Yeah, feel a bit daft for not making updates or creating new thread but I've not been on here overly much-
To be blunt, it'd be difficult to make life better atm.
I have the joy of two extremes of lifestyle, zooming round London during the day, chilling out in the relaxed atmosphere of an evening/ weekend.
The community is comparable to the friendliness of the biking community but even more so believe it or not!
Still working out my living costs but it's a shitload cheaper than bricks and mortar - that being said winter will obviously become more expensive with the need for coal and running engine to charge batteries more due to less sunlight ( I had a 600 watt solar panel system fitted!)
I've had issues- I found a couple of inches of water in the front bow locker after a few weeks of having it, I believe this came from storing the hose I fill the water tank with in, I dried it out, repainted it and no longer store the hose in there and haven't had a problem since!
At the weekend I found a couple of inches of water in the engine bilge, I'm in the process of drying the area out, I think it's come from a loose bolt on the stern gland (lubricated seal that the driveshaft runs through to the propeller) I've tightened it up and shall keep an eye out for more water.
Finding stuff like that is quite concerning but I believe I'm on top of it.
I was going to get winter moorings which is a license to stay in one location if wanted for 5, 3, or one monthfrom Nov. to March at just under £100 per month, I'm now thinking for the first year I'll save my money and keep moving to see how it goes.
I'm looking for a new TV, my 4 year old 42" is just to power hungry -100 watts with power saving options turned on, a decent new 32" will run around 30 watts (for a naff one) to 40 watts for a new Sony with very good reviews.
I'd like a more energy efficient fridge/freezer but there's little choice with what I have already - 12v fridges are available but stupid money in comparison to domestic!
Continuing with power saving I should change the light bulbs to led ones, but as I have to buy adapters for the current fittings I'm looking at a good £75 to do that.
My driving's getting better, that being said last weekend I tried to turn the boat around twice in different locations that were too small, so had to straighten up and try further down, lol.
Lit the fire for the first time on one of the chilly nights the other week and completely smoked the boat out, had to go to the pub!
Second time I did the fire I'd learnt from my previous mistakes and the Internet and all went well.
My dad's got me a chainsaw and I'm currently stocking up on logs and other bits of wood lying about the place.
Got several plans to make the place more mine, starting with replacing the bleurgh beige tiles around the log burner and kitchen with slate tiles.
All in all, as far as I'm concerned I wouldn't be interested in living on land again, imagine the freedom you have on a bike then having that freedom with your home too!