CHERTSEY

BOATS, BRIDGES, BOILERS ... IF IT'S GOT RIVETS, I'M RIVETTED
... feminist, atheist, autistic academic and historic narrowboater ...
Likes snooker, beer, tea, rivets and solitude, and is strangely fascinated by the cinema organ.
And there might be something about railways.
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Wednesday 28 December 2011

A visitor

Today we had our first visitor on Bakewell - the boat's previous owner, who came all this way to give us the paperwork and a spare Paloma to replace the leaky part. It's always weird going back to a boat you used to own, once someone else has taken it over, but I hope Ed felt that Bakewell was being well cared for. We were actually late for our appointment with him, as we spent too long in Midland Chandlers selecting a reading light and a new switch for the shower pump.

This afternoon we finally made the decision to throw out the very venerable gas fridge and replace it with a 240v one. I have nothing against gas fridges in principle but this particular one was very old and not in good condition. A new, decent, gas one would be rather expensive, and they do (I am told by Carl the caravanner) get through gas at a fair rate. Previously we have had 12v fridges, on Andante and on Warrior, and have been very happy with them; Andante's was bought second hand and Warrior's came with the boat. For Bakewell, the far greater cost of a 12v fridge just doesn't make sense; in the absence of an engine, the battery can only be charged through a 240v shoreline anyway, so our ability to use a 12v fridge when away from shore power would be so limited as not to be worth the extra cost; we might as well make use of the shore power directly when it's available, and do without (which we know from experience on Chertsey we can) when it isn't. So we have been down to Comet in Cannock and ordered a nice Lec fridge with a four star freezer compartment, for keeping Jim's wonderful hand made bread in, and we shall be collecting it on Monday.

Willow, by the way, has been going out and successfully coming back for a few days now, albeit only when we're around and only while it's light. The fresh air and exercise seems to have improved his appetite; inconveniently his taste for the outdoor life leads him to spend much of the night pacing about, waking Jim up, and pulling all the curtains and blinds about. Yesterday he encountered Charlie the whippet for the first time. Luckily his instinct wasn't to run, but he retreated to the gunnell (so he's already sussed what is his territory), stood his ground and hissed. Later he did make a run for it and scaled a weeping willow at warp speed, but he got himself down again without a problem, so that's another escape option open to him if need be.



4 comments:

  1. Sarah,

    What make is the gas fridge..... I am looking for a spare igniter for my fridge?

    Nev

    ReplyDelete
  2. This will not help you now if replacement is ordered, but might be of interest to others......

    If the fridge was "gas only" then running it permanently on your mooring would have incurred quite a bit of cost in Calor, though it is not as crippling as some suggest.

    However, if it were 3-way (LPG/12V/240V), then whilst it is bonkers to try and run one on electric, (either 12V or 240V), when boating, I don't think the costs of running on 240V from a shoreline are that prohibitive, (and will certainly undercut gas, unless your electric is being supplied at a huge mark-up).

    But if you just want it "for when tied up", and you have the space and the 240 volts, I doubt you will regret what you have done.

    Alan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Nev. It is called 'Sibir'. I have never seen one like it before; it is full size and looks very old. It will be here on the scrap pile for a while if you are interested. I never tried lighting it but apparently it was in good working order. Alan - it really did need replacing, the interior lining was all cracked, and we couldn't justify the expense of an equivalent new gas one, which we would only really make use of when away from the mooring. I'm not even sure if it was 3-way, certainly no 240 lead on it.. as I said to Nev, it was unlike any other I've ever seen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sarah,

    Thanks for the detail, ours is an Electrolux three way so I think I'll try the Internet for spares. We were considering electric, it would have to be 12v as we have no shore power. The performance of the solar panel is not as good as we had thought so for now I think I'll stick with the gas fridge, it is very efficient when working ( efficient in temp terms not sure n the gas )

    Thanks again,

    Nev

    ReplyDelete