Jump to content

Fridge Behaviour


noether

Featured Posts

2 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

This is deeply sad. Whose idea was it to move onto a boat? Living on a boat and holding down a full time job is fine IME, but you're not doing a full time job, you're doing more than a full time job. 9 to 5, five days a week is perfectly compatible with boat living. 9 to 5 seven days a week certainly isn't.

 

It's not sad to me, I like working, it's the boat I don't like! So I'll just move off the boat - and unless I die some James Bond-y type death in a cloud of sulphur dioxide and exploding time bombs in the meanwhile, then no harm, no foul, you live and learn (or you live at any rate, as Douglas Adams pointed out). 

 

As mentioned above, buying the boat was my idea, it was desperation as much as anything (had already lost money on renting somewhere, that fell through because travel plans etc cancelled). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really do sympathise,I don't live aboard (my boat is too small,I would only live on it if it was a choice between it and a park bench)

I do however spend odd weeks aboard and on a couple of occasions I have said "right,thats it,f---- it! That is not usual for me,but the last time was one wet and miserable day,heavy rain,cloud on the hilltops and cold.Had my waterproof jacket on and it was for about four hours and then I could feel icy trickles on my back and shoulders.

No problem I thought,I will put my diesel heater on overnight and dry my clothes.

Tied up for the night,switched heater on,and,nothing.The damned thing wouldn't fire up,just when I needed it the most.(Found out later that a considerable amount of water had entered the exhaust.)

Had my tea and climbed into my duvet,and found it soaked through.(I had very stupidly left the skylight open all day)

That's when I thought I had had enough of this boating lark!

I am still boating (just) but reading your posts,I can't help but feel that it is your lack of knowledge of boats and their systems that may be colouring your judgement.Perhaps if you learn more about boats and their gubbins (you could download Tony Brook's instruction sheets) You may modify your feelings.

There is quite a lot to learn about boats,especially if they are equipped with lots of home comforts,and trying to take everything in at once can be a bit intimidating.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

  • Greenie 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

I really do sympathise,I don't live aboard (my boat is too small,I would only live on it if it was a choice between it and a park bench)

I do however spend odd weeks aboard and on a couple of occasions I have said "right,thats it,f---- it! That is not usual for me,but the last time was one wet and miserable day,heavy rain,cloud on the hilltops and cold.Had my waterproof jacket on and it was for about four hours and then I could feel icy trickles on my back and shoulders.

No problem I thought,I will put my diesel heater on overnight and dry my clothes.

Tied up for the night,switched heater on,and,nothing.The damned thing wouldn't fire up,just when I needed it the most.(Found out later that a considerable amount of water had entered the exhaust.)

Had my tea and climbed into my duvet,and found it soaked through.(I had very stupidly left the skylight open all day)

That's when I thought I had had enough of this boating lark!

I am still boating (just) but reading your posts,I can't help but feel that it is your lack of knowledge of boats and their systems that may be colouring your judgement.Perhaps if you learn more about boats and their gubbins (you could download Tony Brook's instruction sheets) You may modify your feelings.

There is quite a lot to learn about boats,especially if they are equipped with lots of home comforts,and trying to take everything in at once can be a bit intimidating.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

 

Thanks, yeah, if I had any choice other than a park bench I wouldn't be here, and even a park bench looks pretty tempting sometimes, at least I won't die from noxious fumes, and I could stretch out properly......

 

We'd never have stayed a single night on the boat if we'd had somewhere else to go, the place was pretty filthy, we've cleaned it up a fair amount (inside anyway). 

 

I do feel bad for my wife, she wanted to take the boat out but I vetoed the idea, and will continue to do so, as I'm afraid my need to not die of anxiety trumps her desire to go out boating. Maybe one day, for a holiday, after I've done a few years of boat therapy. 

 

(we had a leaky window and a wet duvet as well, and the diesel heater is broken). 

 

Really, I can't wait to just go and chuck the keys at the marina and shout "send me a cheque when it's sold" over my shoulder, and in fact, I have derailed my own thread quite considerably here and I would like to start a new one soliciting advice on what I should do about selling it - the truth is I'm a bit too effete for this kind of living, I like computers, tea and toast, Melvyn Bragg on Radio 4, I'm not a resourceful rough living type of person. Don't get me wrong, if Tony Brooks was my next door neighbour and said "Do you want me to teach you about boat electrics?" I'd say, yes please, because I'm sure it would be fascinating to learn about, but when you have to know it or you'll die, and you've already had it up to here with boat problems, I think it's past time to admit defeat. 

 

 

Edited by noether
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What’s done’s done. 
We all make mistakes. 
 

Are you ready for the winter if you have to stay aboard?

 

I don’t want to teach you to suck eggs, sound condescending or be a doom bringer BUT if you think it’s shit now it’s gonna get a lot shitter if you have no heating come winter. 
A cabin can be a lovey place in winter to read your books, listen to Melvyn and drink yourself merry IF you’ve plenty of warmth. 
If you haven’t already, start making some preparations, whether it’s ordering coal or sorting/checking/servicing whatever heating system you have.

If it means paying someone to do that then get it done sooner rather than later.


👍

Edited by Goliath
  • Greenie 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Goliath said:

What’s done’s done. 
We all make mistakes. 
 

Are you ready for the winter if you have to stay aboard?

 

I don’t want to teach you to suck eggs, sound condescending or be a doom bringer BUT if you think it’s shit now it’s gonna get a lot shitter if you have no heating come winter. 
A cabin can be a lovey place in winter to read your books, listen to Melvyn and drink yourself merry IF you’ve plenty of warmth. 
If you haven’t already, start making some preparations, whether it’s ordering coal or sorting/checking/servicing whatever heating system you have.

If it means paying someone to do that then get it done sooner rather than later.


👍

 

Sorry, yes, I really don't mean to sound ungrateful in this thread for the advice, I really do appreciate it. 

 

I've been meaning to ask somebody about this (chandlery lady, probably), I assume there's a fuel boat or something that goes around, I have one bag of coal and I've ordered some fire lighters, if anybody has any info on the best way to provision for warmth in winter that would be information gratefully received (but please bear in mind I don't have access to a car). I have to get up really early because of work (around 4.30am), and even in September it's chillier than Mr Freeze's gonads on the HMS Noether of a morn. 

 

Our diesel heater needs a service, I contacted the most local company I could find, and they told me they no longer come out to do services, you now have to remove the unit and post it to them, they'll service it, and send it back. As this thread evidences, this isn't something I'm capable of, as even I know enough to know that the unit will involve diesel and some form of ignition, so I would definitely die. 

 

(and my plan is to be off the boat fairly soon, I need a couple of months wages in my pocket, basically). 

 

Edited by noether
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, noether said:

I've been meaning to ask somebody about this (chandlery lady, probably), I assume there's a fuel boat or something that goes around, I have one bag of coal and I've ordered some fire lighters,

 

 

You may be lucky, but most marinas I've even been in will supply the coal / gas / wood / firelighters etc as it is another income stream for them. 

Yours MAY allow a fuel boat into the marina - you'll have to ask.

 

You will need a trolley to go and fetch the bags of coal / wood / gas cylinders from the marina 'office' unless you pay extra for the staff to deliver them for you.

Can you change a gas cylinder ? If not you will need to learn PDQ.

 

How will you get diesel, and fill the tank for your eberspacher ? It will be fed by the main tank that supplies the engine so you will need to move the boat to the fuel dock / fuel pump to fill up. Marinas are (rightly so) very strict on re-fuelling your boat from cans on your mooring as a 'few drops' spilt in the water can cover 100's of square metres in  "rainbow oil film", and, a few litres from a dropped can can polute 'miles' of waterway.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

You may be lucky, but most marinas I've even been in will supply the coal / gas / wood / firelighters etc as it is another income stream for them. 

Yours MAY allow a fuel boat into the marina - you'll have to ask.

 

You will need a trolley to go and fetch the bags of coal / wood / gas cylinders from the marina 'office' unless you pay extra for the staff to deliver them for you.

Can you change a gas cylinder ? If not you will need to learn PDQ.

 

How will you get diesel, and fill the tank for your eberspacher ? It will be fed by the main tank that supplies the engine so you will need to move the boat to the fuel dock / fuel pump to fill up. Marinas are (rightly so) very strict on re-fuelling your boat from cans on your mooring as a 'few drops' spilt in the water can cover 100's of square metres in  "rainbow oil film", and, a few litres from a dropped can can polute 'miles' of waterway.

 

Thank you, that's actually all good for me:

 

If the marina supplies coal / wood etc, all the better. 

 

I have bought and changed a gas cylinder, I'm actually expecting this one to run out any day now. 

 

I was planning on just using the fire for warmth rather than using the eberspacher - I did fill up the tank once but that was by just wheeling a couple of jerry cans back and forth. 

 

I'm pretty sure I've lit the stove before - once I think, I can't remember, wife did it a couple of times I'm sure. I'm more worried about accidentally starting fires elsewhere, than in the stove tbh. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, noether said:

I've been meaning to ask somebody about this (chandlery lady, probably),

 

 

Are you saying that the marina has a chandlery? If they dont actually sell a multi meter, my guess is that they would be able to obtain one from a supplier, and sell it to you. Definitely worth asking.

 

Where is your marina... as mentioned above, maybe somebody here will be nearby and could help, and maybe we could find somewhere that Amazon etc. will deliver for you to collect?

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

 

Are you saying that the marina has a chandlery? If they dont actually sell a multi meter, my guess is that they would be able to obtain one from a supplier, and sell it to you. Definitely worth asking.

 

Where is your marina... as mentioned above, maybe somebody here will be nearby and could help, and maybe we could find somewhere that Amazon etc. will deliver for you to collect?

 

The chandlery lady is lovely and probably could order one for me, but by the time I've explained to her (very poorly), it's been delivered, and I've made a ham-fisted attempt to follow instructions on here, the engineer will probably be in a position to take a look, and then I've wasted the chandlery lady's time, all you guys' time, my time, and my wife will ask me why I've been spending so much money on voltometers and such that I don't understand, and I'll say that some older boys on the forum made me do it, and she'll say Oh really, and if the older boys on the forum told you to jump off a cliff, or start throwing distilled water around near electrics and batteries that you don't understand, would you do it? And I'll say, errr........look, I made a fire! And then she'll beat me.  

 

I really appreciate the help, but I'd really rather not bother anyone, it makes me very uncomfortable! 

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A decent marina with chandlery will stock coal. And it’s nothing for them to push it down the pontoons to leave outside the boat while you’re at work. So you could place an order with them. Allow a bag or two a week. 


If you ask on here about which coal to use you’ll be doomed ☠️ even quicker, so just have what they got or recommend. 
 



 


 

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, noether said:

 

 

I really appreciate the help, but I'd really rather not bother anyone, it makes me very uncomfortable! 

Well I am glad you made the effort to post, your sense of humor has made me giggle when I should have been working, particularly when I would have been listening to radio 4 and slurping a tea myself :)

 

asking for and actually accepting help is a thing I often struggle with funnily enough, happy to help others when I can but accepting help from others can be difficult, odd isn't it

  • Greenie 1
  • Happy 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

asking for and actually accepting help is a thing I often struggle with funnily enough, happy to help others when I can but accepting help from others can be difficult, odd isn't it

 

I do find it really difficult, it makes me very uncomfortable when people go out of their way for me, I don't know what to say. My wife is brilliant at it, but she's a beautiful young chick, so all she has to do is smile and say hello and people are falling over backwards trying to help her (the other day I had a lady who I don't really know stop me on the marina and say, "Your wife is sooooo cute!"). 

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

What and where is the boat? How much do you want for it this week?  I pay cash, will buy as it is, will solve all your problems at the stroke of a pen. Worry no more.

 

How much do I want for it? Or what is it worth?

 

Very different questions. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, noether said:

No, I'm ok thanks. 

 

Aha so we've smoked out the limit of your doom and gloom. You don't actually want to sell the boat, even when asked to name your price! 

 

SO you must, on some level, want to continue living aboard. Your determined helplessness is actually quite amusing. I too have been wondering where this marina is, with staff and a chandlery, but one which does not sell multimeters, and it a 20 mile round trip to the nearest shop but with no public transport. I was thinking you've posted enough details about it for the board to figure out exactly which it is, just for amusement to clarify. Some of the things you've said are pretty jolly unusual for a marina that takes liveaboards! In particular, I'm wondering how you get your food, and more importantly, BEER!

 

I would not be surprised if there were not at least one forum member living in the same marina, who might be willing to pop in and help you out. 

 

  • Love 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Aha so we've smoked out the limit of your doom and gloom. You don't actually want to sell the boat, even when asked to name your price! 

 

SO you must, on some level, want to continue living aboard. Your determined helplessness is actually quite amusing. I too have been wondering where this marina is, with staff and a chandlery, but one which does not sell multimeters, and it a 20 mile round trip to the nearest shop but with no public transport. I was thinking you've posted enough details about it for the board to figure out exactly which it is, just for amusement to clarify. Some of the things you've said are pretty jolly unusual for a marina that takes liveaboards! In particular, I'm wondering how you get your food, and more importantly, BEER!

 

I would not be surprised if there were not at least one forum member living in the same marina, who might be willing to pop in and help you out. 

 

 

If I were you I would re read all his posts before jumping to a possibly flawed conclusion.

 

I can read at least one post that suggests why he might not wish to move so quickly.

Edited by The Happy Nomad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Aha so we've smoked out the limit of your doom and gloom. You don't actually want to sell the boat, even when asked to name your price! 

 

 

Maybe I just don't want to sell to some random person on the internet? Or at least waste the time talking to them about it. 

 

Ok, how about this: £150k, in my bank account, and the boat is yours (or anyone else's). Or do you perhaps not have faith in some random person posting on an internet forum? 

 

(I quit drinking years ago, and supermarkets deliver, you know). 

Edited by noether
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, noether said:

 

The chandlery lady is lovely and probably could order one for me, but by the time I've explained to her (very poorly), it's been delivered, and I've made a ham-fisted attempt to follow instructions on here, the engineer will probably be in a position to take a look, and then I've wasted the chandlery lady's time, all you guys' time, my time, and my wife will ask me why I've been spending so much money on voltometers and such that I don't understand, and I'll say that some older boys on the forum made me do it, and she'll say Oh really, and if the older boys on the forum told you to jump off a cliff, or start throwing distilled water around near electrics and batteries that you don't understand, would you do it? And I'll say, errr........look, I made a fire! And then she'll beat me.  

 

I really appreciate the help, but I'd really rather not bother anyone, it makes me very uncomfortable! 

I suggested you get a voltmeter nearly a week ago.  (Last thursday lunchtime).  If you'd gone to the chandlery you could probably have got one straight away or they'd have it by Friday morning.  It would have cost less than £10.  If your wife made a fuss about it, you could have blamed me and she wouldn't have used the 'bigger boys' argument.

 

With your voltmeter you could have checked the batteries quite easily.

 

I too am dying to know which marina you're in.  My suspicion as to your reluctance to say is that you've been exagerating how remote it is because you don't really want to put much personal effort into sorting things out.  The trouble is: boats need a lot of effort, and it's never ending.

 

I too have enjoyed your humour, but the phrase "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" springs to mind when reading through this thread.

 

  • Greenie 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

I suggested you get a voltmeter nearly a week ago.  (Last thursday lunchtime).  If you'd gone to the chandlery you could probably have got one straight away or they'd have it by Friday morning.  It would have cost less than £10.  If your wife made a fuss about it, you could have blamed me and she wouldn't have used the 'bigger boys' argument.

 

With your voltmeter you could have checked the batteries quite easily.

 

I too am dying to know which marina you're in.  My suspicion as to your reluctance to say is that you've been exagerating how remote it is because you don't really want to put much personal effort into sorting things out.  The trouble is: boats need a lot of effort, and it's never ending.

 

I too have enjoyed your humour, but the phrase "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" springs to mind when reading through this thread.

 

 

 

I certainly don't want to put a lot of effort in! Nor do I want to buy some equipment, and then try and follow instructions from well-meaning but remote people while they try and explain to me how to Tom-Cruise-from-Mission-Impossible myself into some dark corner that they can't see. Nor do I want anybody to go out of their way to help me - I would find it excruciating. I feel I've been pretty clear on all of that. 

 

As I said, if I'd asked the marina guy before asking on here, I probably wouldn't even have thought about it since. And I like posting on here, it's quite fun, and people keep asking me questions. 

 

I became very aware very soon after coming aboard that boats need never ending effort. That's why I intend to get off the boat as soon as I'm able, and this will just be a bad memory. 

Edited by noether
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, noether said:

 

Maybe I just don't want to sell to some random person on the internet? Or at least waste the time talking to them about it. 

 

Ok, how about this: £150k, in my bank account, and the boat is yours (or anyone else's). Or do you perhaps not have faith in some random person posting on an internet forum? 

 

(I quit drinking years ago, and supermarkets deliver, you know). 

If you feel that way and want to act stupid, this random person withdraws the honest offer and will forget all about you.

I was being sensible and trying to offer you a good way out of your "dilemma" but now I suspect that you are just another silly drama queen seeking attention on this forum.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

If you feel that way and want to act stupid, this random person withdraws the honest offer and will forget all about you.

I was being sensible and trying to offer you a good way out of your "dilemma" but now I suspect that you are just another silly drama queen seeking attention on this forum.

 

 

That is your privilege, and I accept your flouncing withdrawal of offer. 

 

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, noether said:

 

 

That is your privilege, and I accept your flouncing withdrawal of offer. 

 

 

To be honest, I have found your conduct here in turn baffling, annoying and nonsensical. There is no point in asking for help and when offered sticking your fingers in your ears and repeating "I don't want to do that".

 

Still it's your life, your money,and your boat so you can do as you wish. You are probably correct in that you are not suited to life on a boat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.