{"id":493,"date":"2010-07-24T23:46:24","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T22:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onaboat.co.uk\/?p=493"},"modified":"2016-07-21T10:50:20","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T09:50:20","slug":"the-water-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onaboat.co.uk\/?p=493","title":{"rendered":"the water situation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve had a long and prosperous day, which started with me waking up late after a very good sleep.\u00a0 Anyway, I set off this morning via the very special botanical gardens on my doorstep- it was very decadent. I had a cappuccino and a chelsea bun for breakfast. And I sighed with joy at this new life I’m leading.\u00a0 Last night I was tucked up with a good book by 11.15 and was privy to a boat load of revelers turning around outside my porthole.\u00a0 They were dancing away on the Thames.\u00a0 Anyway, all of this has nothing to do with anything.\u00a0 Except that I had a lovely night last night and a good morning, and then when I got home this evening there was, would you believe it, a live fireworks display courtesy of one of the boats over the river which was having some sort of low-tide celebration.\u00a0 So on the mud banks between our boat and theirs, some poor soul was tasked with setting alight the display and running (maybe swimming?) back to their boat.\u00a0 The fireworks were pretty impressive actually- not just bog standard home fireworks but quite professional.\u00a0 So, this was marvelous, and I looked out over the water wearing my new ‘dutch barge shoes’ that Pat bought me and thought, ‘oh-ay, oh-ay! ’tis a sailors life for me!’\u00a0 and that was nice.<\/p>\n

Then I came back in after the display, parched.\u00a0 So off I went to the tap, as you do, to get a drop of water.\u00a0 Well, a drop turned out to be optimistic, for there was nothing.\u00a0 Not<\/em> a drop. The pesky pump.\u00a0 But it’s late, and Pat’s away, and I miss him anyway, but when he’s not here, then I have to be the one to poke the pump and sometimes that can be a chore.\u00a0 So anyway, it all became very complicated.\u00a0 Because it’s night time and there is no light in the wheelhouse, so first things first- I needed to get a torch.\u00a0 And I know where all the torches are because I made a system of storage for them all when I unpacked. I was determined to always have torches to hand for precisely this sort of situation.\u00a0 So I find the torch- I find five torches.\u00a0 But do any of them actually work?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 So then I start looking for batteries and suddenly this is all becoming very convoluted.\u00a0 I want a glass of water, but first I must find the batteries to put in the torch to illuminate the engine room (which does have a light but I can’t find the light switch) so that I can get to the pump to poke it so that the water will come out of the taps again and fill my glass.\u00a0 Well, in the end I found the batteries and put them in and had to go down the scary engine hole, crawl through the engine bits and give the pump a good slap.\u00a0 That did the trick, so then I filled up a big bottle of water to keep me going so I don’t have to make any more visits to the scary engine hole tonight.\u00a0 It’s preferable to go in the morning.<\/p>\n

All of this is a good reminder that whilst it’s very romantic and beautiful on a boat, there will always be holes to contend with and pumps to poke.<\/p>\n