Maintenance Monday

There’s always something to do on a boat. Can’t think why I ever worried about getting bored living on a boat. So Monday has become “Maintenance Monday” or Pipes and Plumbing day.

Although we’ve not cruised far, and had the luxury of shore power for cooking etc, the central heating boiler has been guzzling diesel for the past month. And as Firecrest sits better in the water when she’s got full tanks we thought we’d take this opportunity to fill up.

Diesel in at the stern, Water in the bow, and the urh hum removed from the middle.
We found it very useful when other boaters posted their running costs to help us estimate our own budget so with any luck we’ll be able to generate some proper statistics of our own to help the next generation planning their dream.
We’ve been using the boiler for approx 6 weeks, it’s been a mixture of cold but not frozen in and relatively mild for January. We’ve used about 95 litres diesel at 75p/l (that’s about £71). It might not be the most economic way to heat a home but we haven’t skimped on using the boiler and I reckon £11 a week keeping warm is worth it.

And having Andy from Bailey’s trading post right next door to the yard is a good opportunity to fill the tank.


Water is supplied through CART stand pipes situated regularly (or should that be irregularly) along the canal and they are funded through our annual license fee. As it takes nearly 2 hours to completely fill our tank so it’s politer to use Braidbar’s tap than to hog the water point for that long. We reckon it took about two weeks to drain our tank but that was without economising on usage. If we get the warning that ‘winter is coming’ and we fear we’ll be frozen in then, that’ll be the end to clean clothes and showers the biggest use of water. We’re aiming to keep our tank full most of the time to help keep the boat trim and balanced.

And now for the middle. Well you don’t really want photos of me emptying our toilet, do you? (Or filling it for that matter..) Some boating chores are there to endure not celebrate. We have opted for a villa seperata waterless toilet. We haven’t had it long enough to have come across any problems so I’ll leave it at that. You can visit the Eco toilets website if you want more detail.