Trix

I assumed ,.possibly wrongly your comment was aimed at me , you are right you can not get a flat for that but , the Marina wants payments in 10 months £700 per month ,.that I can get a flat for but I don't want a flat I want to live on a boat , so I follow the rules , cruise a lot , but is like to be able to stop a little longer to help with my work. I knew the rules when I started and I stick to them but they are out of touch with modern life in my opinion .

your posts are normally very good but that is tosh £7000 for a mooring is why they are empty , they think the south East is a money pot and exploit it , personally I'll keep cruising until natural market forces bring prices down or all Marinas go to the wall leaving everyone on the cut

Can I assume that you can just fit LED bulbs to existing fittings or do you have to change everything my units , dating back to the nineties have car bulbs , I have seen replacement LED bulbs but wonder if I can just use them or not

They have empty residential berths , I can have one tomorrow but I can't afford £7000 so I have to keep cruising .

I just had a look for moorings within the area im in at the moment, 0 residential, so I expanded the search , nearest one Leicester(thats a long way away ) , maybe that is why I was quoted £7000 by a marina , but that marina still has many empty berths . So even if I wanted a mooring from CRT i could not get one , not that I could use within the rules at least . Yet to me there is so much unpopulated canal surely the answer is more moorings , CRT get more revenue , boaters don't need to flout the rules , these boats are kept off the VM's everyone is happy , except someone will be along in a second to say they do not agree lol.

I was commuting a 180 mile round trip and it cost £341 to be exact on a motorcycle from Devizes to London , I went into the local marina to ask about prices and was quoted £7000 per year ( i can supply the web site if you want to look) so I will keep moving unless the rules change , many do, shall we say bend the rules to suit and i understand why , i do not , i accepted when i chose my lifestyle that i would have to put in a bit of work to keep within the guidelines , but I think a change to reflect the modern lifestyle of boaters may be good . A way forward to offer moorings at reasonable cost and open to all needs to found any ideas are better than none.

The price could be set by Crt I then can choose whether I think it is viable or not , when I started I was spending £350 on fuel a month to get to work and it took 2 hours, currently I can cycle , that will increase as I have to continue moving going up to a long commute and then decreasing again once I have travelled far enough to turn . If I could pay a but more it might be better for me and Crt and to me it seems a simple solution.

Why can't people just apply for an online mooring in the spot they want . If you find a spot that's quiet away from popular spots , locks etc I think you should be able to apply to Crt to stay there , they charge a bit extra on the licence for the privilege of not moving , there is a lot of empty canal where I would be happy to moor full time it would make my life easier and Crt would benefit as I would be paying them more , at the moment I stick to the rules of moving every 14 days and enjoy it but sometimes it would be nice not to have to move .

Your welcome to visit us and have a chat we are on the GU (lower part) we live on a 46ft narrow boat but the good lady wants a wide beam eventually cost wise I found during the winter we spent a lot on coal but generally it was cheaper than living in a house . If you want the luxury of house living on a boat I would say you would be better off I'm a Marina with electric hook up, it's just easier . If you don't have a mooring then be prepared to work a little . I spend my first day off every week filling with water , emptying toilets and moving to the next location to stay within the rules at the end of the day I have to return to the start location to collect my vehicle so I can get to work. But even with all that I love the life style and would not return to land . Be aware though it's not for everyone .

I would be happy to sign up but we are very new to the water ways (5 months) if thats ok i will send off the the mail , we have covered a fair distance in that time , currently on the lower GU having come up the K&A and Thames .

Had my BSC done this morning and passed all good , the examiner was very helpful giving me advise on the phone before he came so that my boat would be ready , a really helpful guy with lots of other good tips whilst here . I dont think i can mention names here but if any one needs a good examiner pm me and ill pass on his number . Based around the Reading area for ref.

thanks for the reply , i attempted it tonight and with a little learnt we spun ok , i thought it was all about power but its more about working out the wind and current

I'm at tyle mill facing.the wrong way , long story ,according to Nicholson the Weir entrance that allows the water to flow under the mill is a winding hole , my question is as the water is flowing quite fast which way to turn ? I'm going upstream so do I head for the Weir then turn left into the flow towards the canal bank or keep left turning right into the Weir mouth , hope that makes sense

im going to sit it out for a another week , the flow is improving on the K&A but im to much of a novice to attempt the thames despite the great need to get to the grand union let me know how it goes

Once past devizes you could catch train to work as the line runs next to.the canal , I have been commuting to London since December whilst edging up the k&a , waiting at many stoppages on the way, the Thames still looks like a no no for me at the moment , I use a motorcycle and my commute is now just 30 miles . It's possible but has eaten my savings . If it was me I would get up to the Thames and then commute until you can get on it , oh wait that is me.

For what it's worth I told the man on the phone that I thought some boaters were not treated as well as others because of there life style , I have to say he was courteous and sounded interested it what I had to say and said the information would be used to improve things . The guy who dealt with actual issue of the non working pump out was a star but was not a employee of Crt , but I have to say they (Crt) did sort this issue fairly well . So it's not all bad.

This evening I received a phone call from a company working on behalf of CRT , they said they are surveying how CRT dealt with phone calls and the issues behind them, he also asked what i thought of CRT generally and how I thought they treated boaters . Interesting that they are asking what we think of them .

Just in case anyone is thinking of using it , the pump out at Tyle mill is not working , I tried to use it yesterday and it was broken I phoned CRT and an engineer arrived this morning, the diaphragms in the pump appear to be beyond repair so he has headed back to Bristol to pick up some more he did say he would try to get back tonight if not it would be in the morning .

that is exactly what we are doing tonight lol , nice bucket though

i spoke to the police about our visitors who knocked on the boat , basically not very interested as when i said they were mid 50's they said they were probably just lost , they did take description and said " thats not who we think it may be " so possibly they have a suspect .

for future ref aldermaston wharf does them , however the pump out at tyle mill does not work mooring here tonight waiting for engineer in morning without a loo , its now full , i hate pump outs

Need to get a pump out card , phoned Crt and they say nearest place is great bedwyn does anyone know somewhere closer

Just got home from work and where I park my bike is a pond