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Went up the newly 'open' two miles of the Pocklington Canal this morning. Andy, a chap on a boat in Melbourne Basin, had sold me a Head of Navigation plaque - I'm not a plaque person, but having got it I thought I should go, despite him informing me that the pub in Bielby had closed. Two locks, a swing bridge and lots of reeds. Walbut lock and the swing bridge have no landing stages. Best moor under the bridge when going up the lock (not like I did - see pic) - there's a bench to tie to. The swing bridge is difficult singlehanded, but possible (obviously). Rather bleak at the end, and no easy access to the village, as the Bielby Arm is not yet navigable (last pic), so I didn't stay (no pub). Two hours each way for the two miles.

I sell kindling....

Arrived at Stoke Bruerne top lock this afternoon, going up. These are our local locks, and we do them many times a year. We know that with a single boat going up, the calmest way is to open the ground paddle on the same side as the boat, and the gate paddle on the opposite side. That keeps the boat into the side of the lock. There was a volunteer lock keeper at the lock. As soon as the gate was shut, he lifted the paddle. He didn’t ask if we wanted help, and he didn’t check with me at the helm if I was ready. My crew went to the other side of the lock and lifted the gate paddle. He ordered him to close the paddle, pointing at the little sign which warns of turbulence. My crew said we knew what we were doing, and this would be fine. The volunteer became somewhat apoplectic, and eventually called my crew a stupid a***hole. My crew asked him to step away from the lock and leave us to it. He said he was in charge and it was his responsibility to make sure we used the locks properly, as he worked there. My crew pointed out that as it was our boat, it was our responsibility to work the lock, and he didn’t work there, he volunteered there. Eventually he did step away, but only to tell gongoozlers everything we were doing wrong. And he couldn’t resist repeatedly coming back to pick holes in each action. Apparently the paddles were even wound down incorrectly. He’s going to report us to CRT for using the lock incorrectly. An email of complaint has been sent to CRT, pointing out that he didn’t follow volunteer procedure, and that he was a really bad representative of the Trust. This was by far the worst example of a volunteer lock keeper we’ve ever encountered. He was in great contrast to the very nice volunteer who was helping a novice down the locks, that we’d met just an hour earlier.

I don't know if this is a mini tractor or a ride on mower but what it's pulling seems like barrels of fun

Not much time in the car these days. Rarely walk through a wood - never been my cup of tea, to be honest. Dont have a daily commute any more, and none of the routes I take are through woods, never mind pine woods. No kids, never mind grandkids. If I had any, and asked them to collect enough to fill a green net bag, i'd feel obliged to give them more than 3 quid for their efforts Like I say..... I'm happy to hand over my 3 quid. You're happy to collect it yourself. Neither of us is wrong.

I'm glad you can laugh. Have you ever tried the Napton to Braunston stretch on a sunny weekend following a fat bote? When you're 20th in the queue behind it, it is not funny. A one hour trip can take three hours. Zenataoman is quite right. If he isn't why has this thread gone on so long? Many peeps see this as a serious problem. You laugh it off. We can't.

In the case of a tractor it's the turny bit at the back - the engine diverts power to the turny bit at the back which then powers the implements attached to it. But you get smaller ones too.

With appropriate guarding I hope, wouldn't want rustys important bits caught up, I imagine it would smart a tad. Any way this is a dead end, voles will be the answer

Frog in your throat? ?

Deere me, its a lawn mower.

So you too could earn £240 an hour. Sell them for £3 a bag! ? With the massive added bonus that your stove smells of BACON...!!!! YAY!!!!

Cooking oil works really well as a fire lighter. Catches easily, burns for a long time, but no explodey tendencies. Wipe the frying pan round after cooking with a paper towel and put in the stove ready for lighting. Saves the sink drain getting blocked with mini fatbergs and keeps the cholesterol levels in the canal fish down! Jen

The sooner CRT start putting some width restrictions in the better....and im not joking about this. This fat boat thing is getting out of hand rapidly.

Me neither ssssshhh!

Or shut down completely, its getting really boring with all the moaning about people who are trying to help and doing it for absolutely nothing in return

Excellent. Too big, too powerful, too fast for this application, but good fun and shows that all the technology exists.

Of course, if you meet a boat coming the other way being towed by another mower, who ever drops their tow rope to let the other pass over it gets their tow rope shredded!

http://ecochargerquads.com For your perusal fun zoomy quad bikes.

That would make it a flymoboat?

So when you say lend it might be a little more accurate to say sacrifice for a greater cause ?

A bit of a result today, boat yard carrying out all items as part of the sale!

Here you go. https://www.amazon.co.uk/RAYDOSOM-Charger-Charge-Samsung-Galaxy/dp/B07CPNZ9FV/ref=sr_1_42?keywords=portable+usb+6+port+charger&qid=1566477782&s=gateway&sr=8-42 Why must it be less than £10? Lots of 6 port USB units on Amazon...... some of the 240V units will have an AC/DC adaptor, so you can sort out a DC supply for them.

It's funny you should say that because that's how I've thought of it too - my work and hobbies are very practical and hands on so I'm up close to almost everything I do, if I have less experienced people with me I often tell them for safety you either have to be close enough to do something or far enough away to get out of the road. So I too have that slightly disconnected feeling if I'm too far away from what I should be doing. ?Hmmm.

That's gonna Hertz.

Well, there's always a first for everything

Very good, dry kindling is sold here at 3.75 for a large net. One lasts me for a year as a full time liveaboard. Thats less than a pint of beer, each to their own but I aint peeing about with pallets and the like for the price of a beer.

We have a slow cooker and use it often. The orange lead that goes from the boat to a box on the bank seems to stop the combi making the batteries go flat.

First of all was that 12.6 volts while the engine was still running, almost a soon as you turned it off or after about an hour during which time the water pump or fridge had run a bit? If the latter then it should more or less indicate a little over half charged batteries. If one of the first two absolutely nothing can be deduced from the reading. In fact if you alternator is working as it should and the engine revving fast enough (you do charge at about 1200 to 1500 rpm, don't you) we can see the batteries were far from well charged. The alternator's regulator had not yet started working indicating a high charging current and that in turn indicates well discharged or faulty batteries. You probably need well in excess of 12 hours running to get well discharged batteries any where near fully charged. Unless you monitor the solar output and the alternator output (Amps) you will have no idea how well charged the batteries are at any one time. In my experience some cheaper solar controllers seem to drop to float voltage long before the batteries are anything like fully charged. Also from the weather forecast it seems that you may have had a lot of cloud and rain yesterday. Without more data it is hard to know what is going on but based on a lot of experience, especially with posters with low post counts, the likelihood is that you have never fully charged you batteries and have over discharged them regularly. The over discharge will have dramatically reduced their cyclic life while being left permanently well discharged has probably lead to major sulphation that ha snow reduced the battery capacity to a fraction of their stated capacity. People new to living aboard regularly destroy batteries within a very few weeks until they grasp how long they take to recharge and how to look after the. I would suggest two things. 1. Get some battery monitoring equipment. You seem to have a voltmeter so add an accurate ammeter to it. Then lean how to interpret both. 2. Read, mark and learn the content of Wotever's Battery Charging Primer that you will find pinned to the Maintenance section of this forum. Do not go buying new batteries until you get your charging regime sorted or you will destroy them.

When I get home from the pub after bellringing the last thing I want to do is go out looking in pine woods to gather pine cones to light the stove. More than happy to pay about the six quid a bag costs locally for a decent bag of kindling like that. I can earn six quid in about 90 seconds.

There was one. It went up in flames. 5 quid for 25kg which is the same as we pay for spuds. Cheap as chips.

We were cruising near Hemel Hempstead last weekend and most of the bridges had "F*ck CaRT" graffiti on them. We were half seriously talking about changing them all to "We love CaRT" and "Thanks CaRT". They have never been anything but kind and helpful to us in all our dealings. And having just bought our next years' license for only 1040.2 gbp, I have to say I think they do a lot with very little funds. I'm sure I've utilised a grands worth of water, locks and mown grass in a year. Not to mention the elsans, rubbish disposal and water points.

I'm on a widebeam about the same size as the OP's, not that boat dimensions are really a factor here apart from roof space for solar panels. I have a washing machine and a small dryer, but would never run them off the inverter/batteries. I'd use the generator for that. I'm not sure why anyone would want a dishwasher on a boat but each to their own. I've never liked dishwashers even in houses. I still haven't fitted any solar yet but will fit a couple of panels at some point. Whenever the question of electrical power is posted by people new to boats the premise always seems to be "how can I generate enough power to cover the same requirements as I had on land?" Many seem to think they can live exactly the same power hungry lifestyle off grid as they did on in their flats or houses. The only way to do that on boats as far as I know would be to fit a proper water cooled marine diesel generator at some eyewatering cost (£8-10k). Few newbies come at this from the other angle and ask how they can reduce their power consumption to enable them to live aboard off grid. For me the trick to being off grid is all about reducing one's electrical power consumption. I'm away at the moment running a small gas fridge and the boat has LED lighting. I just use my phone for internet. I'm moving every day and sitting around in the evenings watching about 5 hours of TV (draws about 2 amps including freesat box), and I'm struggling to get the batteries down below 90% each evening. When I woke up this morning the domestics were reading 12.7v. So in theory without moving I could go 4 or 5 days without starting the engine or generator/charger to recharge the batteries. I could do the same in winter as my lights aren't drawing much and I have an instant gas water heater as well as calorifier. The key is the gas fridge. It wouldn't suit everyone but it suits me. When I walk to the local village pub for a pint my boat's not drawing any power from the batteries. If I added solar to this setup it would get even better. I'm on and off the roof all the time. I take it you don't move your boat single-handed?

Whilst looking we always preferred Semi-Trads - more social than Trads but look more traditional than cruisers - happy midway. There seem to be far more Trads for sale than others, not sure if this means anything other than there are more Trads about?

If you are boating in bad weather you will probably find the cruiser stern very exposed to the elements, the semi trad slightly less exposed and the trad offering the most protection. The cruiser stern allows everyone to join you out the back, the semi trad allows 2 or 3 to join you and the trad 1 if you have an oversized hatch or they don't mind standing on the gunnels.