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A very difficult situation to find yourself in and I feel for you. You love your boat and have many happy memories of time spent on board. Bite the bullet and sell it now while she is in good condition and not suffering from lack of use/maintenance. That way you will protect those memories of happy times. Keep it another year and the paintwork will be deteriating, there will be dust and possible the start of mould growth inside, the spiders will have taken over and those little jobs you do each time you spend time on board will have run away into a long list of things you need to do before you can start to enjoy using the boat. You do not want this to sulley your happy memories. Hire it out and someone else will fail to do all those little jobs so they still mount up, they will spill red wine on the furnishings, they will cut their vegetables on the worktop instead of using a chopping board, they won't bother to clean the oven and your bird identification guide will go missing. In addition to this it will have cost you a fortune to get the boat ready to legally rent it out. You do not want those memories Life moves on and sometimes it moves in a direction we would prefer it not to. Sometimes we have to say goodbye to things we love. It is hard but we treasure the happy memories and given time the grief subsides. I wish you well

I am sorry but you were, and are, coming across as inexperienced and worse still, arrogant. The help you were offered early in the post was given in good part by people who have done this before. It's for you, as the one asking the question, to listen and sift through the information without getting arsy because that helps no-one, especially you. The equipment you need to go to sea - it's trivial compared to the experience and knowledge you need, and once you have that knowledge you won't need to ask about the equipment. Equipment is only as good as the person using it and you don't give the impression you would even know how to deploy an anchor, use a VHF competently or legally, use a lifejacket safely. What is your experience of MOB procedures? You are coming across as the kind of arrogant know-it-all that we see weekly in the newspapers being rescued by the RNLI because they thought they knew a whole lot more than they do.

Hi John I do love your posts A leisure mooring is what it always has been. Its simple. Nowts changed for many years, a bit like cruising and moving around the system rather than extracting the urine Tim

I haven't intended to come across as arrogent, my apologies. I am far from a "no it all", I not all but nothing about this planned venture but will be educating myself prior to it and most importantly listening intently to the pilot. I came here as a first port of call as, in my experience, that's what a forum is for. First do a search and then, if the info isn't available, post to ask for help. My point is that there has been more unhelpful and negative opinion than I have experience before on a forum. When I was admin on a mini forum one of my charges was to ensure good content rather than senseless bickering, so as to prevent threads from degenerating into...well this. I do not agree that the OP should have to sift through the posts to find the non abusive and helpful ones, if that's how the forum here is intended and how you locals want it then fair enough my mistake. I had previously read a few posts about crossing the wash and had seen quite a few negative off topic posts about the plan, and hence why I specifically didn't ask about this and why I tried (and failed) to keep the discussion on topic! I am massively inexperienced, I have not said otherwise, if I wasn't I wouldn't have needed to post... The idea of my post was to get experience of the equipment required to then allow me to assess if it was a financially viable. There's no point of speaking to pilots if I cannot afford the gear to get out there. I am grateful for the info and tried to express that, more than once. I fully appreciate the tools are only as good as the user, and yes if I had the experience I wouldn't need to ask, but as I said if you can't ask basic questions here where are you supposed to start from aye. I completely dissagree with the all the gear no idea posts, I have none of the gear and folk are making wild assumptions that I'm some rich bloke wanting to spend enough money so he can go and mess around in the sea safely. I'm completely the opposite to this, almost everything I do is on a shoe string and bodged, most my friends would consider it laughable to label me as "all the gear"! However for going to sea, I figured it might make sense to have the right kit, water scares me, you can't stop and get off when you want to. A lack of experience is does not equal a lack of competence or future ability. I'm happy to give out a go, this is no exception. Damn, this was supposed to be a quick reply

Poke the balloon into the bottle leaving the neck sticking out, blow it up quite hard, tie a knot in the neck and poke it in .

Ok, so my post about irritation was aimed at Cal specifically as I found that persons posts full of assumptions about me and generally a bit wee bit insulting. With reference to other posts that were just offering general advice; while some were useful most were just unnecessarily negative. I feel like I asked "I'm buying a narrowboat and this Sunday I'm going into the wash, but only if there's some good waves. For equipment I just need some inflatable armbands yer?" I am not underestimatubg the task at hand, but as yet I don't see it as I'm possible and it sounds like a bloody good adventure which is what I am all about. The planning and prep for the trip would be thorough - which I would personally assume of a person rather than assuming the opposite, and would include a fuel tank drain and clean. The engine is my biggest concern at the moment, having had only a few hours on it, it did however perform well and at a stable temp all day Sunday at around 6-7mph up the Ouse. Just to state it as I feel certain someone will assume otherwise, the engine will be freshly serviced and checked though. If this trip saves me a week or more it will be worth it. And I'd rather spend double the money doing this than using a lorry. My back up option is to go to Bedford and commute in from there until Salter Lode opens. If something did go wrong rest assured I would feel suitable guilty about calling the lifeboat and make a suitable donation. I've had some hairy moments in the past and but have yet to shamefully call out mountain rescue. Some of the replies I have got here have been very similar to when I asked for advice on buying the boat. I was very grateful for some good advice received but a lot of it was rather aggressive and assumed that I had little common sense about buying anything. I've been a very big contributor to two other forums in the past and present and I've never quite experienced one as opinionated and aggressive as this - which is suprising given the relaxed nature of boating! My mistake was giving any background info at all, I simply should have asked what equipment was require for going to sea (I titled it as sea rather The Wash to be more easily found by searchers in the future). This way an off topic escalation would have been avoided. Anyhow some good info gleaned (such as post #14) and a great list of kit needed/suggested on page one. I'm hopeful I can find a willing pilot! Thanks for the helpful info and non abusive posts. Apologies for any bad English above, words aren't my strong suit and I'm on me phone. Over and out.

"are you aware of the quote button at the bottom right of each post?" - well, not really, I haven't had a good look at the forums' (forumii?) layout, but it seems a waste of computer space/memory to reprint the whole of someone's post, especially when there's a bunch of huge photos. Having Scottish genes I'm apt to skimp and save. When somebody said yesterday 'a greenie for you' I wondered about that - could I see it anywhere, did they really give one? -and then I noticed on my profile there's a green band which says 'excellent and 53' - so that must be the greenies depository? Does that mean I have gotten 53 greenies? If so, it's a mystery to me who gave them (not me!). Dean, perhaps? !!! Anyway, this was nothing to do with 'making money' and ripping others boaters off. Sometimes offering a helping hand is like sticking it into a doberman's mouth on these threads (Fox & Hounds, haha!?!) Thought occurred to me this morning that we could put this idea to a little test. When we next move our boat in 4 weeks' time I could say where we're going and are there any people who'd like us to take photos of their boats, just as we go past, or from different angles if we stop nearby. Of course, Private Messages only, as has been pointed out no-one wants to advertise their boat is unoccupied. And then of course - you don't know me!! We could send a text-message on the spot. Photos would have to wait 'til we got home a few days later (and then sent by e-mail). Nobody needs to do anything, of course. But if the idea appeals to you, we're aiming to go from Banbury up the southern & northern Oxfords to Hillmorton. Make a note and send me a PM in, say, 3 weeks' time, if you're interested. I have an interest in photography, so that would be my fun. I notice there's a Forum "Photos of other people's boats" - what do you all make of that, then? I know that it's legal to take photos of anything from public places (is the towpath a public place? or owned by CRT?), but even to me it seems distasteful to post photos of other people's boats on a public internet site without their approval. I know it happens by chance, as, when posting a photo of something else boats may be in the background (wife says to hubby you told me you were at Milton Keynes - what's the boat doing at Hemel Hempstead, then???...).

If you are considering option 3 why not go the whole hog and get full traction 2 volt cell forklift batts, I was quoted less than that for 560 amph at 5 hour rate includes all the cables from pb battery services, they probably do smaller banks as well to fit in your rack. Neil

Last year when you went to sell your boat the "event" dictated by realisation of your wifes deteriorating health and all the emotions at this time painful and fresh. mum had severe RA and i witnessed the daily struggle to carry on and sacrifices made. In her case she gave up cake decorating then driving and finally training her beloved dogs and she was a brilliant dog trainer but she always replaced one focus with another. For a while she distance trained them using disability scooters and dad got her one she could use on the fields. This year its another year distant from that time so you may find that with time your wife is beginning to realise would perhaps be best to let go of this dream and find one thats more achievable. Its tough and RA a horrible painful disease. Have you tried a cruise? I know its not the same but disabled people cope very well on board and if, as you say you only managed one trip on the boat then perhaps this could substitute in some way. I think handing your boat over as a hire could be quite painful, I would hate strangers on mine. It also sounds quite complicated. Good Luck

At last! Someone else who has read the book!

Because it's not about Equipment...the topic. I'm not interested in discussing it further anyway, your replies irritate me, as alot of forum posts do. Anyhow, lots of info, looking forward to speaking to a few pilots try and get this adventure rolling. Exciting stuff. Back on topic, would it be possible to rent a "donkey engine" - which I'm led to believe is a back-up outboard? Cheers

People who say. A dog is just a dog!! These folks have never owned one! To us a Dog is one of the family, He or She is a loyal companion we've had dogs since forever Never could I be without. Throughout me illness and treatments our Timmy was always there, always by my side He knew, and were were mates, a closeness, a special bond. I know it sounds to non animal lover, I've taken leave of our senses But when Timmy died, I was devastated. We have a new puppy now to join our family, and she's done us the world of good already The joy and love that this little one gives us all ready. Folks that are lonely, in there boat, should if they can, adopt a dog. You will never be lonely again. I promise Col

"C&RT have said the repair will take until early spring" - could we not just send for the Chinese Army and have it done by Thursday?