haggis

The sunken boat has been there for a while and it just seems a bit thoughtless to close the lock to remove it when the other lock was on a long term closure. It would have been more " boater friendly " to remove it before or after closing the lock along side.

yes, you could although I leave tying up to himself if bending down in mud is involved 🙂 . It is a very useful item . Available from most garden centres.

I find a garden kneeling pad makes a very good seat either for sitting on the roof to steer or sitting out the front . It is light and is easy to store out of the way when not needed. Mine is like this one although self coloured 🙂 https://www.charlies.co.uk/smart-garden-ultra-gardening-kneeler-cherries/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19749435116&gbraid=0AAAAADMDH8Tjc5o-Yl9abib0nKok7j8O4&gclid=CjwKCAjwuO_QBhAWEiwAIkVhUxWM-qYGlSnC4uPjkIQNWFkScb4LC8RcNY_D-e5nbYnY_zg-s6sVvBoCS1YQAvD_BwE When we bought kelpie she had a thick pad with a wooden base for fitting on the roof (trad stern) to steer but I have never used it as it is quite big and heavy to manhandle -

we just fill up too but I think we have learned our lesson about how near the top to fill up 🙂

When we got kelpie, you would often get trapped knuckles between the tiller and the cabin roof. It now has a hinge on the tiler with it permanently angled slightly up. I often steer with the tiller under my armpit which saves shoulder muscles 🙂

Sits back and waits for comments on the term "proper boats " 🙂

Thank you. That is interesting and hopefully our neighbours use of washing up liquid ( I assume that is what they used ) worked..

Unfortunately we weren't there to do anything about mopping up the spill although my neighbours did what they could. I used to think that washing up liquid somehow got rid of spilled diesel but I am not sure that it actually does. I believe it just disguises the evidence but the diesel is still there. Not sure where I heard that though so it may not be true.

I know, nor our neighbours 😞 he is fairly new on the coal boat but I think he has learned from what happened 🙂

i know diesel expands in the heat but hadn't anticipated the problem we have just had! We left kelpie in the marina and arranged for the fuel boat to fill the diesel tank the next time he was passing. He did it several days ago. Got a prone call from our neighbour in the marina yesterday telling us that diesel was leaking past the filler cap and into the marina. Investigation showed that the level was nearly at the top of the filler pipe . Our neighbour couldn't find anyone with a syphon tool ( and I wasn't going to ask a helpful neighbour to use a bit of tube and suck the diesel out!) so we had to leave things as they were - the leaking had stopped as it cooled down. Fortunately the diesel boat was coming into the marina this morning and he is sorting things out for us. A point for others - don't fill your tank to the brim in warm weather unless you are going to use some diesel right away. Thank goodness for good marina neighbours!

That's my memory too 🙂

That looks serious. I haven't seen a stoppage notice for it

I must admit for a moment there, I wondered how you were going to test if there was still a leak 🙂

Different from Scotland then. We don't need a voting paper or ID to vote. Just turn up and if your name is on the list, you vote. We just handed in our postal votes as we thought that would be more reliable than the current postal service 🙂 I think voting at GB elections is stricter but for local elections or the Scottish Parliament it seems very lax.

They had obviously just left the tropical heat of Scotland for the chilly south 😄 we came home today and I felt it a bit colder here ! They probably hadn't taken enough whisky with them