sassan

Update: A much easier trip the rest of the way to bath yesterday.

definitely a different boat. We're green with some red and yellow trim

Must be another boat (thought it was a fairly unusual name, but maybe not), We're not a widebeam and I think the previous owners were never moored long term in Bathampton. How long ago are we talking?

So, we set off yesterday on our first journey, Bristol to Bath. Due to the tides, we couldn't leave the harbour until 12:30, and due to a hangover and the huge number of ferries ("we'll just wait till this one goes"), we didn't manage to leave our winter mooring until well gone 13:00. We were moored in St Augustine's reach and facing the wrong way. We've had to turn the boat around here a few times already (practise drives around the harbour, filling diesel, etc) and are not too bad at it now, but the wind was awful, blowing strongly to the north, making it hard to turn and pushing us into the steadily narrower and narrower channel. We've encountered this here once before, but neither time come to any harm, and made it in the end. Fortunately a neighbour reminded us of how low the prince street bridge is, so we were able to remove everything from our roof before setting off (would have been damn awkward to do if we'd only realised when we approached the bridge! Traffic gradually became less and less as we got towards temple-meads, quite a nice journey. Netham lock was open, straight through. Forgot which way I was supposed to turn at Netham lock (no signs, either) but fortunately guessed right (left) and was relieved to see the sign behind me warning of the weir in the other direction. Feeder canal was quite nice (other than the busy road adjacent), but a lot of fallen branches in it, most of them just held steady with ropes (if it's possible to get a rope around it, why not just pull it out?), the ropes proved as much of a problem as the branches when my concentration lapsed. Had a very nice gentle introduction to locks with Hanham lock (only about 2 feet difference at this point) and fortunately shared with a nice bunch of more experienced boaters. A very nice, relaxed journey followed, watching the river wildlife go by (ducks, geese, moorhens, dead sheep, etc). Unfortunately, the journey was somewhat too relaxing and I forgot to check the time for the whole day and as a result it got dark on me unexpectedly and we were left hurriedly looking for somewhere to moor for the night (and get dinner, hadn't eaten all day!). We temporarily stopped 30m above saltford lock (against a sign that said "unsafe for large boats :s") , while I went to ask in the Jolly Sailor (which everyone seemed to recommend for food, etc) if they knew of any visitor moorings nearby. They said we could moor on the lock landing for the night and move on in the morning (I'm not sure how much I trust this, is this generally ok (if directed)?). We rather regretted not having stopped on the landing when we went in to ask them, and decided to reverse into place. Unfortunately the pull from the weir made this very difficult and we decided to instead continue and find somewhere else (remembering some visitor moorings at the Riverside Inn, not much further up). Unfortunately, we failed to find any available visitor moorings, and finally came to the decision to moor up on the river bank. I brought the front of the boat in, but couldn't get it in far enough for Babs to jump to the shore. It was a short enough distance for my longer legs to jump, so I climbed along the side of the boat to reach the front. Unfortunately the rain had made the gunwhales a little slippery and I fell in. After hauling my way back onto the front of the boat, I found that all my scrabbling had pushed the front of the boat further from the bank, at this point shock from the cold and keenness for a speedy resolution and subsequent sleep led me to the rather daft conclusion that "I was just in there, I can jump in again and swim with a rope to the bank. It took roughly 10 seconds to realise what a stupid idea this was, as my clothes now (rather predictably) weighed a ton. I aborted and scrabbled my way back onto the boat. Now rather cold and wet, I decided to move the boat along further and get closer to the bank. Ended up in a very questionable mooring position with a tree against the middle. Very rocky ground made getting mooring stakes in at the front very difficult, but we managed it. Ate the best beans on toast of my life (now too late for pub food). Slept. Very well. Awoke in the morning pleased to find the boat still there. The bank looked a lot friendlier by morning. Returning to complete the remaining leg to Bath this evening. A great day, a challenging but ultimately successful ending, a good story and many lessons learned .

Ooooh, didn't realise any restoration of the somerset coal canal was taking place. What length boats will it take when you're done? I have the impression in my head that it used very short boats during its working life? I could be completely wrong on this, I can't find a reference to this anywhere so maybe I made it up. I'll keep my eye out for work parties near the junction with the KandA, I'd love to help some time.

Maybe wire-brush it clean and electroplate it, make it all pretty.

Fortunately, there are dozens of places for us. Reading the guidelines with my cheekiest hat on, only about 4 different areas are required in rotation (although this wouldn't be entirely in keeping with the spirit of the guidelines, and may well get CRT annoyed). Based on the spots we've already located, and the possibility of a couple more on the river, I reckon it won't be necessary to visit any one spot more than twice during the summer (we're only CCing between May and September). I'd say we are WELL within the guidelines (both word and spirit) (let alone the actual law) (Note that each of the spots identified is within a different village, so qualifies inarguably as a different area). May also spend a while in/near Gloucester and such (taking some time off work for the journey). We'll certainly be moving plenty @Julinian: Thanks for the extensive advice, exactly what I was looking for! @luctor: Yes, I think I will spend a full day travelling from Bristol to Bath next weekend, then head along the canal section and hope the weather is better by the time I return to the river. Thanks

Hi, I'll be cruising up and down the kennet and avon a lot this summer. Seems like there's loads of good places to stop on the canal section, but what about on the river avon? There seem to be lots of 48hour or 72hour moorings, but I can't find much information on where one might stop for a week at a time (I work during the week, so will be moving mainly on Sundays). Since it's a river, I gather we're allowed to moor (temporarily) anywhere with the landowner's permission. What I'm looking for is information on any landowners who are known to give such permission (and what kind of fee they ask for it). Being within 2 or maybe 3 miles of transport links to Bristol is essential. Specific information, or general guidelines as to how common it is, either are appreciated. Thanks Sassan

My advice is to check when it was last blacked. If it was more than a year or so ago then save money by blacking it while it's out for the survey. That's what we did, saved ourselves a few hundred quid.

We use Ecover. Not sure whether it's actually much better for the environment, but it's a decent price and seems to clean well enough. Currently interested in seeing if there's a shampoo/conditioner that's better to be dumping into the canals and rivers...?

Quite a lot of stuff, and planning to add a small garden (for shallow growing salad plants, such as lettuce). On a related note, when we bought our boat there was a large storage box on the roof, making it impossible to see the front of the boat. It took me a couple of bumps off the harbour wall (each of our journeys starts with a very awkward turn in a very small space) before I realised that moving it further back allowed me much better visibility. I assume the previous owners just knew how long their boat was.

Glad you fixed it. Sounds like live and neutral shorting together? Live shorting to ground trips an RCD, live shorting to neutral does not. Edit: or a short before the RCD. I might add a master fuse to mine around where the RCD is, since currently my battery charger and sockets have separate fuses, which allows them to combine to draw too much current from the shore (fuse I can replace myself, meter on the shore requires harbourmaster's attention).

Or, become very precise at estimating how much water you need for your tea. I learned this growing up because my dad was obsessive about it, if he found there was water sitting in the kettle then he'd hold an inquest to find who was responsible. This made it very easy to avoid wasting power when I moved onto a boat. Cheat way: fill the kettle using a mug to measure, or mark the exact right point on the side of the kettle with a pen.

Was living in a flat, had a lot of problems with the landlord, etc. Was thinking about buying a flat (big mortgage) or something of the sort, to be putting money into my own pocket rather than the landlord's. Quite broke (had plenty of savings, but insufficient income (was rather overpaying on rent)), girlfriend was looking very hard for a job but finding nothing, had no money to spend and was always quite tired after work, so we didn't do very much. One Sunday afternoon, I decided I'd probably better take her somewhere nice, as I knew she was going a bit mad being cooped up in the flat for months, thought I'd take her down to Bradford-on-Avon (we lived in Bristol), which is a lovely town and only costs a fiver or so to get to and back. We took a walk along the canal through Avoncliff, to Freshford and at some point idly discussed the possibility of living on a boat. By the end of the walk, we were discussing it relatively seriously, but we both assumed it was just pipe-dreams and wouldn't actually happen. Over the next few days, I looked into the costs, problems, etc and found it worked out very well (nice lifestyle, cheap). We started looking at boats. The winter approached, the flat got very cold (no insulation, broken roof, ancient and inadequate boiler) and began to leak terribly. Disputes with the landlord escalated. We started looking harder. The very first boat we viewed turned out to be perfect. We looked at a couple more (because I don't like to buy the first thing I see), but couldn't find anything near the quality and beauty for less than twice the price of this one. We bought it, blacked it and moved in! No regrets, it's a beautiful boat and a great lifestyle. We've been living right in the centre of Bristol for very little money (couldn't even afford to rent a nasty tiny flat in this area) and are now looking forward to getting out on the canal for the summer! It's much warmer than the flat! I grew up with a wood stove and hate central heating, so it's great to finally feel warm again. Some difficulties and their resolutions: * Bed smaller than previous bed - We got used to it, and I'm considering adding a side to it to stop the duvets falling off. * No laundry facilities - The neighbouring youth hostel are happy for us to use their coin-op laundry. * Time spent on maintenance - It becomes much more fun and satisfying than TV. Oh, and the most concerning moment when moving onto the boat was seeing just how much space all our belongings took up in my dad's van! (I live quite light, but my girlfriend does not!). I really thought all of that stuff was going to sink the boat that day. Fortunately there's much more storage space than I had imagined.

Sweeping a boat chimney (or at least, mine) is so much easier than a house chimney that I can't understand how anyone would leave it so long. You can even go from the top down which means you can keep the door closed and therefore not spend half a day covering everything in the room with sheets and cleaning up. The difference in effort required is phenomenal. I might sweep the chimney next time my dad visits, to rub it in.

Cheers for the confirmation, they've updated it since last I checked.

After 6ish months, apparently Hanham lock is now open. Spoke to CRT a couple of weeks ago and they said they'd be dredging it the following week. Now the word is that it's open. Might be worth giving CRT a call to check before planning any journey, rather than taking my word for it.

Hi All, Thanks for the responses. I had a look last night and there are already a couple of ventilation holes in the bottom of each frame to allow fresh air between the panes. Therefore I reckon it'll probably clear in the summer. Thanks for all the advice, I shall keep it in mind in case the problem does not clear with the better weather. Thanks Sassan

Yep, they are the type with rounded corners. Double glazed 4/5 of the height and then a single pane at the top which opens.

Information from the survey report:

I think glass, but will check when I get home. The frames are metal, screwed to the wooden walls.

Anything in particular I should look for in my replacements? Any recommended suppliers? Is it easy enough to fit them myself? Or is it worth getting a professional for this type of thing?

Yep, believe they do. I'll investigate a little, but if it's as you say, probably better to just replace them.

Old, probably 70s. Don't think they are actually supposed to be double glazing as such (ie: vacuum), just two panes. Could be wrong though. Could it be worth just drilling some ventilation holes on the inside pane? If they're small then shouldn't lose too much extra heat? I'll try removing them and looking at the construction first, probably at the weekend. Thanks Sassan

Hi All, We have a small amount of condensation between the panes of our windows. The amount of water doesnt seem to be increasing, and is not a major problem but it does reduce what we can see out of the windows. Any condensation on the inside goes away when the boat is warm, but the condensation between the panes just stays there. I'm thinking of just seeing if I can take the inside pane off, dry things out and put it back, maybe with some sealant to stop future water getting in. Any thoughts? Thanks Sassan