bizzard

A pet Canary is more reliable than a smoke alarm.

A good wheeze to stop the boat drifting away is to just tie a heavy weight to the end of your centre rope and chuck it over on the opposite side so that if your main ropes are let go you won't drift far.

My Elu drill still going strong after about 30 years. One battery has lost half its capacity that's all.

The longer ones usually had a Lister SR3. Springers also have that angle chine too but they're bows are not so fine.

Usually bomb proof. My first boat was one of of those. Proper marine installation. Plenty of room in the engine compartment for proper marine set up with Dodge Fenner thrust block. As I said proper boat bows that cut through the water easily making them very economical on fuel unlike most modern narrow boats with a horrid bluff bows trying to shove a wall of water in front.

Proper sharp bows, cut through the water properly so only need the Lister SR2 that was normaly fitted.

I've found especially with some of the cheaper tool batteries is not to leave them for a long time so they discharge completely, they might not recover even trying to kick start them from another battery of the same. Give em a charge up every few weeks if not in use

,I once called into a fish & chip shop near Coventry. There was no menu displayed. I asked the girl what fish do you have. Just fish, she repied. Yes but what type of fish is it, again she said. I think its just fish. I left and drove back to Ilford hungry. The best i've had was Haddock and chips in Grt-Yarmouth, caught that day and melted in the mouth. Since I try to pick a shop that is close to another one so there's competition for the best.

Steam is invisible.

I use an old 1950's Limit fan on the boat bought it for a fiver 40 years ago, brushless, fantastic.

If you walk along with a headlight on keep it tilted down. Nothing worse than some pillock come towards looking at you and dazzling you. Vehicle headlights are bad enough in broad daylight as well now.

Capt Tolly's is very good for small weeps. Keep running it along the window frame it will keep disappearing into the hole, keep running it along until that stops.

the only bloke to ever finish a boat on time was Noah.

Pop Pop tube propulsion is safe and simple. Camphor chip is too.

Providing there is no back boiler in the stove. You could drill a hole through the centre of the plate and place a length of s/steel bar inside the stove with a hole in the middle. A length of s/steel threaded stud and nuts or bolt and nut. Place the bar inside, place plate on it's hole in the stove with high heat proof putty around as a gasket. Poke the bolt or studding through both plate and bar, add nut or nuts and bolt up tight. Be careful drilling cast iron. It drills easily but be gentle it can crack like a carrot if ill treated. DO NOT CENTRE PUNCH!!! Just stick a bit of sticky tape over the spot to drill to stop the drill bit skidding.

I spent a week sailing on the the Norfolk Broads in my GP14 camping on the bank at night. One early morning about 6am I was forced out of my tent because of the heat of the sun, at that time of the morning!!!. I was camped at Thurnmouth at the junction with the Bure. I needed to go to the bog so took my bucket and toilet roll along the bank a short way and sat down on it with pants down on the bank between two bushes facing the river. It was lovely and peacful at the time in the morning, birds twittering, fish jumping until suddenly around a bend right in front of me came a big cruiser going dead slow, why I didn't hear it, with folk sunbathing on the cabin top. I couldn't do anything it was too sudden. I couldn't do anything but just sit there like I was asleep accompanied by my bog roll alongside. I did hear em laughing.

Acetylene is in the zest of oranges.

Brown rice is the way to go, more nutricious but takes longer to cook. Some Malay customers of mine ate it all the time, wouldn't touch any white rice. The Chinese plefur blown lice too.

Eating horse meat was quite common way back fost ww2. I remember visiting a mate a few doors along from us in the mid 1950's and he was exulting over that they had horse meat for dinner that night.

Save energy. If you follow my instructions you could switch off your fridge during the colder months. Make yourself a cold cupboard larder which can be cold enough for a few days between shopping trips to keep fresh most stuff like milk, bread, meat, fish ect. I made mine by converting a very low down cupboard which is below the waterline outside. First of all have the cupboard with all it's internal walls completely separate from any other space, the back wall is the boats hull. I squashed flat loads old aluminium pie dishes which I saved for some time and stuck em all over the walls and ceiling if you like to call it that and the inside of the door, all stuck with dots of cheap silicon. It's bean wonderful, once or twice in mid winter I've gone a week between shops and nothing had gone off. Saved a bomb of gas that my fridge would have used, a similar saving would be had with an electric fridge 12v or mains.

Porridge also likes a drizzle of rum on it. Raisins too.

Pasta and rice, especially pasta,it holds moisture and helps to keep you irrugated especially in hot weather, dried fruit, prunes and Figs to keep you regular.

The cottage there also runs off the generator, or did do, no mains supply.