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Welcome to the new readers!

Us Big Blue Boaters went to a fantastic comedy night (Comedy and Curry) in St Neots on Friday night.

We were sat on the front row (we didn’t choose our seats- they were pre-allocated, or we wouldn’t have been) and the compere for the evening had quite a lot of fun with us. I think he found Mr BBB (Big Blue Boat) and Younger Mr BBB’s jobs quite hard to get much comedy value from (IT and Computer Aided Design), but he had a lot of fun with my blog! He read it in the break, then picked selected snippets and rearranged them, he made it quite racy! Maybe I should take tips…

I had quite a few new readers on that night! Thank you, Lewis Bryan, for the advertising! And thanks to all comedians for making me laugh so much! My highlight was Harriet Kemsley, who told us all about her diagnosis of dyspraxia while tying herself up in the mic stand!

So, a big WELCOME to the new viewers from the comedy night, and the new reader all the way from Canada!

It would be lovely to have some comments- stop me feeling lonely!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today, I thought I’d post about love. A lot of my posts are about disasters and how we managed them, so this time I am going to describe what I love about my life onboard the BBB. And some more bullet points…

1. Being able to move. I love not having a location. When we were planning this adventure I wasn’t sure whether I would, but I do! I like being a bit unsure of where I am when I wake up. I get to see so much more than I did in a house, which is great as I am home a lot!

   

2. Being in touch with the world. That sounds a bit wooly and ‘modern’, but it is true! I notice the changes in the seasons far more than I ever did before. Over December and January, we found the hours of daylight were so low that we had to be very economical with electricity usage and supplement the solar electricity with a generator. Now, it is getting light by around 7 AM and not getting dark until after 5 PM so we are needing the generator less and less. The trees have dropped lots of big twigs that make great kindling. I see which flowers are emerging, which trees are in bud and which birds are most hardy! At the moment it feels like spring is crouched down, ready to pounce!
3. Kindness. That sounds even more ‘modern’! Boaters are nearly always a nice and helpful bunch. Very keen to help out in a crisis. Also our friends and family have been amazing. So many offers of help and so much support. And everyone has been very encouraging, even when they think we’re completely mad!
4. Difficulty and a slower pace of life. That just sounds mad! Everything on the boat is harder than in a house. Well, almost everything- it’s much harder to float and move a house! Toilets (whichever type the boat has) need emptying. Water needs to be put in the boat. Electricity needs monitoring. But that makes everything more worthwhile. I appreciate things more. Because the pace of life has to be slower, I can see more. I notice the small things. And I really like that!
5. Hearing the rain on the roof. I used to love the sound of rain on the tent when I was little and this is very similar. It’s nice being lovely and warm inside when it is wet outside.

   

   I have asked the others for the things they love about living on a boat. They put it more succinctly than me!

    

    

   1. It’s a boat. That’s just awesome (not the exact wording, but I’m keeping this clean!)
   2. You can choose your own back garden (without any gardening)!
   3. Every pub is your local pub.
   4. The TV is awesome!
   5. Being closer to nature and more ecological is great.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. Enjoy your lifestyle, in whatever way you chose!

 

 

Whats the importance of a hairstyle?

I have always thought of myself as being long-haired, even when I had short hair when I had small children. Sometimes very long, sometimes not as long.

But before Christmas, I decided to be long haired no more! Not a fashion decision, but more a lifestyle decision. My hair was quite long and very thick. If I washed it in the morning and left it dry naturally, it wouldn’t be dry until lunch time. It took hours! That was okay in the summer, but as the weather became more arctic it wasn’t practical. Hairdryers use a lot of electricity, which we don’t have an abundance of in the middle of winter. I would rather use the electricity for more fun things! So I decided to have my hair cut short enough that I can just dry it with a towel. I knew I wanted it to be very short at the back and sides and maybe slightly longer at the front, other than that I had no idea!

I made an appointment Molby’s  in St Neots with Jema, who turned out to be amazing. (I have no idea which hairdressers would be good so I chose one at random!) We looked at some pictures and she made some suggestions and I ended with an amazing, short haircut!

It takes about 2 minutes to dry and didn’t need any styling at all, perfect!

Since Christmas, we have had 2 Strong Stream Advice notices (A boat drought?!), which has meant we can’t travel to get water. We are already quite good at saving water, but I have realised how much less water it takes to wash my hair now that it is short! An added bonus!

I recently read about the South African water crisis.  It sounds terrible. Running out of water must be very scary. I read about the changes people had made to their lives to save water. They have some great ideas, but living on a boat where water is sometimes finite is still the best way to be forced to save water!

In my paid role I am often asked to write top 10 lists – so I guess people must like them! I thought I would put that into action for you lucky people!

Here is my Top 10 List for saving water

1. Running taps. We all know that keeping the tap running while brushing our teeth wastes water, but running the cold water to get to the hot water wastes at least as much. Save the cold water in a jug and use it for tea!
2. Turn the water off while lathering. Turn the shower on to make yourself wet. Turn it off. Apply shower gel. Turn water on to rinse shower gel off.
3. Wash rather than showering. Washing uses a pint or so of water. Showering (even using above technique) uses many times more.
4. Measure the water you put in the kettle. So you only boil what you need. This saves gas or electricity too.
5. Lose the loo! Chemical toilets (portapotties) use much less water than plumbed in toilets or pump out toilets. Composting toilets don’t use any (more about them in a future post, you lucky people)! It’s not practical to change the toilet in a house, but a dual flush system will help, or just flush less!

   

6. Wash up less. I love this tip! Wait until you have enough washing up to need a bowl of water. No more washing up cups as they are dirtied! Just remember to wash up at some point… And don’t forget to save the cold water that comes through before the hot!
7. Washing. Don’t wash clothes unless they are actually dirty!
8. Washing 2. This is for the hardcore (or desperate) water saver! Wash in the morning (or whenever suits you). Once you have finished washing, pop some clothes washing detergent in your wash water. Wash your top, underwear and socks from the day before. Rinse with the water you saved while waiting for the water in the tap to warm up (see point 1). Then you only have big items that need a washing machine and no wasted water. It is a bit of a hassle, though!
9. Have short hair! Less water needed.
10. Drink wine or beer instead of water. The saving in water might be lost by the increase in liver disease, though!

    

I hope the people in South Africa manage to keep the taps on. Maybe being forced to save resources isn’t really a bad idea for all of us occasionally?

 

The Big Blue Boat is experiencing a drought. Which is odd, since the rest of the river is experiencing a flood.

I’ll give you some background first…

We spent a lovely Christmas moored in St Neots and on Boxing Day we headed to a friend’s mooring a little bit outside St Neots. We awoke the next morning to the sound of someone knocking on the boat. It was a neighbour, who was stood outside in the pouring (and almost freezing) rain trying to tell us that the water level had risen so much that the boat was caught on the ropes and starting to list!

When I lived in a house a flood meant that the park flooded and the brook near the house was fuller and flowed faster. And boats are good in a flood because they float. But it is a bit more complicated than that. On this river the Environment agency issue river level warnings. They are: no warning (good to go, no problems), caution (river levels are higher than usual and/or faster than usual- proceed with caution) and strong stream advice (river is high and fast- do not navigate). We get a call, text and email when a warning is issued. Apart from that day. Our first experience of a flood and we didn’t get a caution advice. We received a strong stream advice warning for a different river; when our river was like white water rapids and over a foot higher than normal! By the time we got the strong stream advice for our river, we were already working on protecting the boat from the sudden deluge!

Most boaters join their boat to land using a knot called a clove hitch. This is great because it tightens as the boat pulls on it, making it very secure. But there are two times (that I know of so far…)when a clove hitch is not a good knot. 1-in a lock, as the water level drops the knot tightens and the boat ends up dangling sideways by the rope and 2- when tied to a flood pole. A flood pole is a tall pole which goes into the river bed and runs vertically upwards, above the boat. If the river rises the boat floats up, guided by the poles and can’t end up deposited on the river bank or pinned under the water. If you tie to these poles with a clove hitch knot, when the river level rises, the boat pulls the knot tight and the rope can’t slide up the pole.

So, to recap, we went from normal river to full flood in a record time with no warning and we had not tied appropriately for a flood. And it was Christmas time.

Mr BBB and our neighbours resecured the boat (with clove hitch knots as we didn’t know any better ones), checked the other boats and made sure everything was okay. I provided tea.

Once we were quite confident that the boat was safe for now, we went out to meet some friends for lunch. The land near the moorings was flooded, and it was now snowing, so with a detour to buy wellies, off we went for our lunch date. By the time we got back, the river had risen even more and all of the standing water was frozen. We had quite a lot of fun smashing the ice until we started to slide on the thicker ice! When we got back to the boat, the river level was even higher, so the ropes needed adjusting again. And again…and again!

The river was flowing faster than I have ever noticed before, and it was bringing all kinds of debris along with it. Looking out of the window reminded me of the old Generation Game conveyor belt, log, tree, plastic tub, bottles, more trees…cuddly toy! A lot of this debris seemed to make a beeline for the boat. With a very loud SCCRAAAPPEEE, CLONNKKK, GGGRINNNDDDD as it ran along the side of the boat. The boat is made of thick steel, but it was still quite alarming!

I expected the flood to last a couple of days (oh, so naive!). The Strong Stream Advice lasted for about 3 weeks. That meant that we couldn’t travel for 3 weeks. Which meant we couldn’t get to a water point for 3 weeks. We usually fill up the water tank every week – 10 days. This was a lot longer!

To start off with we didn’t change our behaviour very much. We didn’t use the washing machine, but carried on as normal. Then we made sure that we only washed up when it was essential and with as little water as possible (I like that way of saving water). Then we stopped showering and washed instead! We looked at kits to purify river water, and water containers and decided that we could fill up a water container (a big 51-litre container that rolls along the floor) and fill it up by car/foot. Not many places sell these in the middle of winter! One shop had one left, so we bought it. Now we know why it was the last one! The handle was broken and needed a screw to fix it and the waterhole leaked! We managed though. We filled it up and wrestled it to the car. Then it had to be manoeuvred through a muddy field… and then onto the boat without filling the boat with mud or getting mud into the drinking water.

Mr BBB managed this and syphoned the water into the water tank and the gauge hardly moved!  We decided that we would need to do this regularly if we wanted to fill up the water tanks. We arranged to do some washing in a friends machine and prepared ourselves for a lot of hauling water.

Then the next day the warning was downgraded to caution! We could navigate to the water point and fill the tanks up! We celebrated by showering and putting on the washing machine!

We are all learning some new knots now, and we know how little water we actually need to survive! As Mr BBB put it, We were quite green before, but now we’re positively Hulk!

 

 

Like everyone else, I am thinking about Christmas. Our first Christmas on The BBB! I am excited and slightly apprehensive. The tree we have had for many years won’t fit (in fact, there isn’t space for a tree at all). The lights might draw too much electricity. Are candles a better idea- and are they safe? But I am quite enjoying getting my teeth into the challenge!

But like everyone else, I have been pretending that it is too early to think about Christmas… whilst thinking about Christmas!

I have been complaining about shops that have Christmas music on in November and Christmas films at the cinema from Halloween.

But I still go shopping and watch the Christmas films!

I think I have revised Christmas! Christmas comes in layers.

We have to let Christmas time start early, or there isn’t enough time for Christmas events. It is up to us when Christmas starts (Christmas Time, Christmas Week, or even Christmas Day), just because shops started sooner doesn’t mean we have to!

I have seen a few Christmas films in the last couple of weeks and watched a lot of Christmas adverts. They have made me think about the effect they have on me. Films like Love Actually, which suggest that Christmas is a time for loving mankind, and being kind and generous. I think most people feel Christmassy, benevolent and full of human kindness for an hour or so after the film, but the films don’t really have much effect on our actions.  We leave the cinema and life carries on. Have we got a gift for Tommy, is the turkey ordered. Do I have enough money, can I make it to all of the kids Christmas events, will they forgive me if I miss one…

In fact, I think these films (and even more so the seasonal adverts) can have a negative effect on us. I think they make us compare our Christmas with the Christmases in the films. In the films, Christmas is generally doomed for most of the film, but they end with a lovely Christmas with lots of people all around and a great community feel, even if it’s not how they first intended. There is often a throwback to the big Victorian style of Christmas or a big community Christmas (everyone stuck in the supermarket or cinema, for example). When it gets to the pinnacle, everything is great. In adverts, Christmas is even more perfect – generally because the family has brought the product being advertised! No tantruming toddlers, the dog doesn’t eat the presents, the dinner doesn’t burn. Everyone works hard to make Christmas perfect, which it is.

Most people can’t manage that (and often wouldn’t want to) – with modern families being spread far and wide and so many commuter towns with little sense of community.

This leaves people feeling that their Christmas doesn’t measure up. The estate don’t all sing around the tree, there is no piano in the lounge. What has happened to the Magic of Christmas?

Looking at the diagram above, Christmas Day is the biggest star, but the smallest amount of time. This says a lot! It is only 1 day!

Life continues because Christmas is just another day. Toddlers will tantrum. Food will burn. People will argue. On a darker note, people will die. People without homes are still without homes.

Christmas is lovely and sparkly and lifts our mood, yes.

But it is not magical.

Expecting one day out of 365 to be perfect is setting ourselves up to fail.

If we want to properly enjoy Christmas we need to alter our perception.

What do we enjoy? What makes us feel good? The perfectly-cooked turkey isn’t a good idea if you don’t like turkey! Helping people makes us feel good. Being around people makes us feel good although too much and it may also make us feel bad! The same goes for drinks!

If we have enjoyed Christmas time, it doesn’t matter if we haven’t got the perfect stuffing or, well, perfect anything! Perfect anything is generally unobtainable! Aim for nice or good instead!

I know a family with little children who had Findus Crispy Pancakes for Christmas dinner. They all loved them. No one spent ages cooking them. The kids didn’t get stressed eating a meal that they didn’t want. There was more time to spend together playing games and they had a lovely Christmas.

Do what makes you feel good. Don’t consider what you haven’t done and don’t kill yourself striving for the unobtainable.

Merry Christmas Time, however and whenever you want it!

 

Imagine living on a boat.

Surrounded by calmness. The lapping water quietly washing past the boat.

The rhythmic whoosh of the wind gently blowing through the trees. A distant bird calling to its mate. Maybe a cow lowing in a field. Remeber – this is the UK though, so we need to add the calm repetitive tapping of the drizzle on the roof. Idyllic? The very essence of calm?

Well, it is not like that at all! It is fantastic, as far as I am concerned, but it is not quiet!

Last night was a great example. It was windy last night (by UK standards, anyway). Yesterday I was up early, late to bed, and quite active during the evening, so I was guaranteed a good night’s sleep. Or so I thought!

I climbed into bed, to listen to the quiet river noises. It wasn’t so much a gentle rustle of the wind- it was howling around the boat!

The Big Blue Boat is made of wood and steel, which both expand and contract at different times as the temperature varies.

Because they expand and contract at different times the boat makes strange snapping, creaking and popping sounds. It is worse when the boat was new and the wood and metal were still settling, but last night it was doing a lot of creaking and snapping. Far more than normal, I am sure!

There was a gaggle of geese who were determined to fly, despite the wind. They weren’t honking- they were shouting. I imagine that if I could understand goose it would have sounded like this:

Dave: Let’s go to the park over there?

Steve: Yes, great idea. The grass is nice over there.

Dave and Steve take off, running along the water.

Dave (shouting): I can’t get any uplift- the wind is blowing me back down to the water!

Steve: I can’t help you, I’m struggling as well!

Dave: This is impossible.

Dave: Whoop! I’m up and airborne! Last one there is a smelly swan!

Steve: I’ll beat you…AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!! I can’t get away from the tree….the wind is blowing me….

Dave: Oh no, I’m gonna crash, HELP!

Then, just as I was dropping off I could hear a scraping sound. It sounded a bit like a pirate with a peg leg walking over the roof. Clonk, scraaaaape. Clonk, scraaape. Then there was a loud tapping at the side of the boat. Clonk, scrape, tap, tap, tap. Aha, I thought. That is the hose blowing in the wind. (Honk, HONK, still going on from the geese.)

Don’t forget the creaks and snaps that I mentioned at the beginning. That is still happening. Not rhythmically, but randomly.

Then the ducks started their midnight meeting. Now I had very loud quacking and splashing! The noises on the roof changed to a range of resounding thumps.

I think that was probably the barge pole and broom blowing along the roof. Because I was very much awake, I could also hear the noises I normally sleep through. The train blowing its horn as it comes up to the level crossing. The boat heating. Mr BBB snoring (most unfair- I wasn’t asleep!).

When I woke up this morning I realised that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Everything is still where it should be. The hose, broom and pole are still on the roof. The canopy looks untouched. And the boat hardly moved in the wind. I might feel a bit weary, but as I woke up, I must have gone to sleep in the end!

When we decided to live on a boat one of my biggest concerns was the river flooding.

Before we had the Big Blue Boat, we lived in a house in St Neots within walking distance of the river- but too far away to flood. In the winter (and autumn, spring, even occasionally summer) the river would flood! When we first moved to St Neots the flood water would travel quite a distance, flooding shops, pubs and homes in the High Street. A few years ago the town received a revamp of its flood defences and I don’t think the High Street has flooded since, but the main park in the town still floods most years. So I was well aware that the river around this area floods!

When we travelled to St Neots recently, I was considering the flooding issues. I thought about how we would moor (on a floating pontoon that goes up and down with the river level or tying the ropes more loosely, so the boat can move) to be safe if the water level rises.

As we were travelling along the river Mr BBB and I were congratulating ourselves on a successful journey. We hadn’t lost any lock keys or windlasses. No one had fallen in. The boat hadn’t crashed into any trees (or anything else)! It was beautifully uneventful.

We spotted herons, cormorants, kestrels and plenty of ducks and geese. As we navigated a narrow bend in the river, the boat stopped. The engine was still going, but the boat wasn’t moving. I looked over the edge and the water was only a few inches deep. Narrow (and wide beam) boats have a very small water draught (not much keel- under the water) so we are usually okay in shallower water, but this was so shallow we could have paddled if it were warmer!

Mr BBB tried using the engine in reverse to free the boat, but it didn’t work. He tried using reverse along with the bow thruster. Nothing. Mr BBB used all of his physics knowledge to try and wiggle the boat free, but she was not budging. I tried pushing off the ground using the barge pole, Mr BBB tried the things he hadn’t tried earlier because he didn’t think they would work. And they didn’t.

We discussed waiting until it either rained or someone passed and could tow us out of the shallow area. But we hadn’t seen another boat all day. At least we were in our home- we had heating, food and water.

Mr BBB had another go at using the engine in reverse to free us, and I noticed the stern was moving, slowly and not much, but it was moving! With more complicated revving, we were free! We continued the journey and celebrated when we got to St Neots!

As Bob Marley sang ‘Don’t Worry About a Thing’. The things you worry about don’t happen, the problems that arise are always things you haven’t considered. Like running aground when you are worried about floods!

 

It is quite wintery, now. The clocks went back a couple of weeks ago, so it is getting dark at around 4.30pm. We have had a few bright crisp frosty mornings, where the grass crunches when you stand on it and people are busy scraping their windscreens.

This is our first winter onboard, and when we chose the Big Blue Boat we made sure that she had good heating, but we haven’t needed it all that much, until now.

Over the summer and autumn, we occasionally used the diesel heater which heats the water and radiators, to keep the boat toasty, if needed. It is quite cheap to run and works quickly. But it is a bit like living with a dragon! It starts up with a massive plume of smoke and a loud rumbling roar. The first time it started up I quite genuinely thought the boat was on fire! After the first couple of minutes, it quietens down to a dragon-sized purr. It only stays on for a few minutes, so the dragon sounds are okay.

Now that the weather has turned colder we thought we should use the multi-fuel stove (burner) for heat. It looks nicer and is quieter to run. We have no idea which is more economical, so we decided to try both and see how it works out.

The diesel heating is much easier, though! It seems to me that lighting a fire is a bit like looking after a newborn baby! Everyone else knows how to do it, and they are all successful at it. It can’t be left alone and needs near constant attention!

Before we tried to light the stove I sat down and read the instructions. It seemed quite easy. Put on paper/firelighters and kindling. Once that is burning well, put on bigger fuel. When I did that, the bigger fuel (logs) smothered the fire and it went out.

After another trip to buy more kindling we tried starting with more kindling. That made a lovely roaring fire. I added a log, and it charred the edges of the log, before going out.

A third trip saw us buying smokeless coal. Maybe that will be easier? With many attempts, we got to the point where the coals were glowing.

Thank goodness! Should there be flames as well? Glowing seemed to be good- at least it was warm! Then I added more coal, a few bits at a time and the frustrating thing went out again!

We have quite a few friends with burners, so we asked for advice. Make a tower with paper, firelighters and then kindling and don’t add the coal until it is all very hot; put coal on the bottom, then kindling, then firelighters; make a roaring fire with kindling then add coal (I am NOT putting my hand anywhere near there!). The range of advice was enormous! And nothing seemed to work well.

Between us, we seem (fingers crossed) to have mastered it in the last day or two. Fires are unique things. The reason the instructions and advice didn’t work is that it all varies so much! Get it lit, and do whatever it takes to keep it lit.

As I said earlier, it’s like a small child. Younger Mr BBB put it quite well when he said  ‘Fire is like a small child- you need to keep it enclosed, but give it as much freedom as you can’. Also, what works one day doesn’t the next. Just like a toddler!

As I write this I am sat in a lovely toasty warm boat looking outside at the fog rising from the river, shining in the lights from the boat; with a delicious cup of hot chocolate made from water that was heated on the of the stove.

Finally, we have mastered it. Don’t follow advice or instructions – just follow your instinct and hope!