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Masks are not used to protect the person wearing them. Masks are worn to protect others from you. I have been wearing a mask in shops since March its not difficult and should have been mandatory months ago.

Slowing past moored boats seems to be a lost art these days, likewise slowing before entering bridgeholes. I’m afraid that the old courtesies, in the main, are long gone, though in the little boating I do these days I still maintain them. On many parts of the narrow system, I think you’d be hard put to reach 4mph anyway. I won’t go on.......

I really struggle to understand how anybody with a couple of brain cells to rub together and half a grain of common decency can object to wearing something to try to protect others. Even if that is only a might protect others. It is akin to saying I am not going to try to protect that pedestrian (where there is no pavement) by driving a good distance away from them as you pass. Many of the naysayers are continually saying we must get the economy going again. If wearing a mask makes a larger proportion of the population feel safe and be prepared to go out and spend what's not to like. IMO the way it should work is those who think it is unnecessary should sigh and say it might help the economy so I will do it. Those who agree it will be no problem and those who up to now have felt unsafe will feel more likely to go out and spend. Just what the naysayers want.

I use an old car sat-nav on the boat. It is amazing how the speed changes with the depth of the water in the canal - you can hear it with the engine note. Anyway, who is on a mission on the canals? Just take it easy, charge the batteries and get a tank full of hot water in a couple of hours so you can have a shower after the hiking boots come off having explored the area. Too many people only see the canals and not the wonderful areas around them.

Dav and Pen showed these locks some time ago, a staircase on the Loire side of the Nivernais Canal. I used the second chamber as a drydock(?) once when we bust the propellor on our previous barge Secunda. This was outside navigation hours, working from a Sportyak dinghy, since the sluices leaked so badly. On the plus side Monsieur Cretier, who ran the tripping boat Aster, and who had been born on a barge, lent me his propellor extractor, a family heirloom without which we would be in there still. To work it you get the shaft nut off (remembering, in our case, it has a left-hand thread), then put the disc over the shaft end with the claws gripping whatever is left of the blades. Then, when all is tight, you whack the central thing with a heavy hammer. This, when working from dinghy, can be a life-threatening experience. My pal Edward Bonel, who helped, is pictured when the job was completed, around 4 am. We had passengers arriving that day, a healthy motivation to keeping the job on track.

Short update as thanks. I did as Tony Brooks suggested. I'm not sure how much air is meant to come out when you bleed if there is a problem. It wasn't much. But, the temperature when running the engine doesn't go above ~70C now, both in our previous mooring spot and for the past three hours that we've been cruising. Hopefully that was the issue, thank you everyone

Got my reusable face covering anyway.

2014, and Kennet makes her way into Liverpool. The narrows here were installed during the 2WW. Stop planks were fitted at night in case the canal was hit by a bomb, as happened at Sandhills, and seen in this photo from the Waterways Archive.

Complety agree. I pass moored boats on narrow canals at tickover regardless of how many are moored in a line unless very windy. It's just good manners.

I may be biased but the boatyard at the top is great and very welcoming...... pubs are somewhat scant en route, the steamboat at trent lock, Gallows Inn used to be ok and the Bunny Hop Ale House at Langley Mill is cracking. If you like a good curry, the gurkha at Langley Mill shouldn't be missed, and there's a lidl over the road and Asda 2 mins away. Watch out for the weed, its quite prevalent this time of year, but well worth the trip up. Some of the locks you'll find locals swimming on a hot day but most of the time they're happy to help push gates and help if asked and engaged with. Once at Langley Mill if you need anything give us a shout at the boatyard. Kind regards Dan Langley Mill Boatyard Ltd

This - and I'm a long-time cycle commuter. The petition calls the towpath a 'safe, fast route'; if anyone is riding fast down a towpath, they need chucking off it. Towpaths are too narrow for riding fast.

Yes, its got gradualy worse over the last few years Our system has always been join the queue and even if its a long one I wait with boat to move it along and the missus walks however far to the lock to help all through, it always was the way but is certainly not the way of late.

It's more than useful. Folk keep well clear of me, they think I'm a Leper because my hands are turning white.

Well there was more then a little self interest in this. I started it when covid had advanced from being something in some other far off country to something that was killing people locally. A threat, the like of which an immediate post war "boomer" had never had to confront before, and such a new threat, neither had our societies. The unknowns scared the bejesus out of me. I needed a distraction, and a link back to the beauty of a natural world that existed before, and was largely carrying on regardless. The sun was still rising and setting over stunning bits of water. I needed reminding of that. Thanks particularly to Peter Scott, who expanded my idea to, on this day in ......... and has generously used this thread to share his stunning photo collection. They bring back my wife's and my memories of the same places, over the same years. Each morning it is so much nicer, and a wonderful foil, to check out the photos on the thread, rather then the overnights covid statistics. And thanks to those others that have provided fascinating insights and photos of the continental waterways, and to the others who have shared historical photos and commentary. Thanks again D&V and take all the enjoyment you can get right now.

"Blimey - he's cleaned the car".

What if you try to buy some face masks but they won't let you in without a face mask?

if you believe we can do nothing about it then please go and live on a desert island where you will be no risk to others. the rest of us will use mitigation measures.

or probably not ............................. people who don't wear them drive like idiots because they are idiots. when I was in construction management I was very hard on safety - after all the safety trainers had done their bit I would enter the induction meeting, usually to be faced with a group of young men eager to get out on site and prove how manly they were. I would ask them to imagine how their wife/girlfriend/kids would feel if the (relatively highly paid) breadwinner came home one evening blinded or having lost a hand, or even worse not come home at all. The message was "SAFETY IS A FAMILY BUSINESS". It always got an appreciative response from the inductees.

An observation about lock cills; it appears that if they are designed for wide boats (eg Leeds-Liverpool) they are strongly curved all across but if they are designed for pairs of narrow boats (eg Grand Union) they have a straight cill with just a slight curve at the ends.

I think the cat is just disappointed that it's not an old Jaguar. Dogs prefer Rovers.

Hardware Version 3 of my alternator controller now installed “properly”. It has an OLED display (why not, they are under £4!). 3 screens showing: Charge rate, mode (ie charge or float), target and actual SoC Actual field (rotor) current and current limit, set and actual voltage Alternator Rpm, battery current, alternator temperature and SoC (again) Also added a galvanically isolated interface for VE-Direct ie to a BMV 700 series monitor (not tested because I don’t have a BMV battery monitor yet!). I ditched the emergency field isolation relay as not needed due to several layers of other protections. Unfortunately in a rush to cut the aperture for the display in the lid of the box - hand held dremmel - so that looks pretty bad! On top are the two switches, one for charge rate (slow or fast) which limits the field current to about 1/2, or not. The other switch to select the SoC at which it goes to float voltage (50%, 80% or 100%). The actual SoC of course is coming from the Mastershunt over CANbus, ditto the battery current (I_Bat on the display). The latter has a lot of smoothing (long time constant) done within the Mastershunt, so when you see the I_bat parameter winding up or down fairly slowly it is “lying”. Unfortunately nothing I can do about that. In order for me to be allowed to fit it, Jeff says it must have personality hence the startup message... First video is me starting the engine with the rate switch set to slow. Gives around 85A. Then I flick the switch to fast and you can see the field current ramping up to 4A (nearly maximum) fairly slowly, under the influence of the LRC (Load Response Control). If it snapped straight up to 4A there would be a big mechanical shock load. Battery charge current goes up to 175A and more, with the field current pegged at max even though the actual voltage is only 0.3v below target. It fair rams the current in - with the conventional regulator I would have been getting 120A and falling rapidly. Second video taken shortly afterwards shows the actual SoC reaching the target SoC and it switching to float mode (13.3v for the time being). I’d set it to 80% just to prove it works, obviously this switch is only useful for Li batteries, for the time being with our lead acid batteries I’ll always want it on 100%.

Yeah, the weed makes you just sit there grinning inanely.

Yes people observe the 4mph limit for the simple reason that, as previously stated, it’s not really possible to hit 4mph on your average canal (G&S and some NE waterways excepted). If a narrowboat was passing you on the S Oxford at over 4mph I’m sure it would be up on hydrofoils! There does seem to be a lot of moaning on here about other boats moving. I’m sure the same people pull into a lay-by off an A road and then moan about all the cars whizzing past at 60mph. The canals are a transport network, not a linear picnic or housing park. If your boat moving as other boats pass offends you, I can recommend getting a house or caravan. About 50% of the moored boats we pass are badly moored so as to maximise the rocking and surging - slack lines and lines at 90degrees for example. I will agree with you that it is harder to moor properly when on stakes as opposed to against piling or on rings, but on most canals, most of the time there is plenty of opportunity to avoid mooring on stakes. I can’t remember the last time we were passed by a boat going unreasonably fast so I can only conclude that the plethora of people moaning about speeding boats passing, simply don’t know how to tie their boats up properly. We do always slow to tickover well before passing moored boats but with a Beta 43, a big prop and a deep draft we do still move a fair bit of water as we pass. But we have a very quiet engine so we hardly ever get shouted at! I’m sure if I put it into neutral and revved the engine up to 1500rpm there would be lots of people shouting!

I always find this sort of statement a little presumptuous. Next week I shall be on my boat and will pass within walking distance of the Severn Valley Railway, Kinver Rock Houses, Wightwick Manor, Shugborough Hall, The National Memorial Arboretum, the National Brewery Centre and the D H Lawrence birthplace museum. Yet I shan’t visit any of them (even if I could outside of Covid 19 restrictions) or any of the towns we pass through other than for essential shopping purposes. That’s because I will be on the boat to enjoy the canals. There are 40 odd other weeks in the year to visit the places near the canal by car or train. Even the furthest is within 90 minutes drive of home and I’ve visited most of those places without a boat. I sometimes even visit canals by car or train. If I were retired and/or a liveaboard I would most likely take the opportunity to pay some of those places a visit. There is no such thing as ‘a way’ to boat, different people have different circumstances and different interests. And for the record 4mph is pretty much unachievable for my boat on the canals I travel on and I always slow down significantly for moored boats. JP

Langley Mill is definitely worth a shot. Its a great tie up with friendly locals and great amenities!

I see your from Australia. So what are your plans, boat for a few month then return home for a few month, as this will determine the response to buy new build or secondhand. There was a couple from your way a few years ago who had major problems with the builder of their boat, just Google Narrow boat waiouru Ben Harp. They also did a Blog of their life aboard doing the canals. I honestly can’t see the point in having a boat built, you might not like it. Your better off buying second hand doing what you need to do and sell it afterwards. You will loose money if you buy new. Not as much if your sensible buying secondhand.

Nothing is the answer because CRT would just use the extra money to invest in building instead of their core business which is navigations. You clearly have never dealt with them my mate does as his Bar is rented from them they are useless, thieving, lying wasteful T*****s I when I converted my boat from diesel to electric had nearly 6 months of hassle before I got the license this is the norm for them! The phone for Tinsley flight has broken and has been for months its not been replaced why? because it means they dont have to fix or allow use of the flight! This stuff is constant they arnt all like my comments but a lot are, now I really have done I asked some boaters about your ideas and they are still rolling around on the floor laughing, my suggestion is buy a boat and then discover how expensive it is before having silly ideas