While aboard this weekend (16th Nov) I got to thinking of those few things that I take with me or have put on board to make life a bit easier. Many may have the same, I’m sure they do but they do it for me.
D is for Dyson, we have a small hand held. Its battery powered and I recently got a new Lithium battery for it quite cheap to give it more life. We et about 12 minutes from it but more than enough to give the boat a vac through. When charging or moving it gets plugged in. We also have a main Dyson for the longer cleaning vaccing sessions that pleasingly will run on the Honda generator
G is for generator and Gatery charger ! Ok so I took a Gibberty there, but since getting the sage advice from Richard who did the decoke and gasket change on Percy we have a lovely light Honda 1KW genny. Running old engines or engines built to an old design (Percy's Donk is not 10 years old yet) does them no good, they like to be run under load, turning the prop pushing 17 tons of boat forward. The other delight is no noise or vibration. Now I like Percys Lister but I prefer to listen to it from the tiller - thats where I get the compliments, once had two fellas who ran across a field to talk to me about it! I have a little electrical project I'll blog about to make the whole genny thing tidier and safer....
I is for IPad, thank you Apple for such a versatile device. I am lucky I have the Macbook I am typing this on but while the keyboard is lit and tactile and the screen high definition it is overkill for periods on the boat when the Ipad does 90% of what the Macbook can do, and the sun will recharge it over the 12v - no need for inverters and 80w charging transformers.... I can read book, blog, get mail, play games (not often) shop, Facetime facebook - just perfect with a long battery life. When this Macbook gives up - hopefully not anytime soon as it is a decent spec I'll opt for a larger Ipad I think and no Macbook...
W is for wellies, especially this time of year. When I was a little boy I lived in red wellies apparently. It does not take much for me to don the wellies for a walk and it is so much easier slipping them on and off in and out of the boat. Like waterproof slippers.... I must investigate some lined wellies or the like....
G is for gloves, I have poor circulation and get cold hands easily, so a decent pair of gloves are essential. I say decent but you can get thermal gloves from the £ shop for guess what a £, I have three or four pairs in various jackets, sheds and boats.
F is for fire blocks - I started this blog on the boat last weekend and was marvelling at how they make the Morso so efficient for such low fuel demands. I type this as I have just loaded the open fire at home with nearly a bucket of coal - it'll eat that tonight....
S is for Smarty, my latest treat for Percy, a dedicated 4g connection. I have been using my phone to tether, which is ok but it drops connection and I need the phone in the window, plus the signal does not make it reliably to the bedroom. The bonus is it's only (!) £18 but on a rolling one month contract. Just nice to have fastish reliable internet.... more on that in another blog.
I am sure there are other things but these were what came to my head
4 comments:
Lined wellies - muck boots, not cheap, mine were £70 but now in their 3rd winter, lovely & warm.
Thanks for the recommendation.... I’ll add them to my Christmas present list đđ
Hi Nev, when you say fire blocks, do you mean bricks that make the space smaller or do you mean block of something which burn?
Hi Carole, it’s the fire bricks that go into the Morso to make the fire smaller. We just have standard bricks but I like the idea of the specific ones that have sloping sides that funnel the nuggets into the centre of the fire. We do also use the instant lighting blocks. We buy them from Yorkshire trading where they are a quid a time, we get further value by cutting them in half so they make super size fire lighters and they burn hot so the stove gets hot quickly.
Post a Comment