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Spot the difference, which I suspect says far more about Boater Sam than Julia Sharman. Sam, what would you expect a longstanding Chartered Civil Engineer in a senior role carrying significant responsibility to have as her work transport (on which, incidentally, she will be paying a hefty amount of tax and it will be part of her remuneration package)? A beaten up old Cortina perhaps? Better it was a CRT sponsored bus pass? And how would you expect her to dress? From the senior executive section of Primark, or maybe the Oxfam shop? Can you not see any sense in properly valuing her role?

That gives me an excellent idea, rather than crapping into a box (optimistically called a composting toilet) why not crap into a plastic bag and put it into the doggie poo bin? and if you can't find a bin just hang it from a tree or railings on the towpath .................Dave

Powerwall is effectively Charger --> Batteries --> Inverter all in a single case as you want to be off grid the charger would be no use so you end up with ??????? --> Batteries --> Inverter what you replace the ??????? with is up to you (generator & charger or Engine & alternator) at the end of the day you end up with the same situation as almost every other boater, you have to charge your batteries somehow regardless of whether you are using the power from the batteries to convert into mains power or just using it for 12v systems. at that point you have to question getting exotic batteries when in all likelihood you already have decent normal batteries on your boat and all thats really needed is an inverter and a sensible charging regime

I'm the owner of the other Cockney Rose, boat registration # 515094, and I'm safely moored at Woodlesford on the A&C navigation. This is nothing to do with me.

Polmont, Forth & Clyde Canal

Hopefully yes!!

Wherever we go now we disregard Nicholsons as they are out of date before printing. For pubs/shops etc Google is your friend for locations and opening times. Two points completely disregard anything posted on trip advisor or the good pub guide as they are purely personal accounts and everybody has a different view.

I think BWML are correct here .... after all there's enough conflict between pump-out and cassette, we don't need another option to complicate things any more than at the moment

They are a great idea innitt no wonder nearly every boat has one fitted now.

Its not only BWML I know of another set of moorings where they are not allowed. Its probably because some people do not use them as composting toilets and just crap in the plastic bag in the box as it where then every few days put it in the general rubbish skips Whats the point? Thats why we have a perfectly useable sensible elsan system.

I'm sure this isn't supposed to happen !

Must be the North-South divide.

Then we are poles apart

Naw, the duck's more devious than that. Up here in the wild north, the leaves aren't on the trees yet compared to down south. The wind was blowing...which it isnt down your way. Well done Cpt Pegg for getting it almost right! Unfortunately I had to be up here in Scotland for a few days work(!!!!) .....got to keep those dividends coming in.... and I picked the 3 days when the weather gets hot down there. We drove up Wednesday and are heading back tomorrow and might just catch a few days of hot weather to get the boat out. A few more pics I would have used as clues are below. The first may have been a giveaway with the snow covered Ochils in the background. Not a boat on the move by the way. Cant see this canal lasting much longer with the weed growth. I thought @haggis or @Tumshie would have been in with the location first!

https://canalplan.org.uk/place/umse

Was hoping not to get into this Started out with a simple idea the grew into a less simple idea. Old 5 year old lead acid Bank of batteries just prematurely replaced with 4 x Numax calcium 105s. However once the old batteries were taken out I decided that they still had maybe 2 or 3 years light use in them so I wired them up as a seperate bank and dedicated 2 solar panels (240w total) to charging them up. They seem to of took and held the charge well so I thought why not retain them as a separate bank and have a separate reserve circuit powered by solar only. ok so far but then having done that I thought I may as well have a 1 2 both bank switch so that I have the ability to either charge bank 1 or bank 2 but not both via the alternator but I critically did not want the 2nd bank (older wet lead batteries) to be charged via the victron multiplus as this is now set to charge the sealed Numax batteries. Eventually when the older second batteries wear out then I will make a compatible bank up and then I can easily rewire to a more conventional 1 2 both setup. Charging parameters are set up for the sealed batteries my hope is that the solar panels will take up the shortfall when charging the 2nd Bank and will look after their equalisation. If it doesn't then not a lot lost as 2nd bank is just a reserve, priority is to look after the new sealed batteries anything else will be a bonus and as I said earlier it will be easy to convert to a more conventional setup at a later date. Eta forgot to mention that 1st Bank also has 350w solar power dedicated to it so each bank has independent solar power (which is the basic inefficiency in the system but one a I can live with for the benefits gained)

No bridge like that north of Polesworth with a cycle superhighway like that through it.

I think you would struggle to truly seperate the negatives any way since they would each need to connect to an alternator on the engine eventually and doing that would bond them there regardless of what you had done elsewhere

Can see no reason why not. Provided that the negative cable is up to carrying the current without too much volt drop.

Once you get through Teddington Lock then pull up and moor on the generous landings. Cross the long footbrige to some pubs. Opposite was Teddington Studios (two ton Ted from Teddington - ref Ernie song) Benny Hill filmed there. Now going to be/is houses. Watch out for debris floating towards you on the tidal.

I might be in serious danger here.

Although there are guidelines about only going up to Teddington in the last two hours before High Tide, there are several other options not often mentioned. One that I find useful is to leave Brentford two hours after High Tide. You push against the tide for only the first mile and then you go up Richmond Lock onto the then non-tidal river to Teddington. This is a very easy run despite the fact that some of the Lock keepers get very wound up when you insist on your right to be locked through at that time. Some (one) lock keeper insists it can't be done - it can! If you need any more advice on the Brentford Teddington transit just ask me - I know that part of the river very well.

The river at Teddington was still running fairly fast above the lock yesterday (we had a walk along there) but you won't have any difficulty. Plenty of mooring space.

Tis a funny place between 100 and 101. Not without its attractions. Quick check of tide tables on my mobile methinks if you get out soon after 5pm you have a clear way through and can bypass Richmond 1/2 lock saving 8 quid.

Depending upon timing you may not need to use Richmond 1/2 lock. Ps that stretch of Thames is gorgeous.

Maybe they should have connected the battery up to a little solar panel like they have on garden solar lights. Would have still been going strong. Hope someone finds it and recharges the battery.

Its quite a lot sadly. Ask amongst the people you know how many visit farcebook daily and how many visit a pub? I had to travel past a long line of boats night before last at Barton turns and walk back 600 yards to viist the almost empty pub. Yesterday the moorings at Fradley were full but not many boaters in the pub. Perhaps CART should police the towpath and kick anyone off moorings within a mile of any pub to let those of us have somewhere to moor that support them? I am not going to a pub today hence mooring in the middle of nowhere and not taking up valuable vm or pub mooring locations.

Might struggle to get that past the angling lobby. http://www.industrytap.com/electromagnetic-harvesters-free-lunch-or-theft/1805 http://www.industrytap.com/electromagnetic-harvester-charging-batteries-from-thin-air/1204

By "later tide" did you mean tomorrow morning? I don't know the tide times, but adding 12.5 hours onto 8:30am has you going out onto the Thames at 9pm and boating (to Teddington I guess) in the dark. There's nothing I know of to stop you doing that so long as you have navigation lights on, and I don't know anything about your level of experience, but personally I'd much prefer to do it in daylight. The weather is certainly looking good, another warm day here, and river levels continue to go down towards normal: http://riverconditions.environment-agency.gov.uk/

We always make our own mind up. We have been to some restaurants which have excellent reviews on Trip Advisor only to find the food and service very disappointing. On the flip side we have been to places with quite poor reviews and found the food and service to be very good

It would seem pretty pointless saving it under your bed for 6-months and allowing it to dry out, to then take bucket loads of sawdust & desiccated poo, tip in in the toilet bowl and pour on gallons of water to try and get it to 'go'.

It is quite legal to have 'sea-toilets' on the River Trent, but, as the marinas are not on the Rivers, and are 'private land' they can impose whatever rules they wish.

Thats been ongoing for a while- I had to look at a boats toilet system and clarify that it did discharge into holding tanks many months ago. I am not sure about the 'illegal' bit though as sea toilets are allowed on the River Great Ouse. Certainly I agree it is not a very good idea for many static boats to be discharging into a marina though. I had no idea about the composting loo's though.Interesting as I fitted one a while ago- surely they can only insist you dispose of waste elsewhere?

My boat is currently very close to your Reg and happy to drive around and collect from somewhere more midlands based than where I live.

In my opinion the Nene gets better further down, below Wellingborough

Had a note from Martin Kedian to say they have completed the overplating of my boat. Just got to complete the engine rebuild and fit it before 2nd May. Can't wait to get back on the water and not worry about sinking every time there's a scraping sound! Also... Sent the forms off for the BCN 24hr challenge.

Broadly speaking, this! With some notable exceptions, it is mostly my middle class customers who sort out their rubbish into five different bins, buy the latest 'low emission' car every two years, carefully put food waste on the compost heap and constantly metaphorically hand-wring about the coral reef off Australia getting bleached, or something like that. The lower orders are too busy trying to survive to worry much about conservation and the upper classes have staff to do the worrying for them.