much nicer than where they live. The dog absolutely loves it - he wanders around wagging his tail, watching the ducks and cats and chickens go by, and he loves walking along the canal. He hasn't fallen in yet either! I scoured this forum for advice before moving aboard - and have now acquired mobile broadband (vodafone, after seeing the comments about it on this forum) so I can ask questions again now! Mainly toilet related (but that seems the norm for this forum) - sorry if they've been previously answered elsewhere! I've got a Thetford cassette toilet (the electric one where the casette is removed from the back not the side, can't remember the number). What's the best loo paper to use to avoid clogging it up when emptying? What's the best chemical to use in it? I'm using Biomagic at the moment but there is quite a chemically smell sometimes - any better products? And does anyone else find that the flush water often spurts so powerfully that it shoots out of the top of the loo and onto the floor? And does anyone have any solutions? If it makes any difference, the loo bit is rotated so it's at right angles from the back. Many thanks in advance Catherine and Bryn the collie

I've arrived! Wild Lady is at her mooring, all is good, no internet there yet but have popped to the parents' house to check the net is surviving without me (am please that it seems to be coping well). It's fabulous! Didn't actually forget anything except alan key for furniture building/dismantling/rebuilding - thankfully managed to do it with adjustable spanners. Bryn hasn't fallen in yet either, which is ideal! Anyway, it's so fabulous that I need to get back there. Will have to get the web sorted onboard so I can keep posting here Catherine

Umm... what's a handcuff key?

Do they sell them at Tesco's?

Oooooh corkscrew - haven't got one of them! Genius!

Well, I have a wheelbarrow and I am a woman... in fairness I don't have, nor am I intending to get, an umbrella; but I do have a purple tartan ski-suit that's pretty good defence against the weather.

Hello all, I said hello briefly a few weeks ago - but my boat is now ready to collect from the boat yard in Iver, I'm collecting it after work tomorrow and chugging slowly to my residential mooring in Rickmansworth. The big question - what have I forgotten? I'm sure there's bound to be something! I've got food, tea, milk, beer, saxaphone, towels, eco-friendly stuff for washing plates and me, full tank of diesel, bedding, books, CDs, clothes, pictures, TV, dog food, dog bed, dog... Catherine

Hello all, Just a quick post to say hi - I've been reading this forum for a while (spying) and think it is time to say hello! I will soon (3 weeks ish, as soon as the boat yard have finished blacking/servicing etc my NB and she is back in the water) be living aboard on the GU at Rickmansworth. Some of you will be familar with my boat, as I bought her from a poster on this forum - she is called Wild Lady (the boat, not the poster). Narrowboating experience to date is limited - holidays etc - but as a long-term obsessed canoeist, I spend much of time on/in canals, lakes and rivers - and am looking forward to spending even more time on (hopefully not in!) them once I move aboard. You can't get too much water! I'm sure I'll be asking lots of stupid questions - I'm not terribly technically minded - so my first question is, can anyone reccomend any good maintenance type courses? Catherine (and Bryn the collie)

Can anyone advise on the normal procedure for repainting a GRP top boat? Either just to add decoration, or to change the colour.... How many coats are required? What prep is required? What paint should I use? etc etc! Thanks, Catherine