Alexander1618

And here I was thinking narrowboats had a lot of bilge space for storage... Doesn't chlorine flavor the water something awful? Try a carbon filter right behind the water pump, it removes all nasties like a charm. Generally i'm too lazy to close the water intake so all kinds of stuff gets in there, in 12 years of drinking tap water i have never been sick from it. Also: who lets the water run from the hose for a minute before putting it into the tank so it doesn't taste like rubber?

I have 2 tanks of 4500 liters each, a total of 9000 liters. they last about 3 weeks with me alone, on charter (6 guests and 5 crew) they are practically empty at the end of the week. filling takes all night. The time I had a leak in the freshwater system (holes in the filter housing) and was waiting for a replacement, 9000l would last 4 days! do you generally store water in tanks in the bilge? because i read a lot of posts speaking of bow storage space tanks. One more question: how much bilge space do narrowboats have (distance from the floor to the keel)

don't buy that, for the same price you can have a stainless steel (bent+welded) bunker made. I had a trashbag box made for the kitchen, Including the hinges and lid it cost 80GBP. that's for a 20 gallon box. That has the added advantage that you can have it made to fit perfectly somewhere on the boat (where we all know that space is important)

I buy 250kg at a time (20/30 anthracite) for 100GBP, delivered and store it in the wheelhouse (for now, in the future they will go in the fore peak), I cut the top of the bag halfway open and pour it into 2 copper buckets just outside the wheelhouse. A 25kg bag lasts about 2 days. For coal lugging gear I wear normal clothes, the place i buy it from is fantastic, they wipe coal dust off their bags and keep them covered so they stay clean. I haven't noticed any corrosiveness from anthracite, but one time I got bituminous coal and it turned the inside of the buckets green! My recommendation is to steer far clear of bituminous coal as it's smelly and burns too hot and fast. when burning it the boat smelt like a steamship

Hi peter, thanks for the advice, i'll check that right away. I would love to post a video of the engine sound, but it will have to wait until summer as we are replacing the valves. if you want I could take some pics from different angles to last you until then When cruising past a field of cows, they often follow us as far an they can. Alex

Don't use it on any tools that are meant for food, i put some on a hand operated bread slicer and while the slicer worked well, the bread tasted terrible!

I fell in once in 14 years on a winter morning, I slipped on the gangplank and fell through the thin ice. On the way down i came to about 2 inches from sterility if you know what i mean... one time a crew-member got distracted while casting off and made a jump for it after seeing how far the boat was from the dock, he barely made it and was clinging to the coil of mooring line hanging over the side with his feet in the water. The last person to fall in was a friend who was visiting on a cruise. He was making his way to the stern to help navigate a sharp turn, but hadn't been told that the handrail wasn't screwed down, both he and the rail went over the side (both were recovered in good condition)

baked beans and eggs are a winning combination

cut a lemon in half, sprinkle on a generous amount of salt and rub it on the brass. then finish up with brasso.

hmm, so i should switch to 30/50 anthracite?

This is passing the pont Alexandre III in Paris. I would post a pic of us on our side (when the water got let out without our knowledge) if somebody explained how to post a picture from file.

We paint the hull/varnish every year, all you need is the paint, brushes/rollers and eventually a raft. There's no point to pay someone to do something that is so easy.

I have a similar problem here! We have an old French coal fireplace, recently we started using 20/30 anthracite instead of wood (fantastic! no more smoke!) but we have troubles keeping it going at night, if left untouched for a few hours it goes out! should i be using a different size coal? here is a picture including the fireplace. can someone please help me out? it's starting to get cold. thank you.