We have now handed over the dosh and almost taken possession of the boat. I say almost because thinking it was the quickest and most secure way to pay I transferred the agreed price in cash straight into the brokers bank account from ours, what I wasn’t aware is that I can reclaim that cash with (apparently) no questions asked for up to ten days after the date of the payment, so to ensure we don’t disappear with the boat and then reclaim the money we can have access but cannot move or have title to the boat till 14th July.
Oh well, added to the two weeks free stay in the marina (part of the deal) it will give us time to get the caravan and car ready for sale, and make a visit to the lockup to drop stuff that we don’t need and collect stuff that we do need for narrow boating.
However first things first. They say BOAT ia an acronym for Bring Out Another Thousand and now have to use most of that next thousand to pay for our CRT (Canal & River Trust) licence without which you cannot put a boat on our national canal network. At £922.31 including prompt payment discount, it seems on the surface expensive but the CRT keep the network operating and, unless a lesser time is posted provides 14 day mooring virtually anywhere on the network, provides water taps, rubbish disposal, toilet emptying facilities, showers, toilets etc., etc all at no extra cost. They have their detractors and have their problems but seem on the whole to do a pretty good job.
Before you get a licence you have to have insurance, this tends to be cheaper than say car insurance ours cost £248.41, and is insured as a conveyance and a home. Our car and caravan insurance combined was £655.51 so at almost two thirds less the boat insurance seems a good deal but then I suppose a home/conveyance travelling at around 3mph is at less risk than a home/conveyance travelling at around 60mph. Still it cannot disguise that we have so far spent well over £3000.00 above and beyond the purchase price and have yet to place a foot on the deck let alone travel the first slow mile.
We visited the boat today (6th July 2020} The first of probably endless tasks have begun. Going through the boat from stem to stern emptying every locker and checking the contents as too condition and usefulness. Boats are a little like caravans in that kit expands to fit the space available so there was quite a large pile of kit junk on the pontoon at the end.
Before we started that we had intended to pour three tubs of Puriclean into the water tank, pump it through the system and leave it to work its magic for a few hours. We would then need to pump out the water and refill the tank several times unfortunately the water tank contains 682 litres (151 gallons) of water when full so the amount wasted would be colossal. We are investigating less wasteful ways of purifying the system so will report our conclusions in a later blog. There is no urgency as we never have and never will drink water direct from a boat water tank, this will be our fifth boat with a water storage tank and in the previous four we never managed to get the water tasting clean and fresh and have no expectation this one will be any different.
Cleaning, scraping away rust and painting with two coats of potable black bitumastic paint was one of the advisory tasks suggested by surveyor Tom. Unfortunately access to the tank is through a 30cm (12”) square hatch so neither Sue nor I are skinny enough to get through this hatch nor small enough to clean and paint the tank if the hatch was to miraculously grow, so we have asked the Calcutt Boats to do the job it will not be cheap but it will be done. Perhaps they have a small Victorian chimney sweep on the payroll?
Even when cleaned and painted we will not use tank water for drinking. Our answer is a Berkey water filter we have bought a Travel Berkey which should give us sufficient filtered drinking water for all needs except for showering which we intend to fix by fitting a Berkey Shower filter at some time in the near future.
The tank has been de-rusted and painted. The boat yards smallest employee spent two full days folded up inside scrapping and wire brushing etc etc It looks great but will be when we get the bill expensive, but as we said above it is not a job we can do ourselves.
Our answer to the drinking water conundrum is a Berkey water filter. We have bought a Travel Berkey which should give us sufficient filtered potable water for all needs except for showering for which we intend to fit a Berkey Shower filter at some time in the near future. They are eye wateringly expensive but the filters in the Travel Berkey last for around 11 years before they need changing making them no more expensive in the long term than the (in my opinion) totally useless Britta type water filters. I certainly would not want to but it is said you can take water direct from the canal, filter it through the Berkey and it would be safe to drink.
Once on our canal travels we intend to be "off grid” as much as we can which will mean doing without some of what are currently our most used electric items. Some like the coffee maker can be replaced quite cheaply with a caffetierre or Stainless Steel Induction Stovetop Espresso Maker both of which we have in our lockup, other items are more difficult to replace. Sue’s most used is her slow cooker. It is used for everything from cauliflower, coconut and black bean casserole to roasting joints. A motorhome travelling Australian friend Rosemarie had an Australian gadget shipped to this country when she and her husband John came to live in UK, it was a modern version of a hay box, a thermal cooker. Food is brought to heat and sealed in the cooker and left for a few hours after which it is ready to eat.
We have discovered the UK version - Mr D’s Thermal Cookers, we havn’t used our 3 litre cooker yet but have every confidence that it will be a successful replacement for the trusty slow cooker.
Narrowboating is dangerous. While on the boat on Monday I removered the top to gas locker leaning it against the rear safety rail. Somehow I managed to knock it over, it fell on the big toe of my left foot. With cries of “Oh Dear” and “My my that hurt” I limped around the deck with tears in my eyes. I’ve had to have the chiropodist visit today the toe nail is discoloured and split from top to bottom in two places. I may loose the nail or I may not, either way it's going to take a very long time to heal.