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I keep an old leaky smelly air bed for guests, they don't stay long.

As a general rule, never go for the electric version of anything that heats up. Heating stuff demands a lot of energy, canes your batteries and 12V heating energy is feeble. Kettles are a good eample. The 170W kettle performance will be pathetic. Use a kettle on a gas ring.

The Yonne agin. The locks get wider, yet more primitive, on the way towards the Seine. The freight barge seen leaving is pushing another, occupying the full length of the lock when inside. To moor up on entering from above, the bow is brought to rest against the vertical bit of wall just before the lower gates, which involves some fine calculation on the steerer's part, being 2 x 38.5 metres back from the point of contact. These boats are built of thinner metal than narrow boats are made of, and they had 500 tonnes of grain on board. On this pair the captain and his wife took turns up at the bow end, communicating through loudspeaker connection as they made their way on.

30k seems cheap to me, it’s a boat I’ve seen a few times, and I’d love it.

It looked freshly dumped of you know what I mean!….had the same at norbury last year….one bin was full…bags were dumped on the ground yet loads of space in some of the other bins…I just put some gloves on and had it tidy in 5 mins. The reality is some people including boaters are scruffy arses that can’t be bothered and hope someone else sorts the mess out.

10/10 for spot the mooring. It was indeed that one -I had a jolly pleasants nights kip there after they had all left for the night 😀

I sent Jason a link to the thread and told him he can't afford it 😃 - he's too busy with his yacht repair business in Mallorca anyway though. A couple of views of Jason and Mike Carter at the bottom of the Hanwell thick taking two joeys for a job on the river. Johnny Dakin is on the hopper behind. Also coincidently we saw Silverlit at St Symphorien last week - Silverlit won the tug of war between the two at Brentford as I recall. Tam

I've got an inflatable mattress as a guest bed. They're all much of a muchness and really only suitable for the occasional night.

Today in 2006 on the Voges canal. Lots of duckweed about so pleased we’ve got keel cooling. The crew had a walk between the locks.

On this day 2016 Sunset cruise on the Witham On this day 2014 Sunset cruise to Torksey Lock On this day 2012 Newark

At over 10 amps draw, I bet the socket and plug will get hot and suffer a shortened life, quite apart from the effect that current draw would have on the batteries. I would suggest that you probably only have one domestic battery on a boat that size, so stick with the kettle on the gas.

For hair?, I know you didnt have a lot up top, but Mrs Hound had a fine bob.

The fact that both sides are complaining about too much coverage of the other side's views suggests to me that the BBC is generally pitching things about right.

Anyone who drives a car with a manual gearbox is used to the sequence of depress clutch pedal - change gear - let clutch pedal rise. Rod and wheel (or wheel and wheel on a GU boat) controls are really no different: wind speed down to tick over - use gear rod (or wheel) to change from forward gear to reverse gear (or vice versa) - wind speed wheel up to cruising revs. What you mustn't do is push the reversing rod straight from forward to reverse (or vv) without reducing the revs first, in exactly the same way as you shouldn't bang a Morse lever straight from forward to reverse without letting the revs drop as the lever passes through the neutral position. If you are happy to take your boat to the furthest flung part of the system, by the time you get there you will have enough experience of using your trad controls not to need any training.

It sounds just as bad as living in a house old boy!!

An inflatable mattress is likely to be cold when the ambient temperature falls. A better solution for comfort is a good quality self inflating sleeping mat, at least 5cm thick. I have used an Alpkit one for 5+ years when camping and no longer get cold when the temperature falls. It can also be used as a spare bed if/when guests stop over. ETA: My mat is Similar to these

My boat is better than an inflatable bed/mattress. 😀

Well at least they fixed my boat which is better than the two other firms I contacted that said they would help but never turned up. And a spare boat