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....4.5 litres being almost exactly one gallon!

Bought some at Christmas and they now come in 5 ltrs ?

Just to add another bit of info for you. Last time I did the entire L and L including Wigan I did it in a 57 foot boat in company of a 60 footer. We did every lock together without problems so you will find it a doddle. Those locks used to leak like hell last time I did them but yer boat wont sink unless you do it wrong.

These are Sabina villas aren’t they, this was Liddell dock that ran across Horton road and up past Uxbridge football club. In the late 50s early sixties my dad can remember pelting sunken wooden sabey boats with his catapult. My family are all from Yiewsley and my grandparents worked on sabey boats my grt grandfather being a tug driver and my Nan’s brother working on the crane unloading boats.

Known as shrinkflation

Sadly I have to report that the canal is still leaking out of the aqueduct onto the A530 road at Middlewich despite the £3.2M spend I have been asking CRT what they are doing about it as there is a waterfall onto vehicles passing under the aqueduct, the brickwork is saturated and leaking. The first answer was that they were monitoring the leak and that it would cease after the canal bed had been wet for a while countering the drying out during the works. This has not been the case. Asked what was going to happen when the weather turned colder and the water turned to icicles hanging from the bridge and the road was a sheet of ice, the reply was that the local authority were to increase the amount of grit spread on the road. Luckily the weather in the area is still mild but with night frost. A request for an update earlier this week has not even been acknowledged never mind answered. This is in breach of CRT's code of conduct. Does there have to be a serious accident on the road before action is taken? Will the leak again be ignored until the canal breaches again?

You are welcome. All these memories are of great interest. The website National Library of Scotland has a most useful facility of transparency overlay that allows seeing maps as they are today, and as they were, depending on where the overlay 'blue button' is moved: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=8&lat=53.7615&lon=-1.7074&layers=6&b=1 I see the The Brickmakers Arms is still in Horton Bridge Road.

Hi Derek R Really pleased with your post, Sabina villas are still standing ,Sabey had them built in 1922 that was when my mothers family moved in,they are opposite where Liddalls dock used to be on, across the road from your hatched area,I see on your map there were rail markings this was where horse drawn side tipping trucks were used to load sabeys boats. I remember seeing them still in situ in the late sixties and the shute was still there. The woods family lived next door and my mother grew up with Artie Woods Ronnies father. My Grandfathers Pub The Brickmakers Arms is in front of what used to be Coopers dock and it was still in water up until about 1910 and it stood behind the pub more a less part of the pub garden the reason i am sure of these dates is that my fathers younger brother Thomas drowned in the dock when he was 2 years old in 1909 after that tragedy my Grand father made the canal company fill in the dock. hope my memories are of interest. Regards John B.

I can't claim any experience of doing those locks in a longer boat, but on the specific question of 'is it worth doing'?: yes, IMHO much of that stretch (especially around Skipton) is about as good as it gets in terms of scenic cruising. So don't be too quick to talk yourself out of it.

I rather like Camp Hill locks actually. Can't quite put my finger on the reason though, just always preferred that way into Birmingham.

There used to be a 64' boat local to here that did Wigan fairly often, but obviously could not share with another 57' boat. We shared Johnson's Hillock with him a few times on our 45'. You need to ride the tailgate going downhill, and you only get really wet when backing up to allow the gates to open. Waterproofing the engine bay is a good idea, and decent foul weather gear for the steerer is a must - you will get wet coming down many of the L&L locks - you will get much wetter doing Bingley 5 & 3 rises than on Wigan. We regularly boat the northern canals in company with a 60' boat, and there are no problem locks at that length. Don't forget that if necessary you can use a lock on your own and place the boat diagonally across the lock to gain an extra foot or so. In short, it's a great trip and you will enjoy it. As long as you keep an eye on cills that will be closer than you are used to you will be fine in the locks.

Hire boats with cruiser sterns do it all the time, its not as bad as it looks. It used to be the fore end that was bad but the gates have had wash plates on for years now.

Old boating tip put a small lump of grease on top of the stern tube / pusher if it disappears you know it's getting to hot

On a technical point, the RH is affected by the air temperature and pressure. As warm air can hold more water vapour than cold air, an increase in temperature will cause the RH to drop. So bringing in cold air from outside and warming it up means the air becomes drier. Things will dry out when water evaporates thus raising the RH. Then when it cools down (eg, heat off), the RH drops, when and at the actual dewpoint (100%RH) the vapour condenses (seen as water on cold windows) but also permeates soft fabrics making them feel damp.

If anyone is interested --- I have two engine driven alternators 110A & 75A charging my 3 x Elecsol 270AH batteries via a Sterling Alternator-to-Battery charger. All fitted when the boat was built 12 years ago. We are out in the boat for about 4 or 5 months throughout the year and normally cruise for about 3 or 4 hours per day moving most days with the occasional day off. The batteries usually fall to about to 90% after an overnight stop and maybe down to 80% after a day without running the engine. These values have reduced considerably in recent months and the volts drop under load as the batteries die. Most days when cruising the batteries are recharged to 100%. When we are not cruising the boat is left unattended in a marina with all electrics switched off. In the summer months I leave the shore power lead unplugged to prevent any chance of galvanic corrosion but in the winter months I plug in the shore power and leave a battery charger on. I have a Smart Gauge which I think is the main reason for my batteries lasting so long as it gives a very good indication of the state of charge of the batteries. I always try to keep them as near to 100% charged as possible but other than that I just keep them clean, well watered with the odd bit of maintenance. At present the engine running hours are approaching 5000hrs. Sorry if I have bored you!!!! +

Cloudy fuel indicates you have water in suspension. The amount of water is a state varying from not desirable to not tolerable. Fuel additives often include an emulsifier that aids the take up of any water settled in the bottom of the tank into the rest of the fuel. In my past life as an oil company engineer I spent considerable resources providing and monitoring mechanical means of routinely checking for and removing settled water from fuel storage. Generally nothing more routinely drawing bottom samples from tanks and discarding any water, and the narrow interface layer. You could tell if someone had added any unauthorised fuel additive because any interface layer was much more extensive. Unauthorised addition of additive into customers storage would result in our withdrawal from most of the responsibility of fuel quality. Underground tanks were prone to some water ingress through the dip and fill points, this was generally not a problem so long as it was removed before the level got to take off level. Often nothing more was required then a hand pump with extended suction tubes through the dip point. My life was though made easier when underground tanks were phased out for aviation fuel storage and most commercial diesel storage. Although of course this introduced more problems regarding fire separation and fire fighting provisions I used to bottom pump my boat fuel tank twice a year, and at least monthly draw a sample from the separator bowl on the fuel line filter. The first time I bottom pumped the fuel tank I did get a few drops of water, some discoloured liquid from the interface and some free rust flakes and grit. After that I did get get the occasional rust grit but no identifiable water. My advice is not to look for a chemical solution to what is a simple housekeeping problem.

Maybe diesel is a bit like beer or cider with cloudy varieties... ? By the way, fuelset is ok at emulsifying water if that's what you want to do, but in general it's not a great additive. Marine 16 is much better.

Personally I think it is asking for trouble to put red diesel in a wine glass.........

They rarely are !

Assuming the lockie is listening of course.

Why thank you Thebiscuits...that made me feel LOADS better! ?