Sunday 27 December 2009

Drought Conditions Aboard

We are carefully husbanding our water supply aboard the ship Caxton, seven days so far which is one day more than we have managed before.  We have been iced in and though the canal has now thawed we are awaiting the return of the Matilda Rose crew tonight before moving off in search of fresh water supplies.  Caxton as a 160gallon water tank but the gauge is as much good as a chocolate teapot and we can't dip the tank - Ministry of Guesswork rules apply here.    To preserve supplies we have been alternating a shower one day with a 'strip wash' the next and it is amazing just how little water you need to strip wash effectively.  As a kid it was the norm to strip wash each day, bathing was weekly treat; difficult to believe that now isn't it?.  My two younger brothers used to fool my Mother into thinking they had had a wash by liberally shaking talc into the basin and creating a scum - needless to say the flannel had not got beyond their grubby face and hands!
But back to the present day - Our shower on Caxton wastes 3 litres of water before it starts to flow hot/warm so we have been capturing that in a saucepan and using it for cooking and dog water bowls. The dishwasher is only in use every other day and despite opinions to the contrary it is very frugal in its water consumption using a lot less than conventional washing up.  However, the washing machine is a another matter altogether and its use is big NO, NO.  So the laundry is a bit backed-up and I can see a serious Widow Twankey session happening when we get a fresh supply of the wet stuff...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh thank heavens,it's only a water shortage, I thought for a moment that you'd run out of beer :-)

Being iced in is only fun for the first day - after that it's just a big nuisance - hope it defrosts soon.

Hope you all had a good Christmas - please pass on our good wishes to Matilda Rose.

Happy New Year!

Sue, Indigo Dream

Anonymous said...

Got the same problems with our indoor swimming pool its a hard life on a boat of course bombing is no longer allowed

Nb Yarwood said...

Thanks Sue
We have woken this morning to a very hard frost and more ice on the canal - I think we will be playing ice-breakers today though. MR are back and we go in search of water.
No beer aboard Caxton only in the nearest inn but plenty of vino and gin just in case!
Lesley

Nb Yarwood said...

Hi Anon
I would check your draught excluders if the INDOOR swimming pool has frozen over!

Lesley

Anonymous said...

Good luck with the ice-breaking - wear ear-muffs - the noise as the ice cracks is deafening!

We found that having someone standing on the front breaking the ice ahead with the barge pole helped (honest!).

Sue, Indigo Dream

Nb Yarwood said...

Hi Sue
We had to fight our way through some serious ice last year, taking MR through with Graham on the helm and Joe and I on the bow with boat poles to push the ice aside once 22tons of narrowboat had cracked it for us!
Lesley