Viking23

Chris you have made me smile with your comments, I have Roz in stitches all the time now, as when I refer to my experiences, I start off with... When I was an Electronic Engineer... When I ran the CE testing department... When I was a maths teacher... blah blah. When I was a product manager in the States... I think it stems from the various careers we have both held and the vast experiences we have gained, that have made us what we are. Re solvents, so easy to do... sometimes I use an Aldi paint solvent to wipe down things before painting, I always open the garage door first, but the fumes are very strong. Any cloths I use I put outside in a metal container away from the garage and let the fumes evaporate for a day before disposing. Another issue is teak oil or danish oil or similar oil soaked rags, if left in a heap, can actually spontaneously combust without any additional heat or sparks. Best to submerse them in water, ( and I don't mean chuck them in the river either) think about that if you have been working on the boat. Good post Chris a reminder to us all. Best regards, Richard

Of course barbeques should have legs, stops them setting light to the wooden quay side tops. lol I have also seen some "walk" into the river at the end of a session too. Often with a slight push... It's these cheap light with a match ones with an aluminium foil tray that damage the moorings most. The BA only need to place a few 60 x60 cm concrete paving stones into the ground here and there, so they can mow over them, they would make ideal barbeque bases.

Like I said... talk to the fuel station operator before you start filling petrol. Sometimes we do a dual fuel fill, do the diesel car first, don't pay, then do the petrol, but make sure the operator is aware of the procedure before you start, then pay for the lot in one payment. Never had a problem doing that, and it saves time too. Many petrol stations near to boatyards have an understanding and normally allow a more realistic quantity. You can always fill up riverside, pay a lot more for it, but risk having stale fuel that has been in storage for a year or more. Most outboards don't like stale fuel older than three months. So worth getting some petrol fuel stabiliser... more cost, so compare that to buying week old fresh and cheap fuel from a roadside supplier, and maybe do an extra run in the car if required, off set this against the higer costs of riverside just for convenience. Yes we have bought riverside, 10-15 litres max but blend the fuel 50/50 with fresh roadside fuel. Seems to help the running. I label the fuel containers with date of purchase and where bought so I know what I am blending. Of course all fuel tank filling is done ashore away from the boat and down wind, and watch out for smokers walking past you, or lit barbeques. Your choice, your money, your time.

Well spent the last 25 minutes searching the forum, and I have found a topic from nearly two years ago. Outboard tanks are called demoutable fuel tanks. Within the attached thread is a link to the HSE website, but not sure if this has been updated or not, so caution... Have a look... http://forum.norfolkbroadsnetwork.com/topic/7304-petrol-woes/#comment-104109 Now the overall responsibility lies with the fuel station... take the HSE document with you... argue with them before you fill up, saves paying for fuel you can't take away... so what do you do with excess fuel, you can't take it into the shop... insurance issue and obvious risk to the public, you can't leave it outside unattended as an under 16 might walk off with it... If you are on your own... you can't leave a passenger with it, so ask for a funnel lol and ask if you can pour it back into the tank. No can't do that, you need training, a licence, PPE equipment, fire extinguishers... a weights and measures volumetric measuring device to make sure it is the correct number of litres. Now that would be a laugh. see what they say to that one... Show them the HSE document again, and say you have learnt your lesson and won't do it again, and say that you were very impressed with their vigilance of looking after the customers safety, and say you will write to head office and tell them how impressed you were. Next time, make sure that operator isn't working that day lol. Most of the above said a bit tongue in cheek, petrol is dangerous and needs to be treated with respect.

I read somewhere it is ok to fill up a fuel tank intended for an outboard, so have the fuel line ready to show them. I read somewhere you could fill up around 24 +'litres...(citation required) in fact, tanks larger than this can be filled. BUT not all petrol stations will allow this. I once printed off the legislation to carry into a petrol station to show them, lost the paper and the link to where I got it from... they may not play ball and quote their own policy. If you are walking to your boat, or a well hidden car lol... a couple of you could carry a couple of 5 or 10 litre cans with you, and pay separately. But then you run the risk of having too many portable fuel tanks on board. So does an empty tank count towards your storage? after say you have decanted them into your main fuel tanks? There have always been restrictions on carrying spare fuel in cars, 10 years ago we had an argument with a Supermarket. The boat was moored 2 miles away, they didn't play ball. Amazing that if you go back 10 minutes later and do the same transaction... they have forgotten who you are. False beard works well, but they did give my wife a funny look once lol... From their point of view, the tally roll record doesn't link the transactions, so they are in the clear. But with vehicle recognition systems, now more difficult to do, but you can always tell them you have been to the boat and back again. Which you could have done in that time. I will try to search for my original document on line, in fact it might be linked on this site from a few years ago... but things may have changed again. The clue for the petrol operator is the click every 5 litres, and slight delay in restarting again. Hiding behind open car doors and lifted boot lids can be a clue too. Now I go into the petrol station, and just inform the operator before I fill. Richard

Genclean was a branded suppiler of the above chemical. One hazzard was, if a smoker was in the vicinity of the carbon tetra chloride fumes, it would produce some really poisonous compounds when heated, ie when passing over the heated cigarette. Best thing they did was to ban it, but it was used extensivly in the 1970's for degreasing circuit boards prior to soldering, and as a flux remover afterwards. Fume extraction in those days was rarely used...

I wish more people would make the effort to follow through things that are clearly wrong. Many people would have thought oh well never mind. But with your feedback, it could well prevent further anxiety for the waiting patients. Well done.

When they caught him, they had nothing to charge him with lol... I need to go to the boat more often lol...

Yes you can take the boat phone with you to the pub, in case anybody needs you, take it round the shops too. hmmm. Or take a much smaller iphone and get on the internet too. I think I know what I would rather spend my money on...

It could of course be a futuristic boat, and what you thought was a gang plank was in fact an array of 10 solar panels lol...

I think it's so important to tell your loved ones how much you love them as often as possible. Say how proud you are of them. Do that with your friends too. I "think" my father was proud of me and what I achieved, but he never once said it to me, when he died my step mother said to me, " your Father was so proud of you... " somehow I brushed that comment under the carpet, it didn't have any feeling or sincerity about it. Had my Father said it just once... It would have meant so much. Too late now. I of course say this to my son and daughter at every milestone in their lives, and I certainly will be looking for opportunities for my grandchildren too. A few kind words at the appropriate time works wonders. You don't even have to spend any money to do it, although... flowers, chocolates, wine and new shoes (One for Gracie) certainly help lol.. Richard

I lost my Mum a few days before my 18th Birthday, she was only 42. Lung and breast cancer. On the way to visit my mother in law yesterday, I took a moment to call at my Mums grave. A very moving moment. You never forget them. My mother in law has been like a Mum to me since I have known her, which was from when I was around 19. So I have been blessed in having her support for all this time. So Happy Mother's day to all those Mums out there. But who can answer this Question... Why is Mother's day 9 months after Father's day ? lol Richard

Leaving your garage door open when you are washing your car, can also lead to some interest. I always place the car skewed across the garage door, so you can't see in. My neighbour and I are quite paranoid, if we see a white van in the area... we slam the garage door shut, after all, they might just make an innocent walk up your drive to ask if you have any scrap, whilst all the time checking what you have. I heard somewhere that a house owner was asked if she wanted the cast iron window frames that she had in her garage. The garage was shut, and had been for a while, we can only assume he did a "walk past" earlier in the week.

Locks only keep honest people out. However, siezed locks keep the honest owner out too. BUT not for long. I went to the boat trailer the other day, to start the prep for selling it, two padlocks had siezed, 15 seconds later, I silently destroyed them and off they came. I had been on youtube, and there was the same padlock, hardened shackle, two basic tools, that you have in your tool box, and neither was a hammer... off they came. A friend of mine was left stranded on his house roof when some tea leaf stole the ladders whilst he was up there. Worth tying them off at the top, not just for safety lol.

Let's say you have stayed 23 hours and 59 minutes according to your stop watch from the moment a crew member's foot touched the land. You cast off... head for the bridge... oops tide is higher than we thought, can't return to the 24 hour mooring for at least 48 hours... could try to get through... might get stuck... then close the railwayline down to inspect for damage... or wait midstream waiting for the tide to drop, but if it's rising you could be there 6-12 hours. You could use your time to cruise between the two bridges during those 6-12 hours, the cctv will have some nice video to put London Rascal to shame lol But I think the commentary will be a bit sameish lol. So I guess Thorpe Council have thought about this and provide a concession, or layby moorings, that with good timing, could be greatly abused. Time and tide will tell. I think to have a fine for overstaying due to a tidal issue, captive audience with nowhere else to go, will not stand up in court, and the fine will be thrown out, but then who knows. Probably best to avoid Thorpe all together then... not what they had in mind. If I was stuck there, moor 3' off a bank with a mud weight fore and aft. Could that work? Richard

I read recently that they had a vacant mooring for a 35+ boat. Blink, and you could miss things like this.

Should we call them bulbs, or lamps? Edison was often credited for inventing the first light bulb, (he may not have been the first to do that though if you read the internet) so if he calls them bulbs and if they are described as bulbs in the original patent, then "bulbs" they are. Lamps in those days were often oil based, like paraffin lamps, hurricane lamps or Aladdin's lamp, just a wick placed in a receptical of oil, fat or wax. In Victorian times you had gas lamps, Later on you had bicycle lamps that used acetylene from carbide crystals. Even later, car head lamps and tail lamps, I prefer to think of the word lamp refers to the hardware that enables many different technologies to produce light, and not just one technology of electricity. I rest my case lol. Well that opens the debate right up lol... "Bulbs" it is for me, or lamp bulbs works too. Richard

You want to try asking a group of Americans if you can borrow a "Torch" They usually fall over in a heap in complete laughter, as they envisage you trying to search for something with what looks like an olympic torch. Works every time lol... If you smoke and want to borrow a cigarette, it is not appropriate to say, that you want to bum a fag. oops...

I replaced some of mine a few years ago, and even though I am an electronic engineer, I was caught out. I bought standard 12 volt leds from ebay however, unless they are specifically designed for cars, caravans or boats they can be totally unsuitable, as these were, they started to flash the odd led, then some would go out and this was only in the second season too. 12 volt led devices are designed for 12 volts, to be precise... 12.0 volts, any voltage over that will reduce their life exponentially. Boat voltages can be as high as 14.8 volts (higher with some shore based chargers). So select your leds wih care, ideally you need them to work in the range 11.0 to say 15.0 volts dc So buy from a reputable supplier like those mentioned, and forget the generic 12 volt type off a well known auction website. There are some good products on there, but you need to look at the spec carefully. Luckily I was only caught out with about 5 devices. Hope it helps. Richard

Following the previous thread... what, you threw it in the back of the car and placed on newspaper... and then it flapped around the car... no wonder it made a mess of the car... lol Apologies I purposely misinterpreted your text lol... We live on the edge of Cannock Chase, we try to avoid roads through at dawn and dusk, we have learnt where the deer are, when they cross, there is normally one, then 6-8 others soon follow. We have seen quite a few cars wriiten off and many underivable after an encounter. Some deer appear to get up, then run off as if nothing has happened, but unfortunately that is rarely the case, they often have severe internal injuries and die in agony often just 50 metres from the road. We have seen many a ranger dealing with the outcome. In the USA all road kill is fresh, once seen, back of the truck lol. I wouldn't opt for the Cannock Chase deer though, especially after the Ranger has despatched it.

Maybe in the account they keep a small buffer! We really do need to get out on the river, some sooner than others it would seem.

Maybe the money is coming from the "Train"ing budget. lol

You can't have enough ways of securing a boat to the bank. With a springer line you might need 3 pins or rhond anchors, we have pins of various diameters, some are tubes with a rocket cone welded on, ideal for loose ground. We have even crossed pinned the mooring pins to give a better hold. Once we had 5 or 6 pins out when a force 8 was predicted. So carry a selection if you can.

Robin we are so sorry to hear of your loss, you are a very strong person, and you can get through this. I speak from the heart when I say I know what your father has been going through, and the stress that it has put your family through during this time. You will never forget him, you have your bloggs to sit with on the odd night you want to reflect. Take care, condolences to you, your Mum and your family, and all their friends too. Richard and Roz

Will we see a can opener and a sharp knife on the galley work top, for when Robin is on board? The problem is, we will all be trawling through all of Robin's blogs, we expect to see laptops, cameras hanging by the water line, filming as it goes along. Rhond anchors, what about a mud weight, will it have a working anchor winch? Great work, I hope this model can do a UK tour, so that we can all get to see it, but to be fair, best in a Norfolk environment. I bet a few landlords wouldn't mind displaying that in a case for a week or so. But it would have to be insured for £ thousands. Griff, Grendel has made your boat a true icon of the Broads, like a Norfolk Wherry, (or an Eddie Stobart Spotter), maybe we should have some "I have seen Broad Ambition" stickers made. Richard