Circe

Googling as we speak Thank you! I don't think Apsley's quite going to work for us, although it does look great. Ideally I'd like to find something cheaper than the marinas - we can just stretch to them, but I'd rather not if there are decent alternatives. Having said that, we're not the most flexible of families with the car issues, so might just need to bite the bullet with the cost. Might all end up being a pipe dream, but it's definitely worth investigating this properly.

Online auctions for moorings at Marsworth seem to come up semi-regularly. Nearby car park that can accommodate disabled parking too. What's it like there? (Dragons aside!)

Thank you! That's really helpful - I don't know the area at all, so any bits of knowledge like that are fab!

Not looked at that at all yet although that canal is definitely on our 'to do' cruising list. Railway stations don't make a huge difference to us - transport really does have to be done by car for safety reasons. My thinking had been mostly based around where our friends live - scattered between Aylesbury, central London, West Byfleet and Henley - with lots of people in between those places too - hence thinking southern GU in the first instance. I think I need my big map out now I'm scarier than dragons

Thanks so much for the advice all of you. We'd be looking at one of their Grade 2 moorings (eye-watering, but not completely insane costs for a 45ft boat) probably in the Autumn next year if we go for it. Boat's being repainted Sept/Oct in Stourbridge, so it makes most sense to move after that if we're going to as we'd be halfway there already! Are water problems normally a problem at Cowroast? I'd read about the ones that happened in the Spring. Seems like a really nice spot with quite a lot of cruising options depending on how the mood strikes. The marina said no prob with parking there. Not being residential, it'd be a first come, first served for parking at Apsley - and that really would be a deal-breaker. Think we're going to have a run down and a nosey at some point - will let you know when so if you see a mad woman waving at you, you'll know who it is! Not expecting to find online spaces at Cowroast lock now - what is higher up the summit like? Is it just as popular? Googling Grove Marina too - thank you!

I've got to admit that we love our current moorings - it's a fabulous community with lots of lovely people and I'd recommend it to anyone. BUT I've got twitchy feet. I think it's because we've spent the past 12 years not being able to get out and about and see friends (our son couldn't travel for more than 1 hour in the car until very recently). However, he loves the boat and we spent a full 6 weeks afloat in the summer - and the getting out and seeing people was amazing. I'm aching to do more of that. A lot of our old friends live in the south, so I'm half-thinking of shifting down to the southern end of the Grand Union for a few years. Our son loves the boat, so I'm pretty sure he could tolerate the car if he knows that's where we're going. I've got the tug of the heart-strings wanting to stay where we are currently moored - but I know we'd always be welcome back in the future. Anyway - IF we do decide to make a move, where would people recommend? I've looked at BMWL marinas - Apsley and Cowroast. Cowroast would work better because we'd be able to park close to the boat. Apsley less so as there are fewer parking spaces (although we need to investigate blue badge parking in the area) and I'm setting up an alert on auctions for online moorings. Where's good to go for in terms of mooring locations and where should I avoid? Those marinas are at the upper end of our price range in terms of affordability if that helps!

We tend to eat on the boat - disabled child and pubs aren't always a good mix! Home's the centre of York, so not too far away, but the boat's home mooring is near Castleford. We've been cursed on this trip - everything's happened, from the youngest having his appendix out to the throttle cable snapping, so it's taken about 5 times longer than it should have done!

Good to know she's had some company We were at home for a few days sorting some bits out and steadily shifting her back to her home mooring for winter now. Kildwick is a nice spot, isn't it?

Lovely to bump into you today (although not literally, thankfully, given the wind!) and what a lovely pic of our boat on there as well! Definitely one of those curious co-incidences! I have to say you have a gorgeous hire boat - she looked absolutely fantastic. We did make it to Saltaire tonight, so all is well. Bit cold and wet by the time we got in, but settling down for fish & chips now Have a good one tomorrow - we'll keep an eye out for you going past us again! Enjoy the rest of the trip.

We bought a Dyson DC34. It charges for 3.5 hours then is good to hoover the boat a few times before it needs recharging. Works well for us. Youngest had a nasty asthma attack this summer (which warranted the Dyson's purchase!) and it's great for getting rid of pet hairs.

And a right back It sounds like this is going to be perfect for both of you from what you've said. Boats are a relaxing place to be where you can do things at whatever pace and there are no expectations or pressures. You sound like a fab dad who's absolutely got it right. I'd love to hear how you both get on.

We don't live on our boat, but my severely autistic 12 year old loves it. He sits and stims and flaps and hums all day long AND sleeps for 5 hours at night on the boat because he doesn't want to wake the birds or the fish! That level of communication for him is astounding - and it's all because he loves the boat. As a lifestyle it's been a real hit with him in so many ways, more than we could have ever imagined. Bizarrely he's safer on the boat than he is on dry land, so we get to relax a little rather than the 24/7 hands-on supervision. And we get to sleep. It's magic We toyed with the idea of selling up and buying a big dutch barge for a while, simply because he finds life so much easier on the water, but we have two other children as well and they do need some headspace from the high-level care needs of their brother from time to time. I think it's an excellent idea for you. If it works half as well for your son as it has for ours, then you'll be grinning from ear to ear. Best of luck with it - hope you find a boat that works for you both soon.

Yes - York boats have a floating pontoon, so are safe. The flood defences have been breached in a few parts of the city during the night and homes that are normally safe from flooding have been hit. We've always booked into York Marina when the river's flooded in the past, but I wonder how all the boats are getting on at the moment. Water levels are incredibly high.

Actually - we live in central York close to the Museum Gardens. This IS out of the ordinary for the city. Everyone is comparing it with the 2000 floods and we're anticipating it's going to come in just short of the levels it reached back then. I feel very sorry for the people who've lost their boat. It's just awful for them.

You could moor on the services pontoon at Naburn- but people do need to use this. It's mooring on a water point and makes life difficult for others. Last time the river rose when we were there, 9 narrowboats were stuck and ended up mooring abreast on the two mooring rings above water in the Foss Basin. All you can do is find something to moor to above water, wait it out and keep checking the mooring lines because the river levels shift very quickly and it's easy to be caught out going up and down! I'll never forget the time when my dad popped on board for a cuppa - got down onto the boat for it. Less than an hour later he had to get back down off the boat to the towpath because the river levels had gone up so much. There hadn't been much rain at all in York over the previous few days, although there must have been further north. It's a shame - York is such a lovely place to be, yet the boating facilities aren't great at all. The council are apparently looking at it as an issue, but we'll have to see

We have a small Eglu and 4 chickens in our back garden. Never been tempted to take them on the boat, but I don't blame people for wanting them around - they've got lovely personalities. The Eglu has been fab - it's cool in the summer and the girls seem to be very cosy in there in the winter too. Cleaning is a real doddle with it. However, we found that the run that came with the Eglu was way too small, so we built a much larger walk-in one - with a fox-proof floor. I suspect they'd have been fine with the Eglu run, but I'm not keen on them free ranging without someone around as we do get foxes. Loving the sound of Christina and her chickens

[quote name='g916' timestamp='1346709536' post='933324'] Is it feasable to buy miles away from where you'll moor it and use the canals to get there? obviously it'll take a while but??? [/quote] Yes - we did. We live in York too and brought ours up from Staffordshire when we bought her. Took a couple of weeks, but it was a lovely holiday

We live in York but moor near Castleford. The river seems to flood every time we bring the boat to York. I think we're cursed

Don't if this will help or not, but I run my Macbook Air on the boat alongside a Powergorilla. I plug the computer into the gorilla and they charge together while the engine is running. I then have about 4 hours battery life, plus about the same from the gorilla - so I can work most of a day without having to worry about it. Not the cheapest of set ups, but it's been fab this summer as I've needed to work aboard most days. We run it through the inverter though, not on the 12v circuit.

I'd second that - it seems to catch a lot of people unawares! Think I was lucky - managed to get the boat home yesterday before it went into the red. Bit of a slog though - youngest was admitted to hospital to have his appendix removed, so I had to do the trip from Huddersfield with just my teenage daughter. Long day, but thankfully lots of lovely boaters along the way. Would someone mind letting us know when it drops again, please? A friend wants to borrow the boat, so we've got to shift it again before the weekend.

Since an insect bite landed me in hospital a couple of years back, I'm Mrs Repellant! I've used the Boots Repel Once brand for the past two summers and it's been fab. I've had 2 bites this year in odd places where I've not had the repelling stuff (my heel!) but I now take anti-histamines daily, so no nasty flare up. We've been afloat for 5 weeks now, so that's seriously good going for me. A colleague gave me a bottle of the Avon stuff to try, but now I've found something I know works, I haven't tried it yet! Everyone tells me it's very good though.

Noooooo! I'm on holiday. No lamination, no red pens and no alarm clocks

Scratch that last question - hubby changed the 'input mode'. It shouldn't have been PAL apparently. How cool is this? Working TV on the boat!

Thanks everyone - really do appreciate the help We're a bit further along the Avon tonight, and with a bit of fiddling, a lot of advice following and a bought-today satellite signal finder we now have BBC1 (with picture and sound!) Wooohooo! Unfortunately it's in black and white, but hey - we have a telly The set itself is great for DVDs, which is what we mainly use anyway - none of us watch much TV, so very glad we don't have to replace it. Not sure what's causing the B&W - faulty cable or receiver? Even the menu screen in black and white. Any guesses? You've been fab thus far SCART - it came with the receiver and the connection is nice and secure. Signal strength - 89% intensity, 74% quality tonight. Last night was 79% intensity but we struggled to get it above 14% quality. Feeling less like taking an axe to it tonight

Yes, we've done the compass thing on the iPhone and spent a few hours in several locations trying all manner of angles. I'd read that it was good - might well have been on here - but finding it beyond frustrating at the moment. Had hoped to get it going tonight - we're moored completely in the open. Will keep trying...