Leaderboard

We do... When you have done what we have done and not come unstuck once, then maybe you can whinge. I can say that now, for we have retired from active (narrowboat) service....there is only so much you can do in a narrowboat. This is the short hop from Royal Portbury to Bristol. You will observe that we were somewhat early up on the flood and skirting the edge of the mudbank....hardly out in the middle of the Severn Estuary. The weather was like a mill pond. I can't force crew to wear lifejackets all the time, even though they were provided. Ian has just popped up to observe the rather stupid yot starting up the Avon with hardly any water in it, if we had not radioed him to keep well behind us, then he would have come unstuck...in fact his wife did in Cumberland Basin entrance lock as they did not tie on. She slipped while attempting to hold the bow rope and gashed her leg on all the crap they had on the front of their boat. The TNC site is still there to assist others to do a bit of exploring...no doubt you missed or avoided my advice on the Severn Estuary.

Maybe not everyone wants to moor in a marina...

Does the sail save you much in diesel, and how do you drop it on low bridges?

Having just completed the four counties ring we passed through Brewood on Sunday and spotted this fella , could this be the same bird as he just sat there in the tree, I couldn`t believe it !!!!

If the rating of the electricity supply is one of the important factors in choosing a marina for you despite many (and myself) managing to live on boats in complete comfort with far less than 1.5kw then you are not showing much of this alleged intelligence if you didn't check before parting with your readies. And Loddon, who I would consider reasonably intelligent in his chosen field has given you a solution which doesn't involve anything other than your shore supply and an inverter and doesn't increase the cost per cuppa. . To call his suggested solution a 'silly comment' once again shows a lack of alleged intelligence on your part.

Well, more or less... For a number of years now work has been proceeding in order to bring perfection to the crudely conceived idea of a transmission that would not only supply inverse reactive current for use in unilateral phase detractors, but would also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. Such an instrument is the turbo encabulator. Now basically, the only new principle involved is that instead of power being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it is produced by the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive-directance. The original machine had a baseplate of prefamulated Amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spurving bearings were in a direct line with the panametric fan. The latter consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzel vanes so-fitted to the ambifacient lunar wane shaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal lotus-o-delta type placed in panendermic semi-boloid slots of the stator; every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible trem'e pipe to the differential girdlespring on the up-end of the grammes. The Turbo Encabulator has now reached a high level of development, and is being successfully used in the operation of nofer trunnions. Moreover, whenever a farescent skor motion is required, it may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle arm to reduce soinasodial repleneration. Well, yes, that's true. But when used with nofer trunnions the results have been far better.

Sorry for the delay. Have been a bit busy! tuesday. bank holiday is gone , so has the good weather,i cant sit about waiting for the rain to stop, after two two locks i behold a wonderous site , the m25 was totally gridlocked , and i was not not on it, but i sailed under it at four miles per hour , was i chuffed , sad or what. next i see two chinese guys , fishing , the chinese dont do fishing , but i sussed what they were doing , crayfish , loads in the canals , so number forty seven , lobster surprise , is likely to be canal crayfish . i then start to wander a bit as i chug along , why dont they teach kids how to smile and react to people , so many long faces in the south , but its not just the kids. by twelve my bag of crisps from the night before have worn off, my head is spinning and i am also wet through, i am now getting sombre and pi**ed off . at apsley bridge i pull in to a posh pizza restaurant , not my scene , but they do a great breakfast , two hours later i am drenched again , so i go into sainsburys, a large baguette and two dough nuts are consumed , i am now eating " mood food " if there is such a thing . my carol used to say to me that boring people talk about foood , i do boring , sorry love. it brightened a bit so off again , i met darren girl along the way , he flagged me down so that he could donate and have a chat, thanks darren. no one seems to know the exact most easterly point so i am calling it the river little ouse near brandon, sorted , i actually looked at a map . on dark days my moods kick in ,its not a place i like to be but it happens , not having carol around to knock me into place does not help. apart from all my delays i am now in birk hampstead ,nice place . tip for the day , dont have the lobster. see ya . ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________- leaving berkhampstead wednesday morning, in the rain was bad enough but two locks later , a canal persons worst fear , no water , overnight something went wrong , my boat has only an eighteen inch draught so i was the only one moving that morning , i felt a bit smug. at the next lock i met paul , his girl friend barbara is fighting cancer as we speak , good luck to her , it hurts a lot to hear of these situations but it seems to help people when i share their problems . no breakfast again , so i stop in the worse pub in england for dinner,soaking wet again , get me out of here. one hour later the heavens open , i end up in the second worse pub in england , i hate this poxy rain, sh*t pubs, and the world . but then i met scott , his two kids , ewan and isla, she had a party piece , she sat in puddles , while ewan opend the gates , well he thought he did, they had me in tears of laughter , thanks kids . thanks to the lady who threw her donation money out of her window, also steve and his mate who clearly never had a pot to piss in , they gave a fiver , bless em. water proof boots tomorrow, pub tonight. tip for the day when pushing open the lock gates in the rain , put your hands behind your back , or you get a wet arse . thusday. you know when you wake up and think, "its gonna be a good day " as i though that , it pissed with rain ,this is now soul destroying , and i mean that . at a lock a guy left the gates open on his exit , you dont do that , so i got the hump , because muggins had to close them, i caught up with him later and as i passed i said " thanks for not closing the gates ", he yelled a reply but the honda drowned it out , plus i stuck a finger up . boots , if i dont get some i will end up with trench foot ,i walk all around leighton buzzard to no avail , but i got a tap on the shoulder , it was the man at the lock , he was trying to say that the canal people asked him to leave the gates open, oops , me and my mouth. i leave buzzard , more drizzle , more soul destroyed . i am doing this report in a pub in wolverton , its karioki night and barry white just got murdered. tip for the day ,when in doubt , shut your mouth. thanks , alex and chris , steve and the nice lady who thew her money out of the window . and jim the lockie . could it really rain tomorrow . night all . ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ friday sat. wolverton was easily forgotten , a sad place. carols best friend debbie and her daughter are going to meet me at stoke bruerne ,someone to talk to that i know , plus i con debbie to get me some petrol, carols oldest and best friend , and mine as well. before i forget i saw a vulcan bomber , well it interested me . as i set of i am freezing my nuts off , by the time i get to stoke bruerne i am down to my tee shirt , my trainers are on the roof of my boat , and looking good , they may get dry yet. i make excuses not to tackle the two mile long tunnel until tomorrow , three pints will not help my navigation at all. up to this point it was a nice kind of day , just nice, then they turned up , twenty piss heads on the loose with a large narrow boat ,all dressed as sailors , bar one , he was bo-peep, they announced their arrival by hitting the boat next to mine side ways on at speed , then they hit the lock gates , also at speed , the owner of the pub had to show them how to operate the lock , while i restrained the owner of the boat they hit , he wanted to take them on , dont blame him , his boat was just recently refitted . a few hours later i am in a nice indian restaraunt , i am treating myself, who walks in , twenty really well oiled sailors , they caused havoc , plus the owner of the boat they hit was outside looking at the menu , at this point i left , i hope he never went in. no two days are ever the same on these waterways . thanks lorna york for your information and donation. sat. stoke bruerne was one of the nicest setting yet , people just wandering about watching the boats etc. what woke me up this morning , the loudest fart that you could imagine , from the boat next door , the guy whos boat got whacked , i wanted to roll up , he did not know i was right next to him in my wind up bed , within a mile of this guff i see a cabin cruiser called " passing wind " , i am not making this up i promise. what happened next was special , now that i can look back on it , i am just about to enter the blissworth tunnel , two miles long and i am told it has a plumbing problem , big time so out comes the brolly ,and my nine ninety nine wilkos torch , bring it on , right hand for steering , left hand for holding the brolly and the torch , no hands left for the throttle so i set it before i enter the dark hole , to say i set the throttle too high was an understatement , my boat flew off , you try shitting yourself for two miles , if anything enters the other end i will have to ditch the brolly , it seemed to be an age before i come out at the other end, harrowing that was , but great at the same time , odd. what else can this lovely day come up with , how about seventeen locks , all in a row,tip for the day lock number eleven squirts water from both sides of the canal , get your missus to do this one . after these locks you are then on the river nene , except for northhampton is is possibly the nicest place yet , first lock a very nice lock indeed , but it requires a special key , have i got one , have i f**k, abandon mission go home bo**ocks, f**k it , i gather my thoughts , at this lock i ask norman the owner of the northampton boat club for his help , he conjured up a key from somewhere, cheers norman. these waterway people will help you even if it puts them out of their way , thanks to all of them. i now feel like the luckiest man on earth , only one thing missing , her in doors , bless her , she would love this place. getting dark now , i ask a fellow boater and his wife , where i can find a pub , he suggests the crows nest ,cogehoe mill leisure park, thats where he is off to , i sort out the boat and spend a great night with them and mike and tina , and others what a bunch , plus i am allowed the use of the "SHOWERS" , johns getting a shower , alert the media , i could have stayed in there all day . enough i am off , i am knackered , night.

If you are planning a lot of work , like gas installation, changing back cabin function to fit washing machine etc etc, I would be tempted to keep looking for a boat that is closer to your spec. If the boat is calling you I would buy it and use it for a min of 6 months to see what you really need then make the changes.

First post, and straight into the mellee. Not providing any detail, just badmouthing somebody who tries to manouvre a horse drawn boat. Try bow hauling your boat past a line of moored boats... Either provide some detail, or context, or grow a thicker skin. To add some balance, I was tying my boat along a customer a few weeks back, in quite a challenging wind. Halfway through the job, a hireboat approaches, but managed to slowly manouvre past. Moments later, a small corpulant chap on the towpath shouts up to me (I'm on the customer's roof, pulling my boat in) : 'I have no experience'.. I ignore him, concentrating on the task in hand. He shouts at me again, 'I have no experience..' I ask him what that has to do with me. He shouts 'how am I going to get past you?' This is all you need when you have a trying day.... Pointing out that another hire boat just went past. He then whinched that 'he was told not to go close to the bank, otherwise he would get stuck' At this moment I lost my patience, and nearly my cool... What I wanted to reply was: 'If you have no experience, why the f*** are you out in this weather, or indeed out here in the first place?' Instead, mindfull of the customer's boat that I was on top of, I told him that I was busy, and had no time to assist him. Fairly politely. There are moments, when people just say the wrong thing, at the wrong time. Shrug, and move on..

If you go back and read my post and the few before it you will in fact see that it was a question relation to somebody else's comment, not my "distasteful opinion". I'd love to know if you come across as such an a**ehole in real life. I hope it's just some weird Internet persona you like to portray on here.

You're getting old, Blackrose. Stop tut-tutting and enjoy what life you've got left!

I don't think they would. I was poking fun at someones opinion in the (now locked) Camo Boat thread.

That she only has to change the oil filter once every 4 years!

Couldn't it be both? I think we're all making value judgements - nobody can make purely objective observations. Personally I think tug decks are a waste of space, serve no useful purpose and aren't even aesthethically pleasing - not to me anyway. The fact that tug deck owners say that they like this design with its reduced internal space (for the length of boat), but then feel the need to maximise the space by creating a bed under the deck in which they have to crawl to go to sleep, does seem slightly ridiculous to me, but that's just my value judgement/observation. I'm sure some think my widebeam is just as silly - each to their own.