Alway Swilby

There's a nice newish deli shop in Yelvertoft village, 5 minute walk from the canal at the water point.

Has the ermm... "Broken Down" boat that was moored there last summer moved on yet?

Yes, we did have to up the revs a bit coming round the bend at Thrumpton. I also noticed the unmarked posts near there sticking up just to port of the centre. Ok for us going upstream but I did think that going downstream you might not see these with time to manoeuvre away from them.

We came up from Beeston to Cranfleet on the Trent today. Above Beeston lock the guage board was showing red (but we carried on anyway). At the other end of the same pound (or is it a reach on a river?) the guage below Cranfleet lock was showing green. I presume it's the Beeston board that isn't placed correctly.

I replaced the window seal tape on our Squirrel today. When I removed the glass the top edge (under the air wash vent) had no old tape. I thought that there probably should have been tape along the top edge so I put some there as well as the other three sides. Now the stove doesn't seem to draw so well and I have to have both vents much more open than I used to . So, was it right before (without the tape) or now (with the tape)?

Crick has wifi available for moorers.

Nice marina, friendly staff and moorers. If you want to go to the show it's great to be able to go home for lunch or a cup of tea and a sit down. They send round a questionaire about your plans for the show weekend. Your boat will get moved if it is in the show area. Outside of the show period it reverts to a normal marina, diesel and pump out at reasonable prices. No club, cafe, shop or chandlery on site (we prefer it that way). We are now CC ing but if we would move back there if we wanted a home mooring again.

Is it possible to remove (or not bother to fit) the fiddle rail from the edge of a Bubble multi fuel corner stove to enable pans to slightly overhang the edge?

In our new boat we will have a multi fuel stove to provide our main heating source. So the central heating will be a secondary thing for when it gets a bit chilly in the autumn or spring (or the summer for that matter) and we can't be bothered to light the fire. So the question is Eberspatcher, Webasto or Alde? I am tempted by the idea of an LPG fired Alde. The benefits being it's quiet, doesn't use much electric power, doesn't mind cycling if it gets too hot so could be used just for hot water and it can also run off shore line electicity if you are plugged in. You can fit a heat exchanger to get heat from the engine and apparently they require no servicing either. Downsides are that gas is expensive and you would need a calorifier with an aluminium coil. What are your thoughts? If I should go for diesel which is better, Webasto or Eberspatcher? I can't edit the title, it should of course read Alde.

Jonathan Wilson is builing us one. Won't be yellow, we've done that! Lol.

Which was the point of my OP. The TP is 10 times that amount. However thanks for all the input. I think I will fork out for the TP on the new boat, I know I'll regret it if I don't.

Well, the alrenative I'm thinking of is a 24v boat with a 100 amp 24v domestic alternator (extra cost from Beta of 300 pounds or so) with at 3kva inverter (which I would have anyway). In theory the alternator should be able to produce 2.4 kw and thereby power the washing machine without draining the batteries too much.

The price of a Travelpower from Beta is over 3 grand. What is it in them that justifies this price?

It's very easy to stop overnight on the visitor moorings Torksey and wait for the next tide. It will add a day to the cruise but it makes it not quite such a rush.

We moved from Three to EE. £25 per month for 50G. The EE network gives us a 4G connection much more often that Three ever did. We also no longer experience the "School's out" 4pm slow down.

Open now apparently.

You can pick up Tescos wifi when moored opposite in Rickmansworth. And Waitrose when on the visitor moorings in Aylesbury basin.

Yes, I'll miss her spats with TD. They were always fun!

Frozen over in King's Marina in Newark. I suspect you could easily punch through it though.

Can you run a Webasto boiler on this heating oil?

You can avoid the two shortest locks at Salterhebble altogether. Leave Wigan and head for Manchester then ascend the Ashton locks and go over the Pennines on the Huddersfield Narrow (although check dimensions on CRT web site, if you have a high air draft you won't get through Standedge Tunnel), down the Huddersfield Broad, Calder & Hebble to Castleford, turn left for Leeds and back to Wigan on the L&L. We have done all that in our 60' narrowboat. Or do it all in reverse order.

We've done all three pennine crossings in our 60ft NB. The top two locks at Salterhebble were the shortest. We were decending these and found that after we had emptied the lock and opened one gate we couldn't push the bow across from behind the closed gate. We had to refill the lock, reverse out, wind and do the two locks backwards. This way the top of the bow sticks over the cill giving an extra couple of inches. If you are ascending you should be ok. Or go via the Huddersfield Broad and Narrow instead thereby avoiding the shortest of short locks.

The pumps couldn't cope and then became inopperable as a result of being flooded out themselves. Hence the need for a Chinook.

The telephone exchange flooded so the line to the web cam would have been down.

I don't think the pumps failed as such, they just couldn't cope with the unprecedented amount of water coming down the Foss. The pump room therefore became flooded. They then chose to raise the barrier so that it wouldn't fail in the down position.