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An engine has to be pretty poor to be really smoky all the time. Chances are that the owner will only worry when it simply won't run any more and if that's the case he won't worry about anybody else either. Best thing is to stop for a cup of tea and let him go off and annoy everybody else. Second best thing is to have an argument. Personally I favour the latter as its more fun but its not very sensible.

Follow the link for the recording...? http://www.waterwaysongs.info/Songs/G/grumpy_old_boater.htm Grumpy Old Boater by Ian H Bruce (2016) Water temperature's rising, the oil pressure's low He's coughing out black smoke wherever he goes He should service the engine but we daren’t tell him so For he is a grumpy old boater Baggy jeans, oily tee-shirt, and scuffed leather boots An abrasive old misfit, too fond of disputes For politeness and manners he don’t give two hoots For he is a grumpy old boater Irksome and set in misogynous ways He lives in the past, dreams of long bygone days An outspoken critic of all he surveys For he is a grumpy old boater When boaters greet him he just cuts them dead Averting his eyes he stares straight ahead "How do?" and "Good Morning" and are words left unsaid For he is a grumpy old boater He'll shout and he'll swear at boats passing by 'Cos he thinks they're too fast and he’ll never see why He can’t be a candidate for ‘Mr Nice Guy’ For he is a grumpy old boater Alone on his boat through the long winter storms He's a churlish hothead when the temperature warms It's 'Bah Humbug' to summer and those leisure boat swarms For he is a grumpy old boater That queue at the locks just couldn't be worse While stopped does he chat? No, quite the reverse He'll gripe and he'll groan, he’ll chunter and curse For he is a grumpy old boater So take note grumpy boater, you know who you are On tow-path, afloat, or propping up bar A cantankerous dipstick who just goes too far So push off you grumpy old boater

Di and I have a hovel at La Truchère where the little river Seille joins the Saône, and there is a current post on the DBA site about flooding there - where we are is used as a floodplain to avoid floods downstream in Lyon. Here are a couple of views from previous years about the same time, with the éclusier opening the lock gates to allow a péniche up off the main river, and of the Seille frontage. Luckily we are just behind this and even the high levels of 2002 didn't quite come into the house. Re John's mention of Berrichons, the locks on the Seille are too short for a standard 38m x 5.05m péniche as after the bottom one off the Saône the rest are only 30m long. Tam

43 years on the briny and never a problem like this.

You seem to find all of the incapable tradesmen. First at your flat, now on your boat .........................

In 2019 After selling the barge in March today we were on the Royal Clipper off Sorrento . The cruise was from the port of Rome to Sicily and back.

I recently visited the old Britford lock on the river Avon near Salisbury. Below are some photos. Considering it has been abandoned for nearly 300 years, the basic structure is in good condition. However 300 years of silt build up has taken it's toll on the navigation. the water is only about 18 inches deep and judging by the lack of air draft under the road bridge (which seems original except for plenty of replacement brickwork) the water level must have been quite a bit lower back in the day. View from the road bridge. A weir is now in place where the top gates would have been, and the bottom gates would probably have been and the end of the modern wall on the right. View from the weir (old top gate). Close up of the weir. Close up view of brickwork on the bridge which shows evidence of remedial work. Lack of air draft is extremely evident! View of downstream side of bridge. Just visible in the foreground is what looks like original stonework. I put together a short video here.

If you read this thread fresh from start to finish (I've been at work) it is surreal. Question, answers asking for more info, replies ignoring / not answering those replies and asking new questions etc.etc. I'll ditch this one.

A pack of disgruntled electricians chasing her?

I would have blocked her ages ago but her posts are often sooo entertaining ?

I have.

Anything you do on holiday can involve the risk of waking up dead, including driving to the hire boat base. Seaside holiday - drown in the sea. Hiking? Trampled by cows. Mountaineering? Cycling? Mostly, you survive to grow older and wiser. A few don't. "If not duffers, won't drown" is still valid, and the world won't miss a few duffers who can't be bothered to use the stuff between their ears. But mostly, even idiots survive, as can be seen from the sheer overwhelming quantity of them still in existence.

I think being blocked by the OP would be a good thing, as she only seams to frustrate and confuse and offers little in the way of expertise.

I can understand why you are now on your 9th electrician. Short link : .... https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7657061

Stoke Bruerne, 1971. Busy, even then.

Hartshill is an area of Brierley Hill, near Dudley.

If I were you Id get myself as close to Reading as I could and take up TB's kind offer!

A Willow Wren boat out of Rugby arrived at Hillmorton bottom lock and proceeded to open top and bottom paddles. Lady arrives to ask if they needed any advice and was told to F Off. Said lady then asked if they recognised her - she was the owner of the yard and reminded them of the full briefing she had given them less than an hour or so ago which included instructions on how to use the locks. You can take a horse to water............

Yes, if you can do the Llangollen aqueduct you will be mightily impressed, just make sure the boys are not on the roof. Enjoy the week, you will be back to do the rest.

My choice would be to Llangollen and back. Easy narrow locks, some lift bridges, some tunnels and best of all a couple of aqueduct. I would forget about the bike as I don't think most of the towpath is suitable or safe for the kids. As IanD said, have a look at the canalplan site to give yourself an idea of timings.

Good point, if its too hard a slog it wont be enjoyable. If the hire base allows bikes, you could use one of the days to cycle to Chester Zoo.

In my experience, no more than about 1 boat in 10 actually travels too fast past moored boats. If when moored you disagree with this figure, it almost certainly means that you have not moored properly.

Ah, but for quality you can't beat Waitrose at Aylesbury Decent mooring,free coffee, free newspaper and tap into their wifi, what's not to like

Confucius say one mans smoky knacker is another mans perfectly running lister.

The batteries often referred to a "leisure" batteries are often constructed like starter batteries (many thin plates) but may or may not have extra plate support or pocketing. I got about six years out of Exide Leisure batteries and they were still giving adequate performance. Deep cycle will normally have fewer but thicker plates that may well be in glass fibre pockets to help hold the paste on the plates. AGM have the plates surrounded by acid jelly so that helps hold the paste on the plates. The problem with LadyG as see it is that she is trying to buy her way to a longer battery life without ensuring the basics are working properly to support that potential longer life. Its an all too common mistake As far as I am concerned that is the OPs problem but my (and others') replies may help other boaters with similar problems.

On this day in 2016 Rickmansworth GU South Compare 1969 2016

Oh that'll be the full half hour and then another half hour recounting it in the pub later

Did you notice Lady G when you were there

If I am reading this correctly, and from what you have said previously, When you bought the boat it had (at the stern) 1 starter battery and 3 leisure batteries. plus 2 leisure batteries in the bows which ran the fridge. You then replaced 3 with bigger AGMs. Which 3 did you replace? presumably the leisure batteries at the stern Then you replaced the starter battery This year you replaced 2 "starter batteries" - did you mean the leisure batteries at the bows? - Starter and leisure batteries are different animals. The questions the helpful guys are waiting for answers to so that they can help you are What is being run off the leisure batteries at the bows? and what is being run of the leisure batteries at the stern? Are the batteries connected ? if so, how? How are the leisure batteries charged? What is the cable size to the fridge? if you don't give these very helpful guys the information they actually ask for (instead of what you want to say) they will not be able to help you. I have been on this forum for many years and I am in amazement at how helpful people on here have always tried to be to you. Well done guys. haggis

No excuse for abuse. Some people just seem to resent being overtaken, which is as daft in a boat as it would be in a car. And I'd probably gone past him too though it might have been a bit tactless commenting on his engine!

Once priced a job to "clear trees from the site", one day 3 blokes chip to site nice and easy. Turned up cleared site of trees and chipped to site, client turned up "WTF is that, I wanted the site cleared" after much discussion it turns out he wanted the site ground flailing and leveling, a completely different spec. Got the pay for the day and walked away

I'm not convinced. There is clearly an arrangement (though I have not seen it written down anywhere) that shares the income (£50, 75 or £100 per boat, so not much) the EA collect for Anglian passes between themselves (including admin costs), MLC, and Camcon. But that does not imply that the MLC get any of the income the EA get from the main gold licence fee. That may happen in 2022, we shall see. I am afraid this whole system has been designed without thinking about how boaters might behave or the incentives it creates. For example someone who is based on the ML but wants to visit the canal network each year will clearly want a gold licence plus an Anglian pass, but that doesn't yet work financially for the MLC, and as you say above the MLC may well try to insist such a boater has an annual licence from MLC, plus whatever extra licences are needed for CRT and EA waterways!

If your 60% and 99% came from the solar controller its almost certainly a downright lie, its likely to be less, maybe far less. If it came from an amp hour counter like a BV then again its likely to be a lie and getting a bigger lie by the week. The only reliable way most boaters can use to imply state of charge is rested voltage or a properly calibrated Smartguage during discharge only. The only reliable most boaters can use to determine the all but fully charged state is by tail current. I would suggest that you run the engine for at least four hours checking the voltage at the front batteries every so often.

Very much so! especially when she adds edit upon edit to previous posts. LG, it might be more helpful if you create another post with further information rather than using upper case text to highlight it in a previous one. Those that have given information may not have seen your edit. Have you seen Tony Brooks offer?

It seems that in many areas of boating where folks have been getting "something for nothing" the times they are a changing. C&RT licences are now beam as well as length based. Marinas are now charging 'excess charges' for widebeams MLC charging to use their waters. The times of cheap boating are gone.

It's not possible to get 4G or wifi signal from nearby boats accidentally, the only say is to intentionally join a nearby wifi network. Get an external antenna for the 4G router. You can get magnetic base masts which stick on the roof. Run the cables through a mushroom temporarily, and then buy a fitting as mentioned above. I prefer the ones which mount on the side of the boat with the cables and gland facing down as there's less chance of water getting in, but they don't look as nice. You'll need a car aerial for the radio, a lot of them are designed to use the car's metal shell as their ground plane, so you need it mount it as close as possible to your roof as it would be in a car. It won't work just dangling on the end of its cable. As for the power, do you have any sort of current monitoring so you can see what's going in and out of the batteries? What solar controller do you have fitted, and how is your boat connected up with regards to isolator switches, starter/leisure batteries and solar controller?

Yes, and the difference is about 15% comparing tilted facing south to flat.

Thank you everyone - lots to think about. I like the idea of a ‘ring’ as it means you don’t double back on yourselves but I whilst I would have no problem plodding on for hours, it’s probably not my family’s cup of tea - I think we would want to have 10 days for that realistically. I’ll check out the other ideas you’ve given me... Chester sounds like fun and doable. The Llangollen too (is that the canal with “that” aqueduct?)

There is also the Canal de la Sauldre, though it was more used as a water supply for agriculture than transport. Several water supply channels in France were navigable for 'narrow' boats such as the Rigole de Torcy. Belgium also had at least a couple of 'narrow' canals, with the Charleroi Canal using deep narrow boats, capable of carrying 70 tons, into the 20th century. The other was the Meuse-Moselle link, which was never completed, though there are some remains, including the summit level tunnel. Other European narrow waterways can be found in Austria and Bavaria, while at least nine were built in America. Almost all of those mentioned above were for boats about 9 feet in width. After the Napoleonic Wars, France had a waterways development plan which included over 100km of such narrow canals.