sassan

We live in a country where her injuries will be healed for free and unemployment benefit can keep her from starving. So what's the need for compensation? I understand why there's such a culture of it in places where medical bills will be huge, or state support lacking, but there's no place for it here. Also, suing a charity (even one occasionally associated with uncharitable behaviour) is a pretty good way to declare yourself a world-class scumbag. This person has chosen a dangerous lifestyle/hobby, as we all have. That is all. If they proceed, they can become the name we curse when we get stuck due to inadequate dredging. Oh no, I hurt myself, SOMEONE MUST PAY!

I'm planning something similar, for after I've built my solar panel. Some magnets, some magnet wire coils, some diodes and a regulator should be enough on the electrical side. Then much as you describe on the turbine side. We winter in Bristol harbour where the wind gets huge, so hopefully we can get some good power from it!

Didn't have any problems with the bath narrowboats trip boat when we were there earlier this year (ok, sometimes noisy music, but we lived in St Augustine's reach in Bristol Harbour for 5 months, so this was nothing). The K&A trust's boat (Barbara McEllen) however, is a VERY different matter! HUGE! FAST! To the point where the often have a crew member following it along the towpath to re-moor all the boats who've had their pins pulled out by it, but not always. You can often see a trail of destruction following it!

I had to explain about 4 times to a hire boat about letting the water levels equalise before opening the gates. They weren't unpleasant about it, just thick. My advice for your situation is to know where your axe, mallet, etc are at all times, in case you need one quickly!

To be honest, there's more on my boat than in it. Large garden (1.5x2m). Solar panels x2 (adding another soon) Solar water heater bbq + charcoal empty bottles, in preparation for the homebrew tarp (with added attachments to turn into a driving shelter if required). 1x pallet (varies, half a pallet to 3 pallets is normal range). sack trolley 2x bikes (locked to pallet when moving, else locked to a tree somewhere). hose, hose everywhere. 2 tires (when not in use as fenders) boathook fending pole/washing line lots of scraps of wood some old battery cases, awaiting a new life as veg-growing space whatever tools I forgot to bring in at any given time watering can a dozen other things I've forgotten. Basically, anything that won't get damaged by weather, and isn't valuable enough to be nicked.

haven't managed to catch any in the western K&A yet, although I gather they are common at the eastern end. I have, however, caught two very large and tasty looking eels. Had to throw them back as I didn't have a suitable container to purge them in. I'll be getting myself a container next week, and doing a little research to identify which eel species is the endangered one.

I could power my boat for a thousand year with the canal water!

My advice is jump in and feel around down there. Had to do it upside down in the harbour in mid winter, but out on the canal I recommend getting your legs wet and doing it right-way-up!

Thanks for the clarification. I withdraw my objection.

Never calculate what you can measure! Regarding gadgets: We've got a voltmeter rigged up at each end of the boat. Not perfect (have to account for voltage drop from the wiring to the front), but it is enough to tell us when we're getting low. After a while you get a feel for what it's going to be, anyway.

Restricting engines/generators to reasonable hours as is currently the case (8-8 seems fair enough (although 9-9 would be better in my opinion)) is fine (I'm in favour). However, banning them entirely because some people don't like it... doesn't sit well with me.

To all of those mentioning 2-3 turns of the wheel from tickover to full throttle, I'm rather jealous. I have about 1/16-1/8 of a turn between 0 and full throttle. This was (until I fixed it the other day) made worse by stickiness and slack in the mechanism.

This should be fine, however, from my experiences with the electrics on my boat I can say: Don't change colour of wire 3 times on the same stretch of wire, just because you want to extend something and don't have the same colour of wire! Definitely don't do this inside a wall! Don't have cupboards containing 3 different voltages (12, 24, 230) with no differentiation between them! Don't cut 230V cables apart to tap into the middle, then just wrap the wires around the old one a bit and cover it with tape! On an unrelated note, don't run the wires between your solar charge controller and batteries (30cm apart) through the walls half way along the boat and back, with multiple dodgy joins, just for the convenience of having the fuse next to the other fuses!

we adopted an older cat, who didnt much care for going outside (he spent 5 years+ locked outside and is pretty happy about being allowed inside at his new home). We lived in the city on the boat for a few months, so we didn't let him out (very busy city centre), but once out on the canal we let him roam. Took him a few days to come back at first, then 5 days the next time, then 1, then after that he's usually back same or next day. I think that after a long time inside he was keen to spend some time outside again. He considers the boat his home, rather than the surrounding area, so he always comes back (he knows where he set out from). I know a number of people with cats who say the same thing. We were surprised to find he didn't mind the engine noise at all (it's a big loud engine, rattles the boat a lot!), he just sleeps through it. Oh, and I know it was a post from a year ago, but still, I will say this: any aussies (or anyone else) shooting my cat are likely to be found floating face-down in the canal the next morning...

Wonderfully mad! A few people seem to have a problem with recklessness (even, in this case, meticulously prepared recklessness), but I love it. However, you won't catch me attempting any of that (at least, not unless it's on someone else's boat!). People keep asking me if narrowboats can cross the channel/irish sea, and now I know to tell them "only if you're very brave, skilled and lucky".

Hope you find her! Ours was gone for a while, and the problem turned out to be that he would only try coming home in the middle of the day, when there was noone there. Fortunately, the next weekend we coincided with eachother and all was good . He seems to be getting better at returning home same-day now . Good luck to you, I hope you get her back!

Think I spotted one on the Kennet and Avon a couple of days ago. Not sure though, it was flying by quick at the time. Might be easier for you to just paint a heron, then tell her the one she saw before was a baby and this is a full-grown one.

Got a very similar pair from Argos for £20. They do a good job, the batteries have definitely lasted more than 20 hours so far and show no signs of failing (20 hours switched on, not 20 hours talk time). They're incredibly useful for communicating with my crew (read: girlfriend) over the length of my rather long boat and rather loud engine. Also helpful with locks, etc. If I found I was going through more than a set of batteries or so a year then I'd look into getting a car charger for AAA batteries and some rechargables. Hasn't been necessary so far. I find interfereance from other users is generally pretty minimal, except in cities where I may hear the odd bit of taxi communication or whatever. I've never found only 8 channels to be too few. One of my more useful purchases. EDIT: oooh, the screwfix ones come with batteries, making them better value than the argos ones.

Depending on where you are, you may be able to get a peddler's licence. I can't remember if they're per town/city or per county, but they're dirt cheap. If you're moving around a lot between areas then it might not be worthwhile to have a license in each place, but if you have a mooring and want to trade near it then this could be what you need. I seem to remember it being £9 per year in one place I looked at and £12 in another, could be wrong though. In theory you have to move on every couple of hours (I think it's a couple of hours, not sure). In practise, you have to move on when a policeman asks you to. This concept should be familiar to most of us .

To answer some questions: Yes, it can be (and very regularly is) done on a narrowboat (we did it, saw dozens of others, and many have permanent moorings along it). Except (I gather) in cases of heavy rainfall, it's very calm. A bit more challenging than the canal, but I doubt anyone experienced would have a problem. Our first journey ever was Bristol to Bath and we survived (and rather enjoyed it). Mooring can be a bit tricky, there's a shortage of visitor moorings, but plenty of bank that I doubt anyone would tell you off for using. We had an unfortunate failure of judgement of time and ended up moored pivoting around a tree. Locks are pretty wide, they take a widebeam. On the final stretch to Bristol, there are hazards such as fallen branches, easy to navigate around, but pay attention. After Hanham lock, the river is tidal, but I gather not terrifically violent. Nonetheless, bring an anchor with you (and prepare it). The easiest thing to do is to call the Netham lock keeper and find out what the easiest time to do the bit between Hanham and Netham is. The lockkeeper is both pleasant and helpful, the number is on the Bristol council website. Enjoy, it's not some precision, terrifying, white-knuckle ride like the severn or thames!

Because tackling swans to the ground and wringing their necks is a high-effort way to eat.

Seems like they took the criticism into account and ended up with some reasonably sensible results.

I must admit that I was just lazy and found a similar-sized LED fitting to replace the old one. In my defence, mine weren't pretty like yours, and the plastic had become (I hope become, otherwise it's just crap design) almost opaque, not good for efficiency!

I've never made a claim, so can't comment on that. I applied to towergate mardon and they were an absolute nightmare to deal with, wanted every tiny thing mentioned in the survey dealt with (even things that the surveyor stated in the survey weren't a safety issue, or could be dealt with at the next slipping in two years, etc). Eventually said screw them and went with craftinsure, who were cheap and very easy to deal with, answered my questions fast, etc.

Ah, I now understand, they meant the back of the landing stage! Did consider that, would've been easier too. Ah well, tired self didn't think!