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tehmarks

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Everything posted by tehmarks

  1. If you've moored such that it requires boats to move so slowly that they have to constantly drop into neutral, then you either need to moor somewhere else or moor properly. Consideration works both ways. One who understands boatmanship won't have a problem mooring more sensibly.
  2. Not according to the plenty who were paddle boarding around the mouth of the Teign yesterday as the tide came swiftly in.
  3. I've lived aboard 2015-2018 and 2020-present, as a CCer in various areas (southern GU, Macclesfield/Peak Forest, and now on the Shroppie) and I've never once had a problem. Not with vandalism, not with kids, not with drunks. I've twice had stuff nicked from outside (sledge hammer in the well deck and a chimney brush on the roof), and that was almost certainly fellow boaters both times. I once even accidentally left a rucksack with my laptop inside on the roof in Watford while on a 12 hour shift at work, and it was still there and undisturbed when I got back. Security: if you have windows, you will not be able to secure your boat (unless you go to the extent of shuttering them). But that's no different to any house, where the windows are equally breakable and the contents (/occupants) equally vulnerable. I've spent a substantial amount of time living in tents with expensive gear (climbing, not homeless!), and I've never had someone go in or take anything while I've been out or away. On the flip side, I've been on the receiving end of countless unrequested acts of kindness, including one boater donating a pin in my absence to bolster my shonky mooring. People are, generally, surprisingly nice and honest. Those who aren't will be 'heads whether you're on a boat or in the street. I have a theory that those who find trouble everywhere are good at provoking it. A friendly smile and a good attitude to all that you meet seems to go a long way towards defusing problems before they even germinate.
  4. Outremer no longer; they've just 'traded it in' for something fast and shiny and with an additional hull 😁 Can also vouch for the quality of their production — they have both style and substance, and are really quite interesting to watch.
  5. No judgement meant, apologies if you read it that way, I was just explaining what works for me. I can go about five weeks without running out of water, and so I never run out of water. I don't need a meter for that reason. An MCS meter is on my list of improvements - but it's very low down the list. As things stand, a quick glance at the water line tells me all I need to know if I am getting worried.
  6. Are they? I'm currently based on the Shroppie, at Wheaton Aston heading south, and I can't say that I've noticed any truly problematic grass. And I walk every mile of towpath that I cruise past in going back for my car. One solution if things aren't to your standard outside your deck, of course, is to lop it down yourself rather than to complain when others don't do it to your satisfaction.
  7. If you lived aboard, you'd probably have become used by now to the fact that sometimes you just can't have a shower and learnt to live with being slightly 'natural' when the circumstances demand... (I jest of course) As a liveaboard, I don't really feel the need for a water meter. I have an 800L tank in the bow, and the trim difference between empty and full is significant. More useful than easy than a meter, for me, would actually be painting load lines on the stem post. Low tech, high utility. I haven't done it yet, mind. But as a liveaboard, I just fill up whenever I pass a water point and very rarely run out. I appreciate that when hiring, stopping for water is an additional time sink in a way that it isn't for someone who is always cruising.
  8. tehmarks

    Chips

    A bit late to the party, but...chips. Two options: Oven: Preheat the oven and a baking tray oiled with your preferred oil. I use olive for nearly all oven-related tasks. Slice a potato (or more) into chip-sized chips. Place chips onto tray, season heavily with salt, pepper, garlic, thyme and rosemary, and mix thoroughly. Stick them in the oven for ~30-40 minutes, turning once. Remove. Pat dry. Munch. Shallow fry Slice thinly Heat large and heavy frying pan on medium-high on the hob, oiled with an appropriate high-temperature oil. Rapeseed, grapeseed, avocado, etc. Enough oil to half-submerge chips, ideally. Place in pan, season heavily with salt, stir thorough Fry until cooked through and browned, turning every ~5 minutes. Season near end with pepper, garlic, thyme and rosemary Remove. Pat dry. Munch. You can do thicker chips in the pan, but you'll want to parboil them first. Absolutely no excuse to buy frozen oven chips, which are a poor substitute to any real sort of chip. Freshly-made every time - good results are easy after a bit of refinement. Sweet potato chips are also delicious. Cook for a little less time, and I'd recommend seasoning with salt, pepper, garlic and smoked paprika.
  9. As a small business owner I pay my freelancers exactly the same rate I myself command for the same work, which is the fair market rate for the work we do. I don't do work for clients that underpay, and I don't underpay my freelancers to line my own pockets. And I never will. Why would I support a race to the bottom just for my own (very temporary) gain? Edit to add: obviously my own business is somewhat more niche than grass-cutting, but I'd say that if you can't afford to pay your staff a wage on which they can realistically actually live, then your business is unsustainable and exploitative. If you can afford to, and you still don't, your business is plainly and simply exploitative, and that is inexcusable.
  10. I have no idea how you figure that one out; it's clearly not socially just, and definitely not the sort of world I want to live in (as a small business owner).
  11. Sounds fascinating — are you able to elaborate?
  12. In my day job as a live events lighting technician, I unintentionally had someone sacked because I was sent a 16A male-male cable ('widowmaker'). I disagree strongly with the outcome because the poor minimum wage warehouse cretin tasked with making-up hundreds of new cables because of a frantically busy period should never be put in the position where he is so overworked and under-incentivised that they make those errors. It's a procedural issue, not a personal one, and the blame lies squarely at the door of those who have created the environment to allow the mistake to happen. Likewise, in this instance, the relative wealth discrepancy is relevant. It's relevant because you're advocating that someone who potentially already struggles to put food on the table is sacked (with all of the future employability implications that that brings) for making an entirely inconsequential error; literally, in this case, getting cut grass on someone else's property It's this sort of attitude that allows inequality to flourish — the quality of the job performed is very obviously linked to the pay attached; would you really have your next airline flight flown by someone on minimum wage? 'Oh but he could have smashed a window' is entirely irrelevant, because they have not actually smashed a window. Being realistic, it shouldn't be that minimum wage is lower than that needed to actually live in the first place. If you want a job done well, with accountability, pay for it.
  13. We can deduce from this that people moan. Regardless. People should find bigger (or rather, actual) problems to moan about, is my opinion.
  14. I'm struggling to understand why we need an extensive programme of grass-cutting at all, given the somewhat more fundamental problems such as locks disintegrating that there apparently isn't money to fix, but otherwise my opinion is inline with Arthur's. Yes, it's tedious sweeping the grass off your gunwale — but it's hardly a major inconvenience, is it? It's not like he's put a stone through a window with the strimmer or otherwise caused damage.
  15. I have an AJ well deck cover (non-draining well deck) that uses both - bungee on the cabin, and press studs below and forward of the cabin. I must admit, it's frequently a nightmare to fit as the fabric seems to 'shrink' slightly with infrequent use, which makes fastening some of the press studs nigh on impossible. Can't really see what the issue with bungee is, other than a mild trouser-catching risk?
  16. I've cruised for a total of almost four years just tethering my phone (Three contract, unlimited data), until a couple of weeks ago when I finally installed a 4G router and sensible antenna, and took out a second data-only contract with Three. So far so good - it's much less faff, and it seems rare now not to have any signal whatsoever. Unfortunately, poo Internet does still occasionally happen and the only solution, really, is to move somewhere else!
  17. Likewise, as a single-hander-from-the-beginning who very much prefers not being on the boat in a lock even when I have the option to do so. Madness, isn't it?
  18. I decided to head south when the emergency stoppage happened the other month, and so far not regretting it! Nice to see boats moving on the Shroppie, but it's not mental and so far no one has rammed me either. Still plenty of summer to go though
  19. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  20. Are you known to be an idiot in other areas of your life too?
  21. I'm about to buy a tin of SML deck paint for the roof in conjunction with their anti-slip beads, mainly because it's available in virtually every colour under the sun and is relatively cheap. If anyone has any experience with it, I'd love to hear. https://www.smlmarinepaints.co.uk/yachting/lustreyachttopcoats/Lustre_Marine_Deck
  22. On the subject of flexible panels, I have an array of flexible CIGS panels for practical purposes (access across the roof as a single-hander is paramount), and the heat disadvantage isn't as great as is often made out - I feel it's probably offset by the long hours of sun that have heated the roof to begin with. I don't struggle to meet my energy requirements with 400W from spring to autumn. You can also install them on top of some closed-cell foam to insulate them. I meant to, but thanks to the pandemic the foam proved hard to get (it's still at my parents house a year on). A mixture of series and parallel makes most sense - consider the layout such that you're less likely to shade across the paralleled arrays - ie parallel the front and back half, or the port and starboard sides.
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