Happy Go Lucky

Bear in mind that, come the sad day when the hamster departs this mortal coil, they float. Attempting a surreptitious burial at sea (river in our case) to avoid traumatising small child is not going to succeed!

Don't forget the tin-opener

I was in the fortunate position of having enough space in the engine room to fit a 3kw diesel generator. My back really appreciates the fact that I don't need to lift the thing onto the bank before starting it. I built a soundproofed box to deal with the noise and installed forced draft ventilation to extract the exhaust and ensure enough air got to it. Works well when we are off grid.

An alternative would be to take the socket off the end of the landline, feed the cable through the vent and then reattach the socket. It's fairly simple to do and saves introducing another joint in your cable. However, you will have to leave the landline coiled up on the roof when you cruise. Unplugging the cable inside as well will remove the risk of live plug pins. A length of hosepipe or flexible conduit threaded on the cable will provide protection where it passes through the vent. Make sure that you unplug both ends of the landline before you take it apart

To avoid future confusion and give you a bit more space I would take out the old control gear (the bits stuck onto the blue thing). You should still be able to use the switch (as Kwacker neatly described in post #7). A new connector block will be a good plan. http://www.screwfix.com/p/5a-terminal-strips-pack-of-10/60804

There isn't a standard size for anything on a narrowboat, that's part of the fun Our current front door is 24 inches wide but, fortunately, we have a sunroof!

We had a Wallas diesel hob on our first boat and after a few teething troubles it coped with a liveaboard family of four. It required a bit of careful planning but Marie did manage christmas dinner using it. A gas free boat has some attractions but, now that we have gas available, Marie is revelling in her ability to be 'pan happy' We would certainly look at a diesel range if/when we start from scratch again but, if I was replacing a gas hob, I would be looking at a gas cooker.

One of the sinks in our first boat was fixed to the wall with what looked like standard silicon. After removing all the screws I was unable to get it off except by smashing the sink. I then made a cupboard base out of the perfectly sound plywood, still with the remains of the sink attached. This might cause some confusion to whoever next refits the boat

We've had a variety of rats as pets without problems except when one of them decided to explore the bilges

There are also moorings in the Middle Levels to be found. March has a good train service to Cambridge and (probably) London although you may not like the ticket prices. Other places will probably require a car. They're not blogs but Marie Browne's books (Narrow Margins, Narrow Minds and Narrow Escape) are roughly based in the area.

Proving once again that, once you've been in a book, you live in a different universe to everyone else, we were aground last night. Today has been nice and sunny and we're afloat again. Tomorrow the rain returns and I've lengthened the ropes to try and keep us that way! We're moored less than a mile from the town moorings that collapsed and, to return to the oiriginal topic, if you find the doors locked at the March facilities it might be our fault. We have a key and usually remember to lock the doors again after we've used them

Another suspect could be the tank breather being clogged up. I know of an engine that would run beautifully for about 5 minutes before the vacumn in the tank stopped the fuel flow. Left for a minute or two the vacumn would disappear and the engine would then happily repeat the process!

All down to personal preference but I've never found tablet size things to be satisfactory. It's a combination of eyesight issues and the size of my fingers! Fortunately I have built in a full size desktop installation and have a laptoip to use when Marie is working

Our first voyage would have been greatly enhanced by having a tin-opener ! To be specific, it would have been greatly enhanced by knowing the location of any of the three tin-openers that were actually on board at the time

From our experience, this is only the first cull of many If you're not sure about something, put it in storage. After a month or two go through everything you have put there. A few things will leap out at you because they would have been really useful if they had been on the boat. The rest is almost certainly un-necessary and can be taken to the next boot sale! Anything that has been on the boat and hasn't been used can join it. Anchors, fire extinguishers and the like are excluded from this process by the way. This process can be repeated several times with smaller storage units each time until everything you really want and need fits on the boat. All I have to do now is finish the boat rebuild so all the stuff I've stashed away in storage to be used by Christmas can be properly assessed

Anyone passing the March artillery display site is welcome to wave at us Any day now I'll get round to starting the topcoat!

You don't need a massive widebeam to fit a hot tub. I paid for my daughter's boat with electrical work on a 45' boat which really did have one!

Great crested grebes hunting as a pair under the water

Be aware that, unless you have an account, CEF and other 'trade' outlets can be overpriced unless you sweet talk the counter staff. B&Q on the other hand can be surprisingly cost effective for light fittings. Especially if you buy one of their multipacks. Pay careful attention to how much ceiling depth the downlighters require, many boat ceilings are rather shallow. Ditch the bulbs that come with the light fittings and fit LEDs from somewhere like Bedazzled. This will add to the initial cost but well worth doing. It also has the advantage that you can probably use 240v light fitings if you find some that you like the look of.

In the distant past I used to clean steam engines with a mixture of paraffin and engine oil. It made them look lovely but had to be done twice a day. Not really a practical option

It should be possible to fit two bedrooms in 58 foot but a mid engine room does make it more difficult. I managed to fit 3 bedrooms into 70 foot with rear engine but I'm grateful that I only need 2 now that we've got a mid engine room. Have a look at ex-hire boats, they're often built to sleep lots of people and my meet your needs.

I do have the advantage of a 20 year career in the IT industry to keep me one step ahead of my son, even if the small size of that step has to be somewhat covered up by careful editing! However, you are quite correct that a good relationship is a far better way to prevent bad behaviour than attempting to control a teenager's actions. The ability to turn a blind eye can come in very useful

Just in case someone else finds this thread and wants to know what the final solution was. I used an ALFA R36 repeater/extender/router type thing and now have wifi throughout the boat. It wasn't the easiest thing to set up and I had to update the firmware before it would recognise our wireless receiver. It can also be connected to our dongle for when we are out and about. However, having checked how much bandwidth my son's online gaming devices used I don't think I'm going to tell him about that .

The third 'narrow' book is called 'Narrow Escape' and is coming out in paperback next month. It's already available in electronic form from Amazon.

A fourteen year old boy's ability to conceal gaming devices is greater than my ability to find them or, indeed, to remember how many of them he has! We do but, due to the effects of steel walls, only the primary computer has a good enough aerial to pick it up. When out and about we go back to the dongle. It would be nice to be able to suport internal wifi wherever we are. Not really a problem as it runs most of the time anyway. Marie keeps writing books on it! Thank you for all of your suggestions. I shall look into all of these and hope to be able to stop the moaning soon!