TheWilk

I had a 3G dongle for a long time that I plugged into a wifi router that was a couple of quid from ebay, but eventually that started being flakey. So I went into Orange/EE to see if I could upgrade the dongle to a wifi one, and they ended up offering me a free Eagle tablet on 4G with 10gb/month for £15, which can be used for tethering. While it's not enough allowance for Netflix, EE has a film store where you can buy films from about 99p - £4 or so, download them and watch them within 48(?) hours and they don't take the data from your allowance. The selection isn't great, but nice to have the option.

One thing I was worried about, one time he'd left the hose on and the tap turned on and sailed away (probably to the fuel/pump out point). Do the shut offs at the nozzle end ever fail? Because then you've got a hose on the pontoon spraying who knows where. My stern deck isn't self draining and I don't have a float switch on my bilge pump (yet!). I suppose because I'm always so aware of rain water a renegade unattended hose leaves me feeling very uncomfortable!

OK, good, I am just being paranoid! I've not actually looked at where the hose goes, but on one boat I used to work on the inlet was next to the engine bay so I thought the overflow might run into there. If I just thought it was inconsiderate I'd have said something by now. I might try and give him a heads up if I ever hear he's going cruising.

It's not too inconsiderate, I can hear when the hose isn't open because it drips into the dock at the waterpoint , and I have no qualms about disconnecting it and they've never said anything to me for doing that. I just worry if part of his plumbing was to fail, it is under pressure after all, and he was to forget about it overnight he'd be swamped.

I'm pretty sure he's not spent much time on the system so doesn't realise that hogging the waterpoint just isn't done, and I guess all the neighbours are just too easy going.

I'm in a large, deep water marina. I share a waterpoint with about 6 other boats, 3-4 of them usually occupied. One neighbour has been leaving his hose connected to the tap, with the tap open, for well over an hour almost everyday. The first time I found he'd done this I asked him if he wasn't worried about sinking his boat but he just said the hose was shut off at the other end. Now I've only owned one of those new fangled hoses for a short time myself, and I've never had a washing machine on board (which I can only guess is the reason for such use) so I can't get my head around the risk involved here. The hose just gets left on and forgot about, when I need the waterpoint I feel fine about disconnecting it because it's always bursting out all over the place. I guess it only affects me if he sinks and takes everyone on the pontoon down with him, but how likely is this to happen? My gut is screaming "danger!" but no one else seems bothered.

When I went across a good few years ago and had my engine condemned the day before (by cowboys who were wrong, it turned out!) I got a tow across from a couple of guys in Tarleton boatyard. Think I made it in record time, they knew the Douglas/Ribble like the back of their hands. Sorry I don't have any contact details, though.

Just passed my six year anniversary as a single female liveaboard (minus the odd short term, bad choice boyfriend!). I'd recommend it to anyone. Feel free to get in touch with any questions. Any particular part of the country you're thinking of cruising in?

Well I went out and bought some scales today. It's pretty blowy and I'm bouncing around quite a bit. This is what happened... If finally seemed to come to rest at 61g. Then I went all the way up to the marina building and weighed it again (ignoring funny looks) and it came out as 59g. Not bad for what I need I suppose, I'm not a very good cook anyway, it always comes out burnt. I just better not start dealing crystal meth.

I'm in a marina on floating pontoons... it'd be a bit of a walk every time I wanted to weigh out some pasta!

I have a Saturday night conundrum for you. I'm on a diet and so I could do with both kitchen scales and bathroom scales. But now my mind is broken trying to figure out if these will work on board a boat. Bear in mind I'm moored in a deep coastal dock so I move around a fair old bit. Obviously the old style balance scales wouldn't work because I'm never level. I'd like some high tech electrickery scales but I have no idea on what principle they work. The only scales I think will be foolproof are those fisherman's ones that you hang stuff from, which might be ok for weighing food but I think I'd have a problem suspending myself from one...! So can anyone with a better mind than me advise? Or failing that, if you have bathroom scales on board and a spare person, could one of you weigh yourself and the other one go outside and rock the boat, in the name of science?

If I remember correctly, the whole network get cut every 6 weeks, more popular mooring spots every two weeks.

well oops... that's what I asked for! eta: ah well, at least it's not as embarrassing as getting my sums wrong. Also explains why the person on the phone quoted me over £300.

Funnily enough I spent last week working for OCS Fountains (and I'm not even an immigrant!), and in that short time the topic of boaters complaining about grass on their boats did come up. I agreed that this was an odd thing to complain about, I'd rather brush a bit of grass off my boat now and again than have to leap off my boat into long grass and dog muck. I've lost count of how many times I've had to brush grass off (it doesn't really stick in the mind because it's such an easy job), so I can't understand how anyone with any boating under their belt would paint on the towpath and not think about the likelihood of this happening.

The guy I spoke to at the steel merchants gave the measurements in imperial, and I questioned that too. I'm also questioning the price he quoted (over £300 a sheet) because poking around on the internet tells me they should be in the £100 region. Mild steel? I was expecting 316, is that the same thing? I've got a feeling what they mean is "the plates are on back order" and the story they've given me is the equivalent of telling me there aren't any cakes because the chickens haven't laid any eggs yet.

Thanks for that! However, their quote said they were getting 8 or 9 plates (neither of which, at £92 a sheet, add up to £912 - no one spot that?!). There are countless suppliers in the area that could supply those in a matter of days. If they're trying to save me money buying direct from a mill or something, great, but the previous lack of communication and ability to stick to timeframes isn't instilling me with much confidence.

Well if you look at my baseplate it's not uniformly flat so I think smaller plates is a better idea.

Of course, it's widest around the gunwales. I'm not thinking straight.

6'10" wide, I assumed they'd be doing it in some sort of patchwork style... I really don't know what to think any more, I feel like I'm in way over my head and can't trust any one. You read the horror story building blogs and hope it will never happen to you, don't you?

No, the VAT is added on at the end.

I've just looked back at their original quote: Supply 8 no sheets of 6mm marine grade steel 9 sheets £96.00 £912.00 Anyone spot the mistake(s)? I've been on the phone to the steel merchants I used to work for to get a quote for myself. The steel comes in 6'x3' plates. It's a big warehouse and I've never seen coils of metal of that thickness. Thin stuff for pressing and moulding, yeah, but not plate.

Right, I'm at my wits end now! I instructed them to go ahead with the overplating 10 days ago and the work was due for completion TODAY but the metal is still on order. They phoned me today with a story that the metal is on order but because it comes "in rolls" (6mm) it has to be flattened out and that means it'll now be two weeks til the work is done. Now my very first job about 16 years ago was for a sheet metal merchant so I know that metal that thick coming in a roll is ridiculous. I mean, surely EVERYBODY knows that? I'm going to ask to inspect the metal as soon as it arrives (and try and drag along a male of the species who can at least ACT as though he knows something about metal because I can only assume it's my gender that screams MUG at them). As usual, advice welcome. I'm thinking a chat with Trading Standards in on the cards.