Excitement!

After the last rather downbeat post, probably caused by a combination of the weather and the continued diet ("Booze Ban Jan." has given way to "No Fun Feb."...),it is good to report some fun and exciting things.

Well, actually, that's a matter of opinion, but they were fun and exciting to US, okay?

Today, (Valentine's Day) we move the huge and little used fuel cube from the foredeck:-



Romantic old softy at heart really, aren't I?

We have been using four 20 litre jerry cans to fill either the engine tank or directly into the generator's tank, transferring the fuel using a rather nifty syphon pump from Mackays in Cambridge. The fuel cube itself hadn't been used in anger since last spring. This begged the rather obvious question of what was it still doing taking up nearly 50% of the available fore-deck space?

Thanks to our landlord and his trusty digger, it all came off without a hitch. Nice one!

The view forrard is now a huge vista only interrupted down one side by the hulking great generator. I have plans to replace this with a more compact diesel job that will live in the engine room. These plans are on hold, however, until we get the loo fixed.....

Yes, whenever two or three boaters are gathered together, the talk shall turn to either electrics or toilets. Or both.

It is the law.

Pippin's loo is okay, but the solenoid in the flush system is on the fritz. Basically, this means the loo is flushing with too much water for far too long. This, in turn, means we are filling up the 320 litre waste tank with water and precious little else. And that means more trips to the Little Boats Pump-Out Room than even Private Godfrey from Dad's Army would have thought conscionable.....

This, in it's own turn, is a bloomin' nuisance.

Much time, diesel, and nervous energy has been expended hacking our way through the forest of overhanging branches, flotillas of suicidal rowing crews and overly proprietorial Camboaters in order to get to the Cambridge pump.

More diesel, but none of the rest (Thank God) is required to Pay a Visit to the unequivocably superior E.A. administered pump in Ely.

The trouble with that trip is that it's wrist-slittingly bleak in winter and infested with the fibre-glass version of Japanese Knotweed whenever the sun comes out.

The answer, then, would appear to be a Vacu-Flush 5000 loo. This will set us back a grand and a half or so, but will increase our pump-out intervals to around once a month. Twelve trips a year I can cope with, but the novelty has worn off sufficiently for me to think that twenty-four is a bit excessive.

Money and time much better spent on trips to our riverside local!

Damn, I've just remembered: It's still "No Fun Feb"!!

I think I may be allowed a beer (singular) when I can do up an old (but otherwise pristine, through being largely unworn.....) pair of 34" waist trousers.

Watch this space.

Thirstily.