Friday 8 January 2010

Smug git. That's me.

The ice around the boat used to crack and  groan when we moved about the boat but hasn't done so now for about a week. We are well and truly fastened to the frozen canal. There used to be a unfrozen gap around the hull and the width of the gap depended on the air/water temperature. There hasn't been a gap for several days. We will be here for the foreseeable future like everybody else. At least a week. We have access to our car so water, Elsan, fuel, groceries and going to the pub are not a problem.


Very pleasant
I do a water run every day and the tank is just under full all the time. We have a months fuel and coal and the boat is perpetually warm, hot even. It's tee shirts inside at all times and the temperature would have to sink to minus thirty before we may have to think about jumpers. We don't want to sound smug but that's how we feel. Hell, it's only the coldest winter since 1963. It'll have to do a lot better than that if it wants to catch us out. By the way, 1963 was the death knell of the last of the working boats as they were frozen in for three months and the goods normally carried by them were transferred to the roads and never came back.





Note the water containers up front
We have all become constant moorers whether we wish to obay the rules or not. Not even bridge hoppers any more but fully fledged scum. This should sort the men from the boys, sheep from the goats and the wheat from the chafe. All those with the high tech facilities on-board had better hope that they keep working. Low tech will always work, high tech may not. Good luck.

We are so pleased not to be tied to the electricity grid, gas pipeline and water mains. Generating our own, or at least, responsible for emptieng and collecting our basic services. This is most certainly the life for us.

4 comments:

life afloat on nb tickety boo said...

May all us smug gits unite! I too feel smug, but not just now in the cold weather when I am toasty on board! I always have a feeling of smugness just because I love my life afloat!

Debbie.

Carl said...

Aah! What a life. I thought life aboard in the summer would be great, but it seems now I need to add another season.

On land, my wood is running critically low, coal is almost non-existant and in 2 months time there will be a giant gas bill landing on my carpet with a thump.

I mean, where's the fun in that?

Pete said...

Smuggees unite.

Strangely there will also be a large bill landing on the outlaws mat for our licence next month. Death and taxes.

Les Biggs said...

Maybe the the new name for narrowboaters will be `smuggits`.
I`ll add my name to the members list.
LES
23c mostly by scavenged wood.