What is a liveaboard?

GUELROSE is still moored at Hopwas and the engine is still not going, however, Diesel Dave, late of Streethay, is on the case and is coming to fix my problems soon . Apparently the problem I am experiencing with my starter motor not disengaging from the flywheel is not that uncommon, so hopefully I will at least be mobile enough to go and get a pumpout soon!

I am not that worried as Jenny and I are off to Les Menuires in the French Alps for a weeks holiday in a ski resort. I am not going for the skiing, I am more interested in the apres ski and being on the piste!!

Now to the main theme of my blog...... Liveaboards......

To my mind there seems to be various categories of liveaboards and continuous cruisers. Obviously the main liveaboards are those that have a residential mooring and go off cruising when they can. Brandywine and Thistle are just two examples. Then there are the genuine continuous cruisers such as No Problem, Gypsy Rover and Sanity. Granny Buttons obviously fits into one of these categories somewhere along the line!!! The one thing that stands out about the boats I have mentioned is there standard of maintenance. They all seem to be loved and are all maintained to a very good standard (yes - I know Granny is badly in need of a paint job but I am sure that Andrew will sort that out very soon!!) Then there are the other boats like the one's that have been moored in the same location for the last three months....... These people obviously have no love of the canals and see a boat as a cheap and convenient place to live, their maintenance standards are far lower and the roof of many of them looks more akin to a scrapyard than a narrowboat....

Yes, I admit I am jealous, I would love to be a continuous cruiser but circumstances prevent that from happening at the moment. But one day it will happen....

But, what really p****s me off is that the residential boaters pay their dues, the true continuous cruisers continuously cruise, the likes of me pay their licence and mooring fees, but the ones that moor for three months in the same place and have no love of the canals and treat a boat as an alternative to a house, pay nothing..... Why do I bother to pay my fair share when they don't!!

Happy New Year

I know it is a bit late but I would like to wish you all a very happy new year.

GUELROSE is still laid up at Hopwas - I have a starter motor problem that I need to solve - i.e. the starter motor does not work hence the engine will not start and therefore I cannot move even if I wanted to! I might have to resort to posting a question on the Canalboat website, www. canalboat.co.uk - it has to be cheaper than calling out an engineer to solve the problem - I cannot take it to a boatyard to solve the problem as with no starter motor the engine does not start and therefore I cannot move.

The car still works though, so I made a trip to Wheaton Aston to buy some red diesel for the diesel stove. The mathematics worked out at a 56 mile round trip costing about £6 in petrol to buy diesel at 51.9 pence per litre. I bought 148 litres of the stuff, even if I could get that amount locally in cans it would cost at least 62 pence per litre, I will leave you to work out the sums but at the end of the day I saved a few quid and had a nice trip out in the car!

Now, back to that problem with the starter motor........