Chertsey

Wording on mine is any *one* craft. I just checked as I wondered if I'd been wasting my money getting a second policy for the butty.

That's them. 03333 219431. Nice human people to deal with too. Although to be perfectly precise and accurate, my premium this year was £71.95 including insurance tax. Fully comp insurance for an old boat with no flash fit out or expensive contents is just a take on.

OK, not read to the end but... Basic Boat Liability for third party insurance. It also gives you the salvage cover you need for the licence. I pay £69 p.a. Overplaying a Springer is relatively less easy/cheap than a flat bottomed boat. When I moored at a boatyard it was generally reckoned there not to be a cost effective option.

There are some stretches where it pays not to get too close to the edge, but avoiding those, I've not had any trouble drawing 34"

Ah! See posts elsewhere on the distinction between precision and accuracy!

That's where using your brain comes in, knowing how long it's been kept, at what temperature, and how fresh it was when you got it. Although I think the above is overstating the case, especially if the meat is cooked properly and is being consumed by someone in general good health. Having said that, I'm not interested in keeping meat on the boat; it's an occasional treat when we eat out, not something we feel the need to have every day. Yes, well, everything's out to kill us - you pays your money and picks your poison. Mine's sunshine, with a side order of beer. And diesel fumes.

But they wouldn't, even if it was as efficient, because people like a nice neat white box with no hassle. And I don't think anyone's saying it is as efficient, are they, just that it might be good enough. This obsession with keeping stuff just above freezing point is a very recent one. It's just supermarkets covering their backsides as they sell us ready meals made with ever dodgier meat, while we've lost the ability (or our confidence in the ability) to use our eyes, noses and brains to judge whether something's safe to eat. Oh, and the wet teatowel method works a treat on the dog (see other thread)

I'll second that... I used to be quite smug that PB and I both did locks and both did steering, until after our last trip I realised I'd not worked a single lock, and my pedometer showed I'd moved less than on a normal office working day!

This has opened up a whole new potential hobby of photographing my boat in the locations of the old photos. Now, where's that one on the Wey... Is that Fulbourne in your first Limehouse pic Tim?

And a lovely pronunciation exercise to confuse non native English speakers :-)

Speaking as a social scientist, yes, well put.

You might say that. I couldn't possibly comment.

Bloke where we used to moor had a Buddha on a very early Springer. Perhaps it is because they are easily and relatively cheaply available large statues? I have variously had on the front of my boats a yucca plant and a model cat. But yeah, the fatness angle works for me.

PB hates the idea with an utterly unreasonable passion :-(

I remember when the recommended temp for a fridge was 5 degrees (in fact until about ninety seconds ago I thought it still was). Perhaps this change is because of a combination of more chilled ready meals and risk (i.e. being sued) averse supermarkets. We don't have a fridge on Chertsey at all, just a cool space beneath the water tank. But I'm not interested in trying to store a ready made prawn curry up to its use by date, so that's fine.

It's a brilliant feeling when you learn to trust the boat... After all, it knows the canal a lot better than I do.

Never!

Negotiating the BCN (I forget exactly which bit but there were disused arms and old bits of machinery) for the first time ever at six o'clock on a misty autumn morning was magical but a bit disconcerting.... I'd not long had Chertsey and we were going with Blossom when he had Minnow to the Black Country gathering at Netherton. The first evening he said 'we'll be leaving at 6.30' so we were up at half five, just having a cup of tea, when he fires up the Bolinder... The next day we plan to be ready to leave at six, but he's untying at half five... The third day, we both leave about five. It's dark and misty and I simply can't see where the canal ends and the bank begins. Missed a few turns and ended up on the bottom more than once. I'd love to be an early runner but it doesn't suit PB. I'd also love to try boating right through the night once.

Since I was last on here I have acquired for PB a small greyhound type dog who goes by the name of Rocky (I wish we'd had the wit to change it to Ricky). He is black and devoid of insulation of either the hairy or fatty variety and so really feels the heat. On Sunday we resorted to draping a wet teatowel over him, which actually seems to work very well, especially as he doesn't move about much. Apparently today the solution was to retire to the air conditioned pub. I have bought one of those sun shelters people put their kids in at the beach; it's too big to go on the boat but might be useful for him on the towpath. Fortunately he'll lie down wherever you put his bed. Any other ideas for when there's no handy natural shade? PB once had a fly settle on his knee. He hit it with his windlass.