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Plumbed the Thetford loo into the hot pipe (by mistake). The resultant hot flush was rather comforting on a chilly morning.

On several occasions I have started the engine .... cast off .... jumped aboard ... and reached for the tiller ........... which I forgot to fit.

Not boat related but have, on no less than three occasions over the years, caught the water from a U-bend in a bowl then emptied said bowl in to the sink I've just disconnected. Edit to add .. and whilst attempting to sort out an unshipped rudder, undid the huge nut on the swan neck, to watch the rudder fall out of the back of the boat and effectively nail us to the canal bed. To this day I'm not sure how I thought undoing the nut was going to help.

You are right to describe CaRT as " a navigation authority" but would be wrong to say that it was only a navigation authority". To sustain its financial position it has to fulfil a range of KPIs which encapsulate the government's view that the canals should be enjoyed by more than those who boat in the water. I have yet to see any significant evidence to support the description 'financial mismanagement' (be careful regarding libel!) which is not a conclusion justified simply because you disagree with their priorities and budgets. Given that they are trying to achieve the impossible (a funding package that is, by all authorities, considered inadequate, set without any effective plan for how they might magically close the gap) it would be reprehensible if some of their initiatives did not work out. "Anyone who has succeeded at all they do has never done anything much" If there really had been financial mismanagement over the timescales you imply then any responsible auditor should have qualified the accounts by now. (But they would not be first to fail to do that!)

Put the tiller extension on the tiller, started the engine, untied the mooring lines, set off, kersplash! Forgot to disconnect the shore lead from the electric bollard. It pulled the bollard from its base and sunk it in five feet of water. Fortunately for me, the bollards were then due to be replaced soon anyway, so I didn't have to pay for a new one. Jen

If it helps NABO have objected to the recent award by the EA of a contract to the management of its visitor moorings to a car parking company who are wanting a lien of your boat in the event of non payment of a penalty ticket.

Lurv it - its amazing how 'leaky' some of those old cables can be.

Removing a gearbox, pushed shaft and prop right back into the stuffing box, finished job, used scaffold pole to lever shaft back into position, tightened everything up, started engine, engaged forward. hell of a banging and clattering, forgot to remove scaffold pole, prop a different shape than it used to be.

From your pics, I would suggest this is not 'kids' or petty thieves who had the heavy steel away instead of the easier to nick and possibly more useful wood planks. They would have been more 'fun' to throw in the canal or build a boat with. More likely a stolen to order or 'we need some steel plate' kind of theft maybe?? You could build a deep pit type of trap by covering the exisiting hole with tarp and leaves so they fall in when they come back to nick the second one ? Better still wire it up live to 240v instead.

The problem is very unlikely but really does happen, you have a pipe burst of some kind (within the boats plumbing system) so the water pump runs continuously, normally it only empties the water tank (which is still very bad) but with a permanent hose connection it sinks the boat. I suspect you might get some skepticism here because you have a 70 foot widebeam ( which is too big for most waterways) and are looking to convert it to a "plumbed in house" rather than a boat. Filling the water tank is a normal part of boating. There is increasing bad feeling towards lots of people now wanting to own "houses on the canal" but not to be boaters. ..................Dave

Always remove your hose from the stand pipe tap old bean. Someone like children could come along and turn it on. Also ALWAYS switch off your boats fresh water pump when leaving your boat unattended. For fear of a big plumbing leak suddenly happening especially if you have plastic piping. If it should happen your fresh on demand water pump will start up and flood the boat out.

Sunset at Stockton this afternoon.

A typical sodium discharge streetlight has a 150 - 200 watt bulb. The internal cabling will be sized to match this, allowing for volt drop over long runs. Assuming it has been converted to LED, it will have a 20 or 25 watt bulb, leaving 125 - 175 watts for charging of EV's. A Tesla takes 29 hours to charge up on a 3kw mains socket...

Car and charge point auto locks plug in place while charging.

The slope, together with the one at Beziers, was an experiment on behalf of projected new waterways elsewhere, in particular. a jarge-sized link between the Rhine and Saone. But locks, apparently, are considered more reliable. On a separate note I fondly remember the Garonne Canal for a travelling distillery, encountered one day upon the banks. Such stills were common when I first started visiting France, supervised by genial gentlemen who would convert whatever might be brought to them into a high-percentage form of firewater. They were phased out by government decree, although such distillation continues, under licence, at many wine-makers, mainly to produce marc from grape remnants. It used to be possible to buy marc at greengrocer's shops, though that trade, too, seems to have faded.

So just to clarify, are we still allowed to mention historic boats for sale even if thier owners are on here?

In a simple rectangular tank the area of the surface of diesel exposed to oxygen is the same whether the tank is nearly full or nearly empty.

If you keep little diesel in the tank you will run out of diesel sooner than if you kept it topped to the brim. or Less space at the top of the diesel tank = less condensation = less chance of diesel bug.