Boaty Chores!

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing... about in boats — or with boats." ~Kenneth Graham's character Rat from The Wind in the Willows

     While many people who don't live on a boat think this life is one of endless idyllic, halcyon days, we can assure you that like all else in life, boats require maintenance, and unless you are independently wealthy or even moderately well off, life aboard a narrow boat will require you personally to engage in regular boaty chores. The engine oil needs changing every 300 hours, the batteries need looking after, the shower pump filter will clog up about every three months, requiring one to uncover it from wherever it lies buried; behind panels underneath the bathtub perhaps, like ours. I can always tell when the pump filter needs cleaning because the tub won't drain properly after a shower and begins to sound like a sick opera singer with a bass voice register and a really bad sore throat. Les takes it all apart and scrubs the filter with one of my old toothbrushes, puts it all back together and we are good to go again for another quarter of the year. 
     We use cocoa shell mulch for the dry mix in our Airhead composting toilet so it really does need to be dry, Sadly, garden centers don't understand that if a bag of plant material--which is what cocoa shell actually is---is left stacked outside in all weathers, it will inevitably get wet, and the composting process will begin in the plastic bag it comes in. You can tell your cocoa shell has been wet if, when you open the bag, you see chocolate colored shells mixed with gray, papery shells which resemble the paper in a wasp's nest. Cocoa shell should be a deep, rich brown color and smell like chocolate. If you use this product in your composting loo and your bag has gotten wet, it is imperative to dry it out so it will work properly in your loo, and so it cannot provide a haven for bugs that like damp, dark places to live. 

Drying a bag of cocoa shell mulch in the sun.

      I was emptying and cleaning our Airhead toilet last week, as it seemed entirely too wet, and was not composting properly. We also had a massive infestation of red spider mites. Now these plant bugs like wet, darkness, and moist heat--and our solids pan seemed to be their favorite place. The extreme hot weather gave them the impetus to attempt a take over of our bathroom so it was war! I tried drowning them all in boiling hot water with bleach to no avail. We thought they had arrived in a bag of wet cocoa shells some time back. Anyway, after thoroughly cleaning, disinfecting and putting the toilet back together, I realized our toilet fan had not been extracting the moisture from our toilet properly. Condensation was collecting in the hose pipe which vented the toilet via the fan through the roof to the outside. 
     I called Les to take a look and he figured something was blocking the fan, so off came the hose, and he unscrewed the fan housing from the roof to exclaim, "Look Jaq!! Spider mites! Millions of them! Sure enough they had made a happy home amongst the fan and in the housing, clogging it with friss (bug poop), and debris. So Les climbed on the roof and removed the mushroom vent--to find the inside caked with dirt and muck, as was the hole in the boat roof where the fan housing had been. 

The fan and its housing which connects to the ceiling in the bathroom. Nasty!!

     We set to work cleaning all the bits with surgical spirit and Que Tips or ear buds as they are called over here. Les cleaned out the mushroom vent, we cleaned the hole in the roof, the one in the ceiling, and Les washed out the hose in the cut. Then we put it all back together and what a difference! No more mites and no more wet, nasty toilet. Everything was clean, dry, and nice smelling once more and the loo fan was humming nicely. Job done! Onto the next thing which is....

Now that's better! Clean, dry and ready to put back together.

    ...painting the boat. After making countless passes on each side over the last four weeks, painting rust converter into all the bald, exposed metal which has begun to rust as our original thin spray-on paint job has faded and flaked, sanding it all, painting and filling all the spots and sanding again, we finally felt ready to begin painting. 

The black stuff is rust converter which is supposed to seal the exposed metal and convert any rust to an inert layer no longer eating at the boat.

Poor NB Val was pitted with rust spots and looked really tatty. These boats have many lips, edges, nooks, and crannies; you have to get into all of them to stop the rust and re-paint the boat.

After painting on rust converter and sanding, we painted on white primer and then sanded again, primed again, and sanded again...

...hunting down every spot of rust, every bit of exposed metal and every flake of loose paint. NBV looked like she had a bad case of the measles!

A good close up of before and after in one shot.

     This morning we rose early while the sun was still shining on the port side and we painted one coat on the starboard side. While we are not professionals, and we cannot achieve perfection, we felt chuffed by the outcome. This first coat was our "learning experience." We know now that we must be up at sunrise to finish painting the boat before the metal, the air, and the paint all grow too hot and too thick. We used a good, short napped roller and Les painted sections as I followed him laying it off using a brush. We thought it looked pretty good until we went to lightly sand it this afternoon. The brush left marks in the paint, so we have decided not to lay it off with a brush. That technique is for professionals--or those with better fine motor skills than the two of us! We will just roll it on evenly and let it dry. We also know now that we will be doing a minimum of three coats not two. 

"Look Jaq--I can see myself in the paint!!!

The front half of the starboard side of our boat with the first coat of new paint...

...and the rear half of the starboard side. Looking good!

Our table in the shade of an apple tree where we take our meals and wait for paint to dry!

     NB Valerie looks much prettier and fresher in a new coat of paint and updated color. Once the coach writing is done we think the boat will look quite smart indeed. Now if we can just get the Eberspacher (diesel and electric water heater) to work properly, life will be darned near perfect!!