Monday 15 June 2020

Power To The People

I was laying down a few letter in a semblance of order i.e. writing and mu was painting the interior of Silverdale (yes, still painting. It’s a long narrowboat you know). Suddenly, without warning. Powercut!

Immediate panic ensued. Was it the landline power cable? Had it become wet or had it become disconnected? Was it the Battery Management System? Had it come to its last legs and died because we were over using it? Was it the fuses? Had we blown some? We have had previous experience of nothing working.

It was none of the above. After a walk to the Marina office, it turned out that the power cut was site-wide, even extending to the carpet warehouse just beyond. Phew! The boat was still fine. No surfing the internet to find YouTube videos of how to fix something I had absolutely no idea about.

After a little while, the power came back on and all was well. Power was restored to the people – of Whilton Marina.

The Ducks are Demanding

There are lots of ducks on the marina (they don’t have their own narrowboats, they don’t need them). There are some ducklings that ‘cheep’ and scurry about on land and in the water, following their mother. Adorable to watch. There are also teenage ducks, they strut around a lot more purposefully. The adult ducks are the most demanding. They come around at regular times and ‘quack’, making their presence known and demanding food.

We drink a lot of tea. We’re using leaves for a better class of drink. However, there is a lot of byproduct waste. On a narrowboat you are always conscious about where waste is going to go. As tea is considered grey water, it can be disposed of via the canal. This is great for us. We can cut out the middle men of the sink and the Whale Gulper and pour the spent leaves straight in. The ducks are getting even more demanding though – they’re requesting Darjeeling!

rp – peace and narrowboats