Diesel Descisions

Reading this months Canalboat Magazine about the future of the use of red diesel on boats got me to thinking about what we should do regarding fuel tank layouts in our hull. Bearing in mind we are having a seperate generator fitted should we have this on a seperate tank? surely that would still be okay to run this on red as it is our power supply but you could argue this case for the engine (and I wonder if it does change will boatyards keep stocking it?) Or should we risk the one tank. I reckon the EU will win this one...............Dont they always. So if we go the 2 tank route then we have got to deceide how to split the tank 75/25 or what. Really not sure which way to jump perhaps I'll just contact The Iranians and go for a Nuclear fuel cell bet they won't tax that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The glow would be pretty handy in tunnels though.

Short Cruise

On Friday we took my Mum & Dads narrowboat for a short cruise to the boatyard where he has booked it in to be lifted and repainted. It was so good to be on the river as we havn't done any boating in a while. It was a pleasent cruise down and we did manage to catch a glimpse of a mink and a few herons. The only problem with this is we just get more impatient for our build slot to start. What made our short cruise really easy was that Dad drove round to the one and only lock we had to go through while we cruised down river and locked us through along with another nb and a small tupperware box. I thought I'd be kind to him so as we left the lock I threw him a quid, just thought it would help top up his pension (Sorry dad).
Anyway arriving at the boatyard they had left a gap for us to get in which was at least 6" more than the length of the boat, with a jet ski at one end and a wooden cruiser at the other and a strong crosswind it was a tense few minutes while we manouvered in to this tight spot, think we all had visions of sinking the cruiser or turning the jet ski into a pile of fibreglass splinters.
Anyway Dad you will notice how we have conviently left the bit out where we went downstream of the boatyard and turned round and was blown into the reeds and got stuck for a little while till we managed to push ourselves free of the reed bank....................... but we don't have to mention this bit do we? I am sure we will have lot of this to come on our boat but as they say you live and learn and all that, think it just convinced us that a bow thruster may be a good idea, I can hear the shouts now at the boat club "can't be a real boater if they need one of them" well I reckon we can live with that.

Fitting Out

General Style/Fitout (Please post any comments on any of the items listed if you have any experience of them)

Our goal is to have a light airy and modern looking narrowboat.

Main Colour Dark Blue
Interior Light Ash
Chrome/Stainless No Brass
15" Portholes (10 Off)
2 Roof Lights
1 Escape Hatch
Beta 43 Engine
Bow Thruster (Hydraulic if budget allows, we are not sure whether to go the whole way and power prop in this way aswell any comments welcome)
Onan 7Kw Generator
Heating Eberspacher
Washer/Drier
Fridge
Small Freezer
Toilet Pumpout with macerator (although we do intend to carry a cassette aswell, we have looked at composting toilets but they are so big but could be convinced if anybody can give us positive feedback)
Solid Fuel Stove (Anyone know of a chrome one)
Belfast Sink
Batteries 1 Start & 6 Domestic + invertor (leaving this all to our builder)

Boat will be layed out as follows:
Bow 9'
Bedroom 10'
Bathroom 7'
Saloon 12'
Office 5'
Galley 7'6"
Engine Room 6'
Stern 3'6"

Hopefully this will all add up to 60' as the Hull is ordered.

Starting Out

Well us being quite new to this blogging thing difficult to know where to start. We have decided to start this blogg earlier than we anticipated as we are calling on the help of all bloggers to help us through the build process of our liveaboard narrowboat "Peruvian Skies". We have been following many "liveaboard" bloggs over the last year to try and learn as much as possible to avoid the pitfalls of getting it wrong.
We have followed many liveaboard bloggs with envy whilst we await our build slot.
We have chosen our builder and have a slot booked for June 2007 for the start date of our build.
What we have decided on so far is that we are going to have a 60' Traditional style narrowboat (Hull to be built by Jonathon Wilson)
The layout will be (working from the bow) access into the Bedroom via metal shuttered doors, in this we intend to have an across the boat double bed. Working towards the stern we then go into the full width bathroom which leads to the saloon, then to an office area (as we will be working from the boat as we constantly cruise the network) then onto the Galley area then the Engine Room which will lead onto the traditional stern.