Circe

We're out on a long cruise at the moment - absolutely wonderful - but now that things have switched from analogue to digital, we have no working telly. In the hope it might help, we picked up one of the Maplins suitcase satellite dishes but as yet haven't been able to get it to work anywhere - town, city or middle of nowhere. Nice clear line of sight tonight, but it's still not happening. It's not the end of the world, but with 3 kids on board it's nice to have TV access on occasion. What would you suggest? Not after anything fancy - basic channels would be absolutely fine if we can get those. Any recommendations very gratefully received.

Midlands. She still looked primary age (although upper end of it) My 9 year-old son did some locks that day with his dad, so they can't have been too bad (says she who always does the steering )

That's what normally happens. Thankfully. I'm still a bit jittery a couple of days later about it, but thankfully no harm done to us. Much as I approve of children learning to do locks (under supervision and safely) I'm having to resist the urge to frisk any nearby children for hidden windlasses.

It was brought home to me the other day just how suddenly things can happen - although it's not cill related, it was definitely lock related and the scariest moment I've had whilst boating. Narrow lock. The 3 kids and me on board, hubby operating the lock for us to ascend. So he winds the ground paddle partly up. Next thing I know, a small girl has used a windlass we didn't even see her holding to open the gate paddle full on the other side. I yelled. Boat was sucked hard, despite full reverse (and a centre line holding her) and bounced off the front gates under the full flow of the water. Hubby, meanwhile, dropped the ground paddle and virtually leapt over the lock to drop the gate paddle on the other side. Small girl with adults still on that side of the lock, completely oblivious. Took me a fair bit of wine to stop shaking after that one. But it does show you just how quickly things can go awry - or it did me anyway.

It's easier to use VHF than it is to scrabble around in books looking for phone numbers - for us anyway. We've got a handheld VHF set that hangs right next to the hatch, so it's on hand and ready to use. When we're on a long cruise, we do book into Marinas periodically (mostly so we can do some laundry!) We would have stopped in one marina, but there were no signs to indicate where we could have tied up, where the office was etc so we turned around and left again. Didn't have the phone number handy, so didn't call. We spent the night on the canal instead and used a laundrette in the next town. So there you go - it's an indecisive response from me. But if they did answer on VHF, I probably would have used that - easier than googling for phone numbers in a poor signal area. I suspect we're in a minority though - we use VHF quite a lot normally, so it's almost second nature.

Yes, we bit the bullet & went for a breasted up mooring there. Love the real community spirit of the place - they've been very kind to us since we arrived. Pollington's always struck me as really pretty and it's in an interesting spot with cruising options. Fab stuff - really pleased for you.

Great news. I have to admit a fondness for Pollington lock - smooth and scarily efficient! It's a nice spot - we'll wave when we next pass

It's you! Nice to see you virtually as well I've got a pic of you all heading in the other direction - just need to do the camera to laptop thing. Will be back with that when I get myself organised this morning. Bad timing with the vino - hope you topped up supplies before heading off again. We'll be following in your footsteps on Sunday

For me, it was a combo of the proximity of Harvey Nicks and a champagne bar

We're on a bit of a cruise at the moment - set off from York two weeks ago and we're currently moored up in Stratford with theatre tickets for Saturday night We've seen some forum members on the way so far (although I'm sure one or two wondered who the madwoman was waving at them!) which has been absolutely lovely. We're looping back round after the weekend. Down to Tewkesbury, up through Worcester, the Shroppie, over the Pennines again (I'm still in love with the Hudd) and back home again by the end of the month. It's probably the strangest ring in the world, but we're loving it Anyone got any recommendations of unmissable things/people to wave at on the way?

We lived in Brum about 18 years ago and visited Gas Street earlier this week. I was blown away. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. The place has changed SO much - I nearly got lost!

He laughed when I suggested posting it. In all fairness, I'd have gone completely if I'd have slipped - not enough upper-body strength.

I remember a thread round about the time I joined the forum about the definition of when a boat had sunk and when it was still sinking. So, firmly tongue in cheek, I ask you to settle a debate between myself and the hubby. We made it to Gas Street yesterday - lots of locks and some torrential downpours. Really tired by the time we got in, and hubby's foot slipped on the gunwhale as we were bringing the boat in to tie up. Thankfully he was holding on, so the worst of the damage was a bit of dented pride in front of an audience and a foot which went clean into the canal. The rest of him (after a bit of a lurch) ended up on the towpath. Does this, or does this not constitute falling in?

I think we hit it lucky - the shop was open (we bought a fender) and the woman in the shop was pretty helpful with the key. I assumed that it mustn't be a BW waterpoint. One along there would be handy - I seem to remember there's a bit of a gap between waterpoints, which is why we needed to use the Marina one.

Looby Loo - I don't know what happened. RCR were well aware of the situation we were in and were sympathetic (although no practical help beyond sending the guy initially) and we put the complaint in writing too. They didn't say whether they'd use the contractor again or not but they did apologise for what had happened. I wish there was an additional premium we could take out for rapid response, like the AA/RAC do. If you have a disabled passenger - particularly a child, you get priority assistance. Would happily pay more for this rather than going through the difficulties we did. I do worry about breaking down now...

Sorry! Didn't mean to make things complicated. In fairness, they did get us going again eventually. If the bloke hadn't taken some bits away with him on the third trip to the boat on day 1, we'd have called a local boatyard instead. Then because no one could get hold of him, we couldn't leave the boat because we had no idea when he'd be back. They can't all be as bad as that, they really can't! I think (hope) it may have been simply down to a poor contractor on that occasion.

When we bought our boat last year, we took out RCR silver cover. One of our concerns was that as we have a seriously disabled child, we didn't want to end up getting stuck in the middle of nowhere, as we would struggle to be able to move our son and get him elsewhere safely. I had a long discussion with them at Crick and was reassured by them. As (bad) luck would have it, we broke down about 6 miles from a large town. They sent a contractor to us, who verbally guaranteed to complete the work same day. He took a couple of parts away and vanished for the next 48 hours. By the time he reappeared, we had a full loo, no electric, little food and a very distressed child. To add insult to injury, a straightforward job had its costs hiked by charging us for journeys to and from his workshop (for lunch and to collect tools) with hours also charged for unloading and loading his van each time he went back. This may be normal (I honestly don't know) but that alone was well over £100. I feel angry about it still - if he'd said 3 days, we'd have asked RCR to get us off the boat. He said he'd get us moving same day. His final bill was three times what he'd estimated. I don't deal well with people like that. I certainly wouldn't give that contractor repeat business if there was ANY alternative. We're currently wondering if we renew with RCR or not. RCR said they had no responsibility beyond putting us in touch with the contractor, so when he lied, we were totally screwed. I'm still uncertain but there are few other options out there, so we may have to renew. We're not in a position where we can risk it. Incidentally, the 2 hours of his time RCR paid for went on him loading his van, driving to us, looking at the engine mounting, driving back to his workshop for lunch, unloading and then reloading his van. If RCR send their own chap, I'm assured the clock starts ticking when he's at the boat starting work. That's much better! There's a massive difference in quality of service with some contractors. I'm sure not all were as bad as the one we had.

I'd agree. We've come from Keadby to Newark today and had a couple of commercial vessels go past. They're big - we don't like getting in the way, and it's easier with VHF. It's also handy to talk to the lockies as we head down to Nottingham (love the Trent - it's got to be one of the most efficient waterways!) We use VHF a lot, but that's not surprising as our mooring is on the Aire and we live in York. Lots of busy/tidal waterways in our stamping ground. However, once we're off the Trent, I don't think we'll be using VHF again for quite some time - as you said, there's no need on the smaller canals. Hubby and I use British Sign Language to communicate when one of us is doing the locks. That's remarkably efficient and doesn't need charging However, like other methods of communication, it's line of sight only

Sounds like it's going to be a fun trip when we make it onto the Trent. Just waiting for youngest to be discharged from the local hospital, then hopefully it'll be us doing the long-haul to Cromwell. What a start to the holiday! Keadby's very quiet. Not seen much movement at all in the last few days.

Ours is on a peg right next to the back door. Could grab it in a second if it was needed, but thankfully we haven't needed it yet. It came with the boat, and they also kindly left us a ladder that rolls out and clips onto the side of the boat, so it's easier to climb back on if someone goes over. Really nice people

Sounds like exciting times! It could be a positive move for the area, or it could make it stupidly busy. Hard to tell, really. I rather like it there, so I hope it does good things to the place if it goes ahead

I like Pearson's - love their commentaries on the different areas! I didn't gel with Nicholson's in quite the same way - they're more detailed but have less personality! Recently I've been reading about canal maps for smartphones. Nothing to do with me, but I thought it sounded like something we'd potentially buy in the future.

It sounds like you're in the market to a similar NB to us. We bought a cracking little 1993 boat last summer - the survey on the hull etc showed that she was in excellent condition and we know we've got a seriously good buy. We need to do an external repaint (and the fridge died a couple of months ago) but other than that... *touches wood* I would hope that the boat would more-or-less hold its value from here because of the price we bought her for. I've no intention of selling her, so in that sense it doesn't matter. We just fell in love with her, and couldn't be happier The full survey is definitely sensible advice. We had some excellent help and advice from people here when we were going through the buying process. I suspect we'd not have got such a good deal without them!

I'd just promised to stop looking at Apolloduck as we really couldn't afford a boat, when one popped up that we just HAD to go and see. It was love at first sight. She still needs a repaint, but she could have been made for us. Third boat we saw - no hesitation, no regrets. She's just lovely.

We picked up a hitch-hiker going through the Standedge tunnel last summer. Nice chap with a folding bike who sat in the well-deck on the way through! We also hired a fair bit before we bought (and after we bought as well - we'd already booked the holiday and couldn't cancel!) It's helped us to decide that we really, really wanted our own boat