haggis

You getting your Mon and Brec trip then? I wondered if you would with the water problems

When we had a boat share the boats equipment included duvets and pillows ( which were renewed every year, from memory), and owners took sheets, duvet covers and pillow cases. One option would be to buy cheap items and bin them at the end of the holiday. Don't know if this would help.

Dont know if it is still there but there was a water point just along from the YM moorings, beside a bridge. We never used it as there was always a hose firmly attached and lying on the ground. There also used to be one across the canal from there but I think it has gone.

yes he did but if he did everything perfectly, the program would soon lose its appeal. Ok I am sure some of the incidents are staged but I think he shows canal boating as it is, Enjoyable, hard work and sometimes lonely. I like the drone shots which show what we never see as boaters

That can't be right as the correct way to enter a broad lock is together 🙂 . Or so I read somewhere

Presumably it is Black prince in Stoke and not the one at Acton Bridge. My inclination would be to go down the Cheshire locks and up Audlem as this makes it easier. I find walking uphill doing the Cheshire locks hard work 🙂

Nope. Not hurrying across a gate ! How do you know there wouldn't be time to get off boat, walk up, wind down paddle and get back on before the stern clears the lock? Iain who has much shorter legs and is older than you is back on board before the stern reaches the open gate and he can take my windlass from me on the way past . I used to do it your way till I got caught out once too often by water level dropping a little bit so changed to the more efficient ( for us ) method years ago

Ah, I missed the bit where the steerer left the boat in slow ahead as he walked up to close the paddle. The boats not going anywhere is it apart from out of the lock ? Even I, of I am steering can walk forward and close the paddle and get back on board before the boat leaves the lock and I am not one of you younger fitter guys. Try it sometime. 🌅

I can never understand why the steerer ( usually male) never steps off the back.of his boat. to open and/ or close the paddle on his side while the boat goes in or out of the lock. Instead you see the lady close the off side paddle and cross the gate by which time the level stops dropping and she stands there desperately pushing the gate. That last inch takes forever with one paddle.. They need to train their husband 😃

There are only two of us and on flights, I walk on to set the next one after opening a paddle (iain gets off and does the other one) and he opens gates, winds down paddles, takes boat out of lock and closes up . When he comes in to the lock I have set, I close the gate, having wound down the paddle while iain closes the other paddle and we usually arrive at the paddles at the other end about the same time. This gives me a fairly easy time while Iain does most of the work but he is a younger fitter person 🙂 . If I see the next lock is ready, I wait and close up

But surely if a post is as old as 10 years, it is highly unlikely that a link will still work! I think our mods have enough to do without checking old links - or even new ones!

This the nearest to what we use but we don't have any ropes at 90%. The angle of each rope is about the same.

I often wonder if we are doing it wrong when I see and read all those descriptions of spring lines but our method works! We have two mooring points at both ends of the boat with the distance between them being about 2 feet at the bows and 1 foot at the stern. We use 1 pin/ring,/bollard at each end so that we have V shaped ropes at both ends, tied off on the boat . The boat doesn't move no matter how fast other boats go past.

He was some guy! It was very sad when he was pushed out. He was instrumental in us winning the Ombudsman case for licences for shared boats and he was very involved in Scotland when the Wheel was opened.

But what if you haven't got a " small children" to wave? 🙂

There seems to be a lot of weed attached at the water line this year. I noticed it on boats in the marina and thought it was because they never moved but KELPIE has it too and it didn't come off during our two weeks boating.. We have the bit between the running strake and gunwale painted with Epifamy ( spelling ? ) Matt black and it takes me all of half an hour to wash one side down and apply another coat when it looks a bit scuffed.

Something which occurred to me was that the new boater is used to road speeds and doesn't realise that this is completely different to canal speed and he thinks he is going slow when in fact he is going a bit fast. That could attract adverse comments if he goes past moored boats too fast or his boat shows a breaking wash.

We had a meal in the Shroppie Fly a couple of weeks ago and it was good.

We had an excellent couple of weeks on KELPIE and now we are home we realise how lucky we were. We did the Four Counties ring and we found the canals quiet with just the occasional queuing at locks in busy places . We were held up in Stone for a couple of hours while they let water down onto the pound with the hire fleet and after we got on our way we found the level down a bit . By the time we got to Stoke the level was about a foot down and we headed for harecastle expecting to wait till the next morning but no, we got through almost right away. Moored at Red Bull overnight and had a good trip down to Wheelock with almost all locks for us . The next day the level was even further down with boats going aground on lock landings but we made it back to Park farm ok It was only later that we found the locks on Stone and the Cheshire flight were closed and they apparently still are. We were very lucky indeed not to be caught by these closures and we feel sorry for those who are, especially the hire boats.

I don't think it is now just a case of saying where you moor. You have to provide proof (contract ? ) of your mooring.

It think the curtains would need to be extra heavy to make brass sag

I think not letting anyone see into your boat is an ' in thing ' On our recent trip we saw a lot of boats with black windows which I presume are non see through. Each window was surrounded by a wide black frame which to my mind did nothing to enhance the appearance of the boat. Each to their own taste however and it would never do if we were all the same

We find that brass rods top and bottom work a treat. When the curtains are open they have tie backs attached to little rings and when the curtains are closed they meet in the middle and no one can see in. The bottom rod is to hold the curtains against the sloping boat wall. They look good and are functional We have the top hoppers of the windows open behind the curtains Unless I am not understanding the question