Arthur Marshall

I must try that. I must admit the signs get on my nadgers, especially the ones referring to "master boaters". Amusing, vaguely, the first time you see it. The hundredth, no.

I've put two springs on my boat at its mooring for the first time ever (usually just have one), and I used one when on holiday, also for the first time, just because of the number and speed of passing boats. One boat at the mooring had its rope snapped as a boat went past. Certainly worse this year.

That's very typical of the Bosley lockies, I'm afraid. I had the joy of one of them walking up the locks as I worked up singlehanded, ignoring me completely until I got to the top one, where he put down his coffee and wound me up, and then gave me a lecture on what I was doing wrong and how I should have done them all! I retained my temper, thanked him nicely, and muttered "pillock" as I sailed off. Only once have they been more use than a chocolate teapot, and I've been on the Macc fifteen years now.

I usually just tell them it's a clearing up shower, as I feel it cheers them up a bit after spending about a grand to stand in the rain all day.

I got told by the guy blacking my boat that it was too thin for safety. When it came out for replating two years later, after the sand blasting you could see through the metal at the back. It had only been the bitumen keeping the water out.

The real wonder, I suspect, would be if a surveyor ever turned up anything useful. Most surveys are so full of weasels they could house a menagerie. I know it's slightly different, but my last house structural survey basically said the house should be avoided because he didn't like the layout and there was a council estate half a mile away. He missed every single thing actually faulty.

This is now defined by CRT as "at least one at each end". Any more is a bonus, and you should be grateful. If this policy is queried, you will be told it's a restriction due to the current pandemic.

Its not been road tax as such for many years, it's just fuel duty now. Same as NI contributions are really just another income tax. It all goes into the same pot.

I'm intending on writing myself. Be interesting to see what we get.

CRT don't usually fix what's broke these days, either!

No, you only need two bodies, one at each end. That's the Covid safety thing. No reason it has to be the same two bodies all day. That's just halving the cost, nothing to do with virus restrictions. Having more people at each end at the same time isn't going to speed anything up at all. They slowed it down a while back when they stopped paying the guys over their lunch break, and told them they had to go off duty for half an hour - which meant no boats could either be put in or be travelling during that time.

The LA is also, I think, required to provide sites for travellers -they don't do that either. These days, they are so short of funds that they are hard pushed to even collect the rubbish. And as they no longer control most of the secondary schools, choice is going to be very limited, and take a lot of time and effort to negotiate. I think it was more the committee all fell out with each other, rather than a matter of funding. But their advice may still be useful.

How will a bigger team help or reduce the time waiting??, and what on earth have Covid restrictions got to do w.ith it? There's one person at each end, and you can't go in till everyone's out. I can't see the justification for either reduced hours or having to book.

The NBTA are worth contacting. They do get a lot of criticism on here (mostly due to their reputed lack of desire to actually travel), but a lot of their members are boat dwellers with kids and they should have some useful pointers. As I understand it, a child has the right to schooling and a place in a school. Your problem may come at the other end, when you want to withdraw her from school for a while. Legally you are entitled to be nomadic, but the system doesn't make it easy.

As has been said, the problem will be to find a school that can accommodate a part-year pupil. Presumably you would return to a base mooring each winter so she could go to the same school, rather than try to find a new school every time, which might well be impossible. I would expect a public school, which would get paid for it, is more likely to be accommodating than a state school, though as there are now several kinds of school (academy, free, council run) and the system is so fragmented it's very hard to say. And the academies change hands, so an agreement made at one time may well be reneged on. Free schools may use unqualified teachers. The education system is now a disorganised mess and you have to bear that in mind, there's no central place to check. Maybe best to decide where you want to winter and contact all the local schools for their advice, labour intensive though it is.

I still use the old Nicholsons with the maps vertically at the side of the page. I find the new ones quite difficult to follow, the page turns aren't very intuitive. If i want pubs or shops I use maps.me offline as nothing printed is up to date. Pearson's has a more narrative approach, but as my old books have seversl years of annotations, I stick to them.

I bought a GoWindlass to see if it saved my back any effort. My wife's coming on the next trip so it'll be interesting to see if she finds the ratchet useful - I used it twice in three weeks, once just for fun and once on a particularly stiff paddle. Otherwise, the main advantage was having a combination normal and long length thing, as I mostly used the short bit but the extra leverage did come in handy. I suspect that those of us over six foot mostly have enough leverage anyway.

I lived happily on farm leisure moorings for a few years - cheaper and more easygoing than marinas. You do get more security and services in a marina. I'd pick one central in the country so you get a decent touring range when you're home, preferably without thirty locks immediately in both directions!

I had that with a house. Usually house surveys are so riddled with get out clauses it's hard to tell anything. This one said the surveyor wouldn't advise anyone to go through the door without wearing a hard hat and protective clothing!