DandV

B French. That didn't take long for cross channel stereotypes to surface. The Anchor brand, along with all the other global consumer brands of the NZ giant dairy company Fonterra, were sold to the French Company Lactalis late last year. So we can blame the French for such a poor taste depiction of incompetent white middleclass white English Narrowboaters. Can't see how it will sell more butter either.

Whoops way back in 2009. Val's first narrowboating experience on a Foxhangers narrowboat. Her second was two weeks later on a former work colleagues narrowboat. Collectively the two trips set Val's heart on narrowboating on retirement. Something we accomplished 4 years later when we took over the former work colleagues boat when a health issue ended their narrowboating.

In 2012 we paid a modest amount to moor there. It was either to the council, or to the Bath Football Club, and included access to the Football Club's showers. And was limited to 48? hours. I think the arrangement came to an end shortly after, and no mooring signs appeared instead, as somebody questioned the legality of the charging regime. Evidently prohibiting mooring was legally easier. A shame, as they were great visitor moorings and were retained as such. When we were there on our hireboat, we made the local radio news as the item just following the announcement of Michael Jackson's death. A group of local fishermen tackled a gent making off with property he had stolen after breaking into our boat. I wonder if the same recidifist offender was not the same gent, who made a living of burgling boats in the same area later at about the time he was due for release.

Right now with climate warming becoming a current brutal reality, can the electric pundits now rework their calculations to include the required electrical loads to keep the boat habitable in the current, and ever more likely normal summers, with the required air conditioning. Especially black boats with large glazed panels in the roof, "the floating air fryer"

Big portholes apparently appeal to Tasmanians

The fundemental problems in publishing minimum air drafts/ available craft clearance above water are: Water levels are dynamic, both in tidal waters, and in all water drainage pathways. If a datum is provided, is there a ready method of ascertaining the current variation from that datum? Both over water structures and water craft beneath, have unique complicated, and thus very rarely compatible profiles. Good luck in combining all of this into something that could be useful.

We took our lead from the two experienced CART staff lockies on their supervised, and operated Tilsley flight into Sheffield. We were paired up with another 58ft narrowboat. In broad Yorkshire accent "Do either of you have bow thrusters?" " Both of you?" " Great" . "Then we will only open one gate, and the other can shuffle across" And as latter aside "The bow thruster on my boat is missus up the front with t'pole" "Two speeds, "Push, and PUSH HARDER"

And that is a yes from me too.