We have been living on the beautiful blue boat for about 6 weeks now. It is fantastic- one of the best things I have ever done! We have adjusted to a slower pace of life, a bit Spanish- mañana! A lot of things take slightly more effort and time, but they are worth the effort. It’s all part of the adjustment.
For example; it takes as long to walk to the local town as it does to go by boat (about 2-2.5 hours and 7 minutes by car)! Walking or going by boat is much nicer, though. Although not good for a quick pop to the shop! I think we are all adjusting well, and loving finding new ways of doing things.
One thing that has taken me a lot of brainpower is which cleaning products are best.
That sounds very sad, but it’s not quite as sad as it seems!
The boat waste water drains directly into the river (except for the toilet which is in a separate tank and emptied using a giant Hoover type machine). That means that anything that goes down the sink goes straight into the river. The dregs of tea in my cup. The water when I washed the veggies. The washing up water. The water from washing my hands. Or showering. Or from washing my hair. Washing up liquid and body/hair washes contain all kinds of chemicals that I have never heard of. But not all chemicals are bad.
Do these products harm the river? How do I know what harms a duck? Or a fish?
If they have perfumes in, will the ducks and fish suddenly smell lovely? Would they like it? We might inadvertently start a new aquatic fashion!
Most products work by using a surfactant. Surfactants break down the surface tension of the water, which lets the water clean the dirt from the hands/clothes etc. That is not great if you are a pond skater, and you scoot along the surface of the water. Will they all sink? Will we be responsible for the death of all of the pond skaters in Cambridgeshire?
Ecover advertises that the surfactants in their products are short lived so maybe only the pond skaters directly around the boat will be affected…!
I looked at this a lot and for a long time before we moved on board. I emailed Lush to ask them about their products, and how safe they would be. They gave me a helpful list of products that they thought would be best. Before we moved to the boat I experimented a lot with them. So we have settled on a couple of Lush products that we think are best for the river.
That seems to solve the biggest issues, but I have found a cheaper, simpler, safer solution. I clean the sinks, shower (and the loo- although that doesn’t empty into the river- I’m just stingy) with lemon juice or vinegar and sometimes a bit of bicarbonate of soda. I think that must be pretty harmless. And the cost savings help pay for the Lush products!