comfortably numb

Our boat is a cruiser stern so the pram cover is more difficult to lower or take down even without the sides on, so when we go out for just a day we lower it beforehand and leave it so until be return to the marina. If we go out for longer we completely remove it which takes about 20 minutes. The bridges round here (T&M) are too low for it to be left up when cruising. When we were looking to buy a boat we vowed we'd never have a pram hood as I hated the things, but the boat we bought had one so we thought we would try it, and when moored up for the winter months it has been a godsend as an extra room and ideal for getting out of wet clothes/shoes or towelling down the dog before entering the cabin. The biggest pain is when we have to have a pump out every few weeks because the marina is split in two with a very low and narrow bridge between us and the pump out facility so on each occasion we have to lower it and put it up again afterwards.

I have one with a magnetic base which goes on the roof, but it is currently surrounded by 4 bags of coal to help hold it down and to give it some protection from the wind.

Just as Junior does, I worry about many issues with my boat. I am new to this as we bought our boat around the same time as Junior, and I am always worrying about various things and being a complete novice with most technical stuff, this forum has been a godsend. I too had worries about the trim of the boat and spent months moving the ballast around at the stern. Some have told me my boat sits too far into the water at the stern and yet despite this any water in the bilge still won't run into the part under the prop where the pump is. I've looked at many other boats and they also sit as low as mine so I've given up worrying any longer. I've worried about the engine smoking a lot on start up, the leaking stern gland, the batteries not holding the charge, my engine's tendency to get a bit hot, preparing the boat for winter, carrying out my own engine servicing because I could do without having to pay anyone to do it, and other things like my recent water pump problems. Add to this the 1001 jobs I should be doing but never seem to have time for and it all adds to the stress levels. But having owned the boat for just over a year I'm now gradually beginning to accept my inadequacies and worry less about some of these issues. We bought the boat and chose to live aboard so as to ease our stress and not add to it, so that is what I'm going to try and do from now on. What ever will be will be as the saying goes.

There is a documentary on Channel 4 called Walking Through History. Tony Robinson traces the history of the building of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. It is on at 8pm next Saturday and may be worth a watch.

As has been said it's a lovely canal, One other thing to bear in mind is that from Vines Park to the River Severn there is little scope for mooring even if just to stop and have a sandwich due to the canal being so narrow. So for lunch it's either eat on the move (which we did) or stop briefly on a lock landing which some others were doing.

I gained 6 inches on mine. The broker stated 62' but the surveyor measured it as 62' 6" excluding fenders. I nearly pulled out of the deal because that 6 inches may prevent me from cruising some of the routes I want to. The broker also said the engine had been reconditioned 2 years previously when in fact it was 4 years before.The water tank capacity was supposed to be 1200 litres but is more like 800. And there are a few other discrepancies too which I've found out since. So it does really pay to check these things out, particularly those which are important to you.

My 16 year old BMC 1.8 38bhp averages about 1.7 litres an hour at a steady 1400 RPM.

New Jabsco Par Max water pump fitted this morning and so far all is well. Thanks again boys.

Typical of you youngsters you never heed our advice and always think you know better. Gawd, how I remember my dad constantly saying this to me many years ago when I was a similar age to TJ Seriously though, I can appreciate why TJ initially came on here to seek advice as buying a boat is such a huge step and understandably he wouldn't have sussed about brokers viewing this forum. And as for his reaction, I know how he feels because I'm often a little 'ratty' after I occasionally do a 12 hour night shift, as my misses often tells me. Good luck TJ and I hope it all works out and you get yourself a decent boat, and once acquired you will come on here regularly contributing and asking for advice. There are so many old farts on here as well as generally within the boating world (including me) that younger people like you should be welcomed. This is a great forum but you'll always get the odd spat usually as a result of either a miss-read post or a poorly thought out comment, but there is a wealth of experience and expertise to draw from. Generally folk on here are sound and everyone is so willing to help and advise. Hope you stick around.

I did measure the pressure like this. Also the pump runs continuously irrespective of whether the taps are on or not.

I should have taken people's advice (tut tut) and bought a PRV with a gauge which would have given me some information about the pressure, but I couldn't find a gauged one with the bar pressure I wanted. Also I wasn't able to get a hosepipe onto any of the taps that 'Keeping Up' suggested was a way to find out the pressure. I looked at David's suggestion about cleaning or replacing the pump's pressure valve/switch but TBH I haven't the confidence to attempt this but thanks anyway). I have tested the pressure in the accumulator as per Bottle's suggestion. It was less than 0.5 bar so I pumped it up to 1 bar but it didn't cure it. As many of you other have said, it really does look as though it is the pressure switch on the pump not doing its job, so on the basis that the pump is old and the make of it isn't the best, I have decided to buy a new pump, and I am going for the Jabsco par-max that has been recommended by a few of you. It is the 25psi (flow rate 11litres per minute) which I trust will be suitable for my calorifier PRV which is 4 bar. Once again you've all been very helpful and I thank you all for your time and effort. For a technical dummy like me it is invaluable and hopefully others similar to me who have looked in on this thread may have learnt something too.

Shortly after posting this last thread the water pump began to switch on continuously and I noticed that water was dribbling out of the calorifier overflowrunaway pipe through the skin fitting and into the canal. So after reading some of your comments I thought that it must be the calorifier PRV causing the problem. Turning it a few times didn't do the trick so I decided to replace it, and despite advice on another thread here to go for a 3bar, I ended up replacing 'like for like' with a 4 bar one. The old PRV had a lot of limescale inside and when I turned the knob the valve hardly moved compared to the new one, so I thought that must have been the problem. After fitting the new one the water pump only kicking in when the taps were used, problem solved I thought. Then suddenly after being fine for 18 hours the water pump began once again to come on and stay on continuously, and once again water began to dribble out of the overflow after a minute or two of the pump being switched on. So any ideas what the problem could be? I must confess I haven't yet tried some of the other suggestions such as checking and adjusting the pressure of the water pump and accumulator and cleaning out the water pump valves, because of the fresh evidence I found with the calorifier overflow, so should this be my next course of action even though the symptoms are water dribbling out of the calorifier overflow? My lack of confidence is such that I only want to start messing with these if there is a real chance that these could be causing the problem. If it hadn't been for that water coming out of the overflow I'd have investigated the pump first but if it's unlikely to be that then I'd rather not risk messing. Despite my lack of confidence in these matters I really do want to learn, but perhaps I should really call in a professional !!

Stunning photos and well work getting stuck in the mud for. I never have my camera handy whenever the opportunity arises. A few weeks ago when I was sitting in the cratch having a smoke, a kingfisher perched on our headlamp less than an arms length away. It was there for over a minute and I sat there in awe admiring it, not daring to move a muscle. The best opportunity I had when on the move was on the Upper Avon when one was perched on a rope across a weir, and where was my camera? At the other end of the boat of course!

In October we came across a jet skier on the BCN in a straight stretch of the Tame Valley Canal. We could see it ahead of us speeding up and down with the wash spurting onto the towpath. By the time we reached him he had run out of fuel and was scratching his head trying to figure out how to get it back to his trailer, a mile further along the canal.

I have been told that it isn't bad luck if the boat's name is changed when it is completely out of the water. Poppycock as far as I am concerned. We are soon to be changing ours but we aren't going to wait until it's next blacking to do it. But if you are superstitious about this then I've been told that so long as you have the old name somewhere within the boat then that's okay, and I know somebody who just painted the old name on the inside of the bow locker lid. If it gave them peace of mind then why not I suppose.

At the CRT open meeting in Birmingham last night I asked Richard Parry how the CRT ground staff (employed ones not volunteers) were supervised, how their tasks were costed in terms of time taken for each job and number of persons required. I asked this because on 3 occasions in the last year I have been moored close by to where work was going on, and on each occasion there appeared to be a lot of skiving. The workforce would turn up around 8.30am, sit in their vans for half an hour, and work for a few hours before spending a couple of hours back in their vans. Then they would work a bit more before leaving around 3 – 3.30pm. Even allowing for the fact that they may have had to call via a depot before and afterwards it didn’t seem to me that they were doing a decent days work. A less recent experience I had a few years ago was when at about 3pm I came across a BWW man sitting in the cabin of his dredger reading a newspaper, and he told me he was killing time because it was too early to return to the depot. The answer I got was as expected really, i.e that because of the nature of the job it’s very difficult to supervise their workforce, but that the projected timescale of each job is calculated beforehand. This to me begs two questions. Firstly, should they have more supervisors? Presumably the numbers of them have been reduced over the years as cost cutting measures which is false economy IMO. Secondly, how qualified are the people who assess the timescales needed for these jobs? Like with many other businesses these days those people are usually recruited by virtue of their paper qualifications rather than those with ‘on the job’ experience who would have the necessary knowledge. What do you others think and have you come across CRT workers who appear to be skiving? There were quite a few nods of agreement from other boaters when I broached the subject last night.

I thought it was a good meeting, well attended, well presented, and informative. It was split into two sessions. The first was a 'questions from the floor' which were answered by Richard and some of his colleagues, and the 2nd (during and after the sandwich buffet) was a chance to chat to Richard and the other CRT people as well as other boaters of course. Good to meet some of you others off here.

It just makes you feel better

They did, and ours has just arrived so we'll be trying it out tomorrow. Pophops don't forget only brown bread for the ducks and preferably wholemeal.

Once again some marvellous advice boys so thank you. Much appreciated. Some has gone right over my head as usual but I get the gist. I will tackle it tomorrow and report back if further problems.

No not really. They will adapt to any environment even noisy ones if there is food and shelter readily available. Ideally they prefer peace and quiet and as little contact as possible with us and our activities, hence the reason they are predominantly nocturnal. If you see rats in the daytime it usually means that there is either a shortage of food or competition for it so they are prepared to risk foraging for it when it's less quiet. The same applies when they are bold enough to not be bothered by your presence. With regards to the diseases they carry, Leptospirosis (Weil's disease) is the most common which can be transferred to us from their urine either within water such as the canal, or through contact with it even when it has dried (via cuts and abrasions or through the mouth from your fingers when eating or smoking having come into contact with it). I once came across a 10 year old child who had caught Weil's disease from the rats urine that was present on his little sit on tricycle that had been left in the garden. Thankfully he survived it but it wasn't very nice! If ever you fall in and ingest canal water or you have any cuts/abrasions when falling in, always shower (obviously) and take 2 paracetamol. Then if you develop cold/flu like symptoms within 48 hours you must consult a doctor. I know of two boaters who have contracted Weil's disease, one of them died from it and the other was very ill for months. That is why we have to control the rat population. Besides which, as well as them carrying Weil's disease they also can transfer other types of diseases from the places they have been such as sewers.

I am going along to the one in Birmingham tomorrow night. Is there anybody else from this forum going?

You don't have to stop feeding the birds on account of the rats. Instead consider if there is a possibility of doing it differently. Never put food on the ground for the birds. Hanging fat-balls are quite good because there is little spillage, so are those mesh peanut holders. And if you use a bird table put less on it but more often and use a baking tray so as to minimise spillage. With all 3 methods get into the habit of taking them down and bringing them inside at night (when rats are most active). I know it's a ball ache but better this than depriving the birds by not feeding them at all. They are quite capable of getting onto your roof as they are extremely good climbers, and if you have those 'bus type' windows with the glass that tilts and opens at the top they could quite easily get into your boat . Sorry, that was a little devilment and a bit naughty of me as I wouldn't want to cause anybody sleepless nights. So to put it into perspective, I have those type of windows on my boat and I leave mine open at night.

I very much doubt that the cat died from the poison inside the rat. This is called secondary poisoning and Patty-ann is correct in her statement because whatever species consumes a poisoned rodent the strength isn't sufficient to be fatal. Dead birds of prey and various mammals (usually road-killed ones) have been analysed over the years and although small quantities of poison have been found inside them, there has never been enough to have killed them. More likely this cat has died from direct consumption of the neighbour's poison. There is supposed to be a bittering agent in rodenticides to deter non target species, but it sometimes doesn't deter cats and dogs from eating it. For anybody wishing to undertake a DIY job rather than calling in a professional I can't stress enough the importance of ensuring that the poison is placed responsibly, and inaccessible to non target species such as pets, birds, squirrels etc (and children of course). If you don't want to buy a rat bait box (circa £10) then use bricks or stones to cover it, just leaving a few golf ball size holes so rats can access it - even large rats can easily squeeze through a gap that size. Other materials which can be used are tiles, slates, timber, or a section of plastic drainpipe. If using grain poison, bear in mind that it can spill, and if using the wax block types always secure with wire otherwise rats may move them into the open. Sorry to have harked on a bit. It's just that over the years in my job I have seen countless very sad cases of pets and wildlife needlessly poisoned due to the irresponsible poison placing. The most amazing one was a lady who scattered grain poison on her bird table because that is where she had seen the rats, and then wondered why there were so many dead birds in her garden.

I need a replacement PRV for my calorifier. The existing one is 4bar but I can only find a 3bar one at the local plumbers merchants. The water pump on the boat is 2bar. Will a 3bar PRV be okay and if so what would be the significance if any, if I fitted the 3bar one?