On the boat there are a number of fluid levels we have to monitor. None of these have a gauge, so they have to be checked in various other ways.

• Drinking water. Also used for washing and flushing the toilet. In a big tank at the bow. When the front of the boat starts to get higher than the back it’s time to top up. That’s usually about every three days.
• Toilet holding tank. When it gets full it needs to be pumped out at a marina. With just the two of us it lasts about a week, which costs £18. Monitor by opening the toilet valve and looking in.
• Calor gas (propane). Used for fridge, cooking, and currently non working central heating. Two canisters, when one gets empty, switch to the other and refill. Lasts several weeks.
• Diesel fuel. Big tank at the back of the boat. Lasts several weeks. Test with a dipstick every few days. Probably costs a fortune to refill, but I haven’t had to do that yet. Diesel had different prices if you use it for heating or propulsion. Ours is used for both as the engine also heats our hot water, so I am not sure what we pay.
• Engine oil. Check daily with a dipstick. Had to top up once so far.
• Transmission oil. Check once a week with an incredibly fiddly and hard to reach dipstick that has to be unscrewed. Can’t really tell if the dipstick is reaching the oil or not.
• Engine cooling water. Try and check daily if an opaque plastic container has water above the marker line. Really hard to see. Compromise by pouring a little water in every day, and jiggling the container to see if it sloshes.
• Bilge water. Turn on the bilge pump at least once a day, and watch as the pump chugs out a disgusting mixture of water, oil, and pure evil for a minute or so. Given where it is placed in on the control panel, I regularly turn this on with my butt, so I don’t have to remember to do it deliberately.

In other maintenance news, today we put the laundry in a large wheelie suitcase and dragged it a mile or so to the nearest launderette, where for less than twenty quid somebody else washed, dried, and folded it for later pick up. There are even rumors of my shirts being ironed, but I’m not sure if this is true. I haven’t seen an ironed shirt in twenty years or so, so I probably wouldn’t recognize one.

While our clothes were being laundered, we visited the museum in the old “Pump Room” which was a bath house and spa back in the day. It confirmed my suspicion that the Spa business was a complete scam, based on fraudulent claims that drinking and bathing in the local slightly brackish well water was in some way healthy. The cholera outbreak in 1849 suggests otherwise. There is still a drinking fountain on Bath Street where you can sample the local (now supposedly cholera-free) water. It’s not very good, and I don’t feel much healthier.

Still, the town was left with some nice Victorian ironwork, lovely parks, and an ugly church.

We had a lovely lunch in a French bistro. I had an excellent Confit de Canard Normandie, so somewhere in Normandy there is a one legged duck. Paula had the onion soup and a chicken salad, both very tasty.

We moved the boat to the outskirts of town where there is a large supermarket on either side of the canal. Provisioning is much easier when you can bring the supermarket cart all the way to the boat.