Bernie

It's the croaking noise a frog makes, I think.

You're right there Jon, I got the distinct feeling of deja vu!

Congratulations, bet your heart was in your mouth when you saw her being craned in. I know mine was when I saw ours in the air.

You are right John, Lymm Marina don't actually build the shells. If you do look on their website you can see that they are built by various builders. The last boat we purchased from them was built by Ken Bonadowski who has since sadly died, now his shells were excellent. Lymm marina fitted it out and we were the first to buy a boat fitted out by them. I don't think they do fully fitted now, only sailaways.

We used to moor there and in the past have purchased 2 new boats from them before they started to sell the sailaways, we did find that once you bought the boat and had paid for it if anything else was needed or anything went wrong they didn't really want to know. Things may have changed now though since it is over 11 years since we had any dealings with them

Well we left our home mooring Tuesday for a last little trip prior to lock closures. We only cruised to Anderton and had a lovely relaxed night there. Next morning tried tp switch the Alde on, no spark from ignition so nipped round to Alvechurch at Anderton marina, took boat in all fixed at a reasonable cost, new switch needed. Set off later to Marston with heating working perfectly, moored up and circulation pump became rather noisy, so switched Alde off for a little while. Later switched on again and no water circulating to radiators and and they remained cold though expansion tank got rather hot, so switched off again and decided to wrap up warm, luckily it wasn't too cold that night thank goodness. Later in the night when we were sound asleep the wind really picked up and for the rest of the night we banged against the side continuously despite fenders down. We decided well that's enough yesterday morning and turned for home, just as we'd negotiated Big Lock the heavens opened and we squelched through the next four. Now looks as if we need a new circulation pump for the Alde. The joys of boating. Dor, the Xmas banner I have altered just for you so that you don't get Christmas too early.

Lee Sanitation is a little wrong as far as loo odours are concerned, you do get a smell via the air vent from the outside when the tank is getting full. Fine if your windows are closed, but during the summer with each flush you get an air blown waft. I can always tell when boats are going past who has a near full holding tank and who hasn't.

Perhaps your PC is teetotal.

Like them Paul, especially with remote steering, are the crew inside having a or are they or both?

Whoops, sorry, never thought of that, must have been having a---------

Thanks Jon, now let's see if it gets used.

Paul, why is the boat on your avatar sinking?

I know we already have a newbies thread, but would it be feasible to have an Introductions one, where any new members could tell us a little about themselves and be made welcome?

John, Are these the messages? Sorry, an error occurred. If you are unsure on how to use a feature, or don't know why you got this error message, try looking through the help files for more information. and in a pink box: The error returned was: Sorry, but we did not find any matches to display. Try again and broaden your search criteria. If you were searching for new posts since your last visit, it's possible that there are none to show. I have had this happen twice this AM, could be that there are no new messages since your last visit.

Also have a look here http://www.leesan.co.uk/ this will give all the information that you possibly could need. There is also a self PO kit that you can purchase which costs around £200 and can be used at most Elsan stations, but this is bl***y hard work although it can pay for itself in about a year.

A 25 gallon tank is not really very big for PO loo with the amount of water needed for a flush each time you use it and a domestic type toilet would inevitably use more water. If you really want to be basic why not a porta potti or cassette toilet. Even though they would need emptying frequently the cost is minimal, you would only pay the initial cost for the loo and then elsan blue if you use it. PO can cost anywhere from £8-£15 each time. We have a 75 gallon holding tank and this needs emptying every 10 to 14 days.

I'm sure several have had pictures of their boats taken without even knowing and I must say I don't mind as long as the photographers are not intrusive. I know on several occasions people have videoed us entering or leaving locks, but how many have had bankside artists paint their entry and exit from the lock. We also have been given an oil painting of our old boat on the Llangollen at Wrenbury.

http://www.abnb.demon.co.uk/submenupages/subsubhandt.htm A good site for advice to new boat owners.

A different engine but we were told by the boat builder that there was no need to engage the prop when running the engine to charge the batteries. According to him and since we also have a 230V as well as a 12V alternator this was putting enough load on the engine. We have been following his advice for the last 5 years and all is fine.

Now this is perhaps something that could be added to the picture gallery Jon is offering to create.

PC Advisor. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk Advice forums for help re solving PC problems. A very helpful and informative site.