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I felt a bit guilty the first few times I threw the contents of the cafetiere into the canal, until I realised that sending it down the drain had the same effect, it all ends up in the canal. Now we do the same as Dekazer, and we use eco products. What do you use to unstop the pipes? The liquid we use at home is definitely not environmentally friendly, and on the boat it goes into the canal when poured into the pipes. Is there an eco-friendly product?

Thank you all for your replies. We are able to drive a boat into a narrow lock without hitting the sides (well, most of the time), so we are not put off by narrow spaces between boats. And an early start is no problem, we are early risers. You have taken a worry from us, thanks for that, Helen

Yes, I thought you were our neighbour, nice to meet you here! We might just do as you suggest. We've never been to a festival, when we only had two weeks a year on a hire boat we took time off to visit nice places along the way, but mostly we were cruising. Now we spend much more time on the canals and it sounds like a good idea to enjoy a festival and meet lots of other boaters!

Yes, I have seen this one, but it says nothing about any hold-ups or stoppages. (Or am I not looking properly?)

This summer we'll be cruising for four weeks. Starting from Brinklow, we'll go to Foxton, Burton-upon-Trent, Great Haywood, Stourport, Tewkesbury, Stratford, Napton and back to Brinklow. I just read about the IWA Waterways Festival being held at the end of July. I checked with CanalPlan and... on the dates of the festival we will be in that region. So the question is: will the canal be open for boats wanting to continue their journey? I don't worry about delays of a couple of hours, there will be plenty to see and we allways allow extra time for unexpected hold-ups, but not getting through for a couple of days would be problematic. Doing the 'ring' in the opposite direction is no option, our daughter and boyfriend join us for the first two weeks, it is his first time on a boat and she really wants to show him Braunston tunnel and Foxton locks. I can't find any information on the internet, are there forum members who can help ? Thanks a lot, Helen

Our experience is that hire companies will do their best to keep the customer satisfied. We had booked a boat with a company we had been to before, we like their boats and the routes, we knew that this boat was still being fitted when we booked. A few days before our holiday began, they emailed us to say that the boat would not be ready for us, but they offered another, bigger boat at no extra cost. When we arrived, that boat was not ready as well, they had decided to put in a new kitchen, but that took longer than planned. They offered us many apologies and made sure that the boat was ready early in the evening. As a gesture of goodwill the company paid for the groceries we had ordered through them and they even threw in a couple of bottles of wine. Early the next morning we set off. We returned to that company three or four times after this. In the year of the floods (2007?) we booked a boat on the L&L. Before we came over (P&O Ferry to Hull, an expensive crossing), we kept in touch with the company, if there was no chance of moving a boat due to the floods, we were not going to come to the UK, but they said to come over and see how things were at that moment. The boat we had booked was stuck in Stanley Ferry, we were given two options: go to the boat and see what happens, but the chances were that we would not be able to move during the next two weeks, we said no to that. The other option was that they would take us in a mini-van to a place that was over an hour's drive away, where another boat of that company was available. We gladly accepted that offer and had a good (although wet) holiday. Ok, sometimes you end up on another boat than the one you booked, but that is not the end of the world and in both cases we could see the reasons why it happened and the way the hire companies reacted was very pleasant and professional, both wanted us to have a good holiday and did everything they could to make that so.

Most of what we know about boathandling we learned from very friendly boatowners who showed us, hirers, how to do things, from using the right knots to boating in strong winds and took us with them through the locks. Almost everyone was very friendly and happy to share their knowledge. We met the occasional boater with a very shiny new boat who was afraid of scratches on the paint, well, you just smile and say hello. The only time people were rude to us was when they thougt we were German, when we explained that we are Dutch they turned like a leaf and we shared quite a few locks with them and ended up having tea together.

In the 12 years that we hired, I was the one to steer the boat. I really love doing that, although I did do the odd lock. Now we have our own boat, we take turns steering and doing the locks, we try to split it up equally, but I still do more of the steering, my husband is much quicker in working narrow locks as he steps from one gate onto the other and I have to walk round and back again. My husband also likes walking the towpath, and often kindly offers to do the locks. In March we went up the beautiful Ashby Canal, from our marina there is only one lock, at Hawkesbury Junction, and we took turns steering the boat, on the return journey I did the stretches he did before and vice versa. In May I went on a boating holiday with my (grown) daughter, just the two of us. We had a great time, and it was nice that we both could do the locks and do the steering. Ok, we had some trouble pushing the boat from the bank when the wind blew us away, and a strong male would have been a great help at that time, but we managed to free the boat even if it took 30 minutes and a lot of giggling.

PM sent

Hi BelgiumBrit, We are Dutch and live in The Netherlands, we encountered similar problems when we bought our narrowboat last year. We had trouble opening an English bank account as we are no UK-residents. In the end we did find a bank that was willing to accept us, only to be told that we must give them proof of residency in our own country. They only accepted a drivers's licence or a bank statement for this. There is no address on the Dutch driver's licences, and we normally don't carry a bank statement with us when we are on holiday. The next time we came over to the UK (a couple of months later) we brought said statement with us and we then were able to open the account. (We wanted the account so we can use the debit card when shopping and buying groceries etc. instead of the Dutch card where we pay a fee for every transaction abroad and we do not want to carry a lot of cash with us.) We also had trouble finding an insurance company that would accept non-UK residents. We were given the name of a company that might accept us, and after mailing them, they did! When we did not yet have the bank account, we were only allowed to buy a pay-as-you-go dongle.(Suits us fine now) When applying for the BW-licence, we found that on the application form one cannot fill in a non-UK address. On the form it says that when you give incorrect details, they reject the application and send the form back to you, so we phoned the BW-office and were told to fill in our address as well as possible and they would sort it out. We received the licence within 14 days after sending in the application. So phoning people and searching on the internet will pay off. We found all the people who helped us very friendly and cooperative, everything has ended well, it just takes up a lot of time

Thanks Richard for fixing the photo Helen

Two years back, on our last trip on a hire boat, we were on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal when all of a sudden the engine started to make a strange noise and black smoke came out of the exhaust. Our son reacted quickly and shut off the engine. We drifted to the bank, tied up and opened the weedhatch. To our dismay we saw that a cratchcover was firmly stuck round the propellor and shaft. It took my husband over an hour to get the thing off, using the breadknife as that was the only 'tool' we had. When we bought our own boat last year, the first present I give him was an all-pupose saw, we have not used it yet, I'm pleased to say.

On the notice boards near the entrance of tunnels we are told to extinguish all naked lights and not to use cooking appliances. I wondered if it is allright to take your boat through a tunnel with the stove or range lit. I know there are no naked flames as the door of the stove will be closed, but what about the smoke, will that not be a problem in a tunnel, especially a long one where there is a very slow-going boat in front of you?

Thanks for explaining and thank you for the Welcome, I have been reading the threads on the Forum for some time now and they have been great fun and a good source of information. I'll be posting questions in the other forums and I'm sure I will get great answers. Helen

Hello, I've spent some time trying to get myself an avatar. My profile information shows the pricture I uploaded as my current atavar, but the avatar is not shown in the upper righthand corner when I am signed on, nor is it displayed when I look myself up in the members list. Can you please tell me what I've done wrong? Helen After posting I saw that the avatar is shown next to the post, so that is allright. How do I get the same picture in the other places instead of the shadowy figure?