Dave_P

Water level still rising - just. My link

I don't have or want photobucket or flickr. so i'll just not bother in future.

That's my worry. At least least if they're on the boats, they can control things as the water levels drop and avoid grounding on the railings or something similar. Having said that, I bet they're just glad they're safe for now. I tried uploading to the gallery here and linking to that but I couldn't get the actual picture to display in the thread. Thanks for the help though, your pictures were much better than my measly effort anyway.

Carlt - How do I attach images directly into a thread like that?

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?app=gallery&module=images&section=viewimage&img=5576

Looks like a rescue may be in progress!

I was walking past there on Saturday morning. I seem to remember both boats being moored there at the time (but not breasted up). The at that time the river level was an inch or so from the top of the bank and I was a little concerned for the boats. There is a floating pontoon about 100 yards downstream from the boats. If I had seen any signs of life on these boats I would have suggested walking them down to the pontoon and mooring there for safety since the forecast was for levels to rise further. The pontoon is for the trip boats (which obviously weren't running) and I suspect that the boat owners were reluctant to moor there because they usually wouldn't be allowed. Of course, it's possible that the owners weren't with their boats on saturday. Maybe I should have done more.

If it's interest only then that's different, I must have missied where he said that. Of course, interest rates rise as well as fall.

Sulking?

That's what I was going to say. Something tells me that these figures are highly suspect. Even for an interest only morgage I struggle to believe that figure. And on the general point, comparing boat v house is pretty futile because living costs for either are as high as you want them to be or as low as you can put up with. If I really had to choose, I would say that, if your circumstances allow it, at the bottom end of the scale, you can live more comfortably on a very low income on a boat.

There are marinas which also have canalside moorings along the cut near the marina entrance. I'm pretty sure some of these have leccy. So you would be able to have everything you want. As far as residential/post etc goes, tell the site owner that you're there for less than 50% of the time and they should be fine for you to be officially non-residential. In my experience, the more laid back owners are quite happy for moorers to have post delivered to their office, chandlery etc even if they're officially non-residential, so the address the bank, dvla etc have for you would be your mooring address. The fact is that there are tons of people living unofficially in marinas and staying under-the-radar. When I asked BW for an official response to how much of the time I could be staying on my BW leisure mooring they were quite evasive and tried to suggest that I should ask my local planning dept (yeah right!) When I pressed them they gave a response that they would prefer moorers to be on their moorings for no more than "4 or 5 nights a week". Seems to me that you fall well within that. Also bear in mind that not all marinas are big 200+ boat affairs. I moor in a basin on the Huddersfield Broad canal so we're stacked in like a marina, except there's only about 15 boats. We still have all the usual marina facilities though.

I have some data on this from research which I undertook. It wasn't paid for by anyone. It was for my thesis. PM if you'd like to have a copy.

A lovely boat, but definitely a girls' boat!

Absolutely. The boat must be out of the water.

Don't count on your microwave working on MSW. I have a cheap genny (1000w)which runs my microwave fine but when i use the 2000w inverter (MSW) the microwave comes on and the food revolves but it doesn't get hot. An electrical genius explained why to me, but it went over my head.

Me and the missus have a tradition of badly singing Gershwin's 'Summertime' at the top of our voices (complete with terrible harmonies) whilst in the middle of long tunnels. Usually ends with one or both of us collapsing into laughter at some point and struggling to keep a straight line.

But I AM superior! (along with everyone else on this forum)

Divide and conquer - the oldest strategy in the book....

1. I didn't say they should, just that it would be simpler if they did it rather than anyone else. 2. I have argued previously that living on a boat is much cheaper if you choose it to be, see my posts on other threads, or just take a wander along the more remote parts of the network and make friends with the dwellers of some of the less flashy boats. 3. They are more vulnerable for numerous reasons, including those I've mentioned in this thread. This subject was part of some post-grad research on boat living I did earlier in the year and to which many forum members contributed. At first there was a great degree of scepticism here and people predicted that I would disappear and wouldn't share my results. When I had finished, I did offer to share my thesis with anyone who wanted a copy. Just 3 people asked for one and of those 3, only 1 thanked me... I wonder if it was me who should have been sceptical

You raise a good point because no Navigation Authority in the country acts as a landlord in any way. The question is: should they? Vulnerable people living on land have a safety net: the local authority who have a duty to house local people. Especially if they fall into a vulnerable group. Do continuous cruisers have the same safety net? How easy is it to get housed by a local authority if you don't already permanently live in that authority? To my mind, the simplest solution to this inequality is to require navigation authorities to take more responsibilty for the people who live there. Or course there are many other solutions.... It's just not good enough to wash your hands of a vulnerable group by simply blaming them for their own situation. Apart from anything else, it's uncivilised.

Oh no! not grumpy people! I leave interior lights on in tunnels so I can see the tunnel walls better. It helps with keeping a straight line and spotting potential hazards. Plus I'm a bit a tunnel geek so I like having a good, up-close nosey at the brick or stone. A head torch helps with this too. I reckon whatever you do, it will be wrong for some people and so the grumpys will shout about something. Perhaps, that's all these people get up for in the morning?