Well now we are on our home mooring we've had time to sort a few things out. We filled up with diesel to check out what we had used and by a process of deduction how big Tywyn's diesel tank is. You may recall that our sophisticated fuel management system comprises of a bamboo cane which has notches cut into it at the start of each day. When full there is 25" of fuel in the tank. When we filled up at the end of our journey we had 8" left, or in other words we had used 17" on our journey. That 17" came to 152 litres, so . . . 1" of tank depth = 9 litres = 2 gallons. Thus by the power of deduction we know that Tywyn holds 50 gallons of diesel and our journey back of 163 miles and 80 locks consumed 34 gallons. As sitting in a lock uses very little fuel I'm inclined to ignore them and accept that we get about 4 3/4 miles per gallon.

We have now removed the double sofa bed that was in the front cabin and replaced it temporarily with a full sized single and started to draw up plans for constructing a dinette double resplendent with a freezer under part, storage for a few folding chairs under another bit and general storage for bedding, small ducks etc in the rest. Some serious measuring reveals that my existing desk will fit in the lounge area too, so long as I hack, sorry . . sensitively and professionally trim the last 1ft off of one end.

More serious measuring reveals that we have plenty of space to get a washing machine on board. It also reveals that we probably can't fit one through the door, so now it's time to research washing machines and see if we can find a slimline model. Other than that of course we could always take a window out and post it through that.

And so on to power. Our marina does have shoreline, but alas not to our mooring. We plan to use a BIG (like 7.5kVa) gen set for our bulk power needs and a largish inverter for the PC, X-box, hoover etc. This way we can be silent on the inverter in the evenings and run the generator during the day, which in turn will run our battery management / charging system. We wobbled between a silenced diesel set or a four stroke petrol. Eventually it came down to the petrol set due to a) its much smaller size and b) the petrol being quieter even before we cocoon it. Suppliers for both gen set and inverter were found, both were ordered and both suppliers let us down. Two new suppliers have been found. Time will tell.

In the mean time the plan is to replace all of the double sockets on the boat with two singles side by side, one off of the generator, the other off of the inverter. As most of our appliances will run on one or other of the supplies we will just plug into the relevant 'half' of the socket but still have the flexibility to swap power supply over merely by moving the plug from one socket to the other. Finally (we hope) to make sure that the computers don't get upset by less than perfect sine waves and fluctuations as loads are switched on and off we now have a UPS.  As well as smoothing and stabilising voltage / frequency the UPS also allows around 5 minutes of battery back up so I can 'hot swap'.

And so on to internet connections. I need for business purposes a good connection and have no land based phone line at all, apart from which we fully intend to go extended cruising when we feel like it and I need to stay in touch with my customers. Satellite broadband here we come, suppliers found, options being compared. Watch this space.

We moved in at the end of November. What didn't fit in the boat has been stored in our caravan. As you may have already guessed we spend the next few weeks moving things from one to the other.

The generator is a hit, settled for an electric start, petrol driven 5kW in the end and very nice it is too but we now have mains hook up available. Now we run the mains hook up, reserving the gen set for when we are out long term cruising and get the washing machine on board. Ah yes, the washing machine. Much research on the internet shows slimline models are available. As ever much measuring takes place to make sure what we can fit through the door and we buy one through E-Bay with days to spare. All we have to do now is fit it.

When not connected to shoreline our power comes from a 2kW inverter, purposely chosen to be big enough to run anything else on board bar the fabled washing machine. Installed it, went to connect the 12v supply to it and met with a Hoooooge spark and flash. I scored 9 on the chicken-o-meter and decide to uninstall it. Spend the next few days trying to understand why the big flash and finally seek the help of the UK Waterways Rec group and a friend who is an electrician at a foundry. Both tell me to expect this big flash as the capacitors in the inverter look like a dead short to the batteries when they are first connected. Both tell me to get a serious fuse in line, now have a 250 Amp in a very substantial holder. All wired in, works great. Runs the two PC's without flinching, runs the kettle (750w camping version) no problem.

And so onto the internet. The day we move I get a letter from a grant authority saying they will pay £700 towards the installation of a satellite broadband set up. Shame that the letter arrived a week after I've already decided to buy a 3G data card for the laptop. The satellite idea was a good one, let down by the fact that I'd have to mount the dish on something solid every time I wanted to use it and re-align it every time we moved. So the 3G card wins, not quite as fast, but works everywhere I can get an Orange phone signal. If the 3G signal isn't available in an area it reverts to a slower connection, but it's reliable, only £120 to set up (satellite over £1,000) and a little over £50 a month for up to 400 meg (satellite a little over £60).

On the subject of laptops . . .  for some reason the inverter refuses to power the laptops' battery charger. As soon as you switch it on the inverter trips out. Does say in the inverters book of destructions that it may not like some battery chargers for portable devices but I can't think why this should be. Hey ho, shore line it is for that then.

Ran out of fresh water a few nights back. It was then we discovered that our water pipe was not long enough to reach the stand pipe at the marina. Borrowed a pipe from a near neighbour and discovered that wasn't long enough either. Jason and I manage to creatively concoct (my ex would say 'bodged') a joint and fill the water tank. Decide to buy a hose on a reel from a local DIY superstore, 50m reel, all attachments supplied . .  lovely. Go to use it a few nights later and find out that it is indeed a 50m reel,  shame it only comes with 25m of sodding hose. Jason and I concoct (some would say bodged) the two together again. 

Now at last, the subject you've all been waiting for . . . the toilet, as you may recall, known lovingly to us all as 'Oliver'. Went into Olivers' kingdom a week or so back before bed and found he hadn't been 'eating well' and had left a full bowl for me to look at. Tried the flush button and he dutifully topped up the flushing water (got worryingly close to the top) but no pump, just a pitiful click. All use the toilet at the marina overnight and next day whilst I try and wrestle with what might be causing his indigestion Sally tries warm soapy water and gentle massage to his poor little rubber pipes. Numerous 'helpful' suggestions are forthcoming from other residents of the marina but in the end a probe with the test meter proves he's getting power but the motor isn't turning. He's got to come out. I do this whilst everyone else is out. Takes me over an hour to remove him, take him up to the back deck and disassemble, watched it later transpires by numerous eyes too nervous to approach. Pump removed and back into the light to find what I shall call 'bits of string' wrapped around his poor little impeller. Remove these, put him back together, re-install, do a 'dry run' having removed the feed to the water solenoid and we have a happily gurgle from Oliver. Connect the solenoid, press the flush button, water issues forth into the bowl and promptly leaks all over the floor. Steev NOT HAPPY ! Take Oliver out (can do this in less than 10 minutes now I know what's where) and find I forgot to tighten one of the jubilee clips on the various rubber hoses up, very annoyed with myself for not checking, tighten clip, check everything at least twice then re-install. Happiness is your own working toilet.

As for the holding tank it must be a) about to explode or b) $%$£ing huge. Last emptied around 2 weeks ago (in an attempt to cure Olivers' indigestion) and still going strong. Not bad when you consider there are 5 of us on board.