Bettie Boo

Another vote for Trevor - he did ours when we were buying and traveled up to Chorley to do it; so I'd say that he traveled to do them 4 years ago

Thanks for that cuthound. As I wrote earlier I thought the bit between Braunston & Wigrams Turn were considered part of the Oxford as well and couldn't figure out why he was saying that cruising that section was thoughtless for a widebeam operator to cruise, when he had assisted/accompanied us on our maiden vouyage on said section. Just to clarify I didn't actually think he was criticizing me personally, just widebeam operators in general who choose to cruise that section. Sorry for the confusion Ray - I stand corrected and you still have your upstanding, kind and helpful attributes IMO

Is the bit of canal between Braunston & Wiggrams Turn not considered part of the north Oxford? If not, then I stand corrected. I thought it was, and as so, found the comment of it being "thoughtless" somewhat confusing coming from someone who quite happily took a couple of complete novices for a small cruise on said section of canal. ^^ because of my personal experience Ray - I just don't see how you can do one thing and then call it a thoughtless act when others do it.

Not trying to imply the above comment is meretricious or anything but; we met someone who seemed like a kind, knowledgable & down to earth person going by the name of Ray T 4 years ago. He came down to Braunston to see our Widebeam being craned off the truck into the water at Braunston, he took some really lovely photos of the day and even provided a bottle of Newcastle Brown for the christening. Then a couple of months later offered to accompany us on our maiden cruise up to Wiggrams turn to teach us some of the basic do's & don'ts of cruising / mooring. Didn't seem bothered at all, us being a widebeam and cruising / mooring on those waters at the time. Are you not the same man? If so, I guess times & attitudes change quicker than I thought. I can't fatham out that if it was such a thoughtless thing to do why you offered to accompany us ** Please note this ^^^ does not take away from the gratitude that both hubby & I both have for you and Simon for taking us out that day, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and learned loads of vital info.

We found banking wasn't an issue at all, we had our accounts set up as "paperless" accounts and gave them a friends address, but insisted that they were not to send any snail mail to that address. As for medical, we started out by arranging with our Doctors practice to keep us registared there. However as we traveled quite extensively for the first couple of years it did become a pain in the backside to get repeat prescriptions as I needed to see him every 3 months for blood tests. It was quite difficult to get registared at a new surgery that is close to the canal withing a 40 mile radius of our current cruising pattern, but I did prevail with the assistance of the local hospital...long story. Other folks will tell you its quite easy and that any surgery will take you on as a temporary patient, in my experience that certainly wasn't the case. IMO, the easiest way is to use a friend or relatives address. Good luck

Dave this is a message from Jenlyn who no longer posts on this forum, but does on TB where he posted this: " I obviously cannot post on cwdf, so I will pass my condolences to Dave from here. I am sincerely sorry to hear of your loss, cherish your memories, as they can never be taken away. Take care" Although we have never met, please accept my most sincere condolences; as Steve said above, treasure your memories of Beverly and I hope you can find some solace in them. A glass will be raised on the 8th Betty & Dave Read more: http://thunderboat.boards.net/thread/2373/dave-mayall?page=1#ixzz4rNPJHU8u

I'd agree with that ^^, we've cruised a couple of times between Marsworth and Stoke Bruerne this summer and on our non-cruising days we've been passed by at least 20-30 boats a day, well except the rainy days. Wyvern must be laughing all the way to the bank with this summers proceeds; and only 3 of them have managed to "bump" into us so far this summer (no real damage done by any of them, thankfully) and none of them seemed overly intoxicated! All were very pleasant and ever so apologetic Noticed a fair few Napton hireboats down this way this year, definitely more than in the past couple of years.

I'm a firm believer in a positive attitude when trying to get past a serious illness; and apparently quite a few Doctors and nurses do as well. At my last check-up the Doctor actually said one of the main reasons my stay in the hospital earlier this year was as short as it was (I didn't think 7 weeks was a short time) was down to my positive attitude and my determination to get well enough to leave. So glad to hear things are working out for you and you are well on the road to recovery. Don't fret about walking with a stick, I still do on the tow path, but am getting stronger little by little and am aiming to be rid of it by winter (fingers crossed)

Been quite busy on the GU the last few days, anywhere between 20 - 30 boats a day, mind you theres a fair few festivals/gatherings/fun days etc around, so lots of trade boats on the move as well as the Wyven fleet of hire boats crab crawling along

I give up but please let us all know how it all works out running your engine for 1 hour a day and how long it takes to go through your first set of batteries. Sorry for hijacking your thread Heffalump, I hope you got the info you were seeking?

Yes of course two people produce more dirty laundry a week than one would, I didn't mean to insinuate it wouldn't be otherwise. But the washer really doesn't consider whether it's washing a tea towel or a full load it takes the same amout of electricity to run. If your "electricity dies" I'd suggest you'd be looking at replacing your battery bank quite sharpish - the aim is to Never let your batteries go below a 50% SOC - we actually strive to keep ours above that at all times. As in doing things like: if we know we will have the telly on for a few hours in the evening we switch the freezer off as soon as the sun is off the solar panels (I bought a freezer which will hold it's tempature for 18 - 20 hours with out being hooked up to power) then when we run the engine in the morning the freezer is turned back on. I do agree that having a back up for the important things; heat, lights, a cooking device, fresh water & a loo facility is definanetly a good way to go about things. That doesn't mean we sit around trying to read by the light of a candle or tea light, or cook a 3 course meal on the MF stove. If we did, we'd end up spending more on tea lights & candles than we do on diesel to produce the same amount of light. As I said earlier, life styles differ greatly, and really "to each his own" is my motto, how you choose to live is completely your business and yours alone. But thinking that running your engine for 1 hour a day is simply unrealistic in my mind whether moving or not. I presume when you get your boat you will be single handling it? Have you asked other ladies who are on their own what the average time is for going through locks? Or even a flight of locks! It takes us on average anywhere from 20 - 30 minutes; now that's not necessarily a good example as we are a WB and there are two of us, but we aren't in a rush. But based on your 1 hour a day, means we could only do 2 locks and 20 minutes of traveling, all the while not getting very far if it's in a busy spot where you will need to slow down for moored boats. I would suggest when trying to set out your monthly expenditures rather then basing it on a "minimun" spend you base it on a "maximum" or at least realistic spend, that way you'll avoid a lot of nasty suprises that first year. Oh as a foot note...you mentioned pulling up to a pub and charging your batteries from their supplied power points. We've only been cruising for 4 years now, and only on the wide canals & rivers south of Braunston; but we've only ever come across one pub that offers this facility and that was on the Thames and to moor there it was £15 per night - needless to say we gave it a miss. Maybe it's a more popular concept on the narrow canals or up north. Mind you with that said, it's not something we've ever looked out for so could possibably passed many pubs by that do indeed offer such facilities. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct me if I've given you missleading information.

You need to realize there is a big difference in how we all live on our boats and the amount of electricity we use. One person or two I don't think would make a huge difference really, you'll still want to do a load of washing at least once a week, you'll still need to have a light on to read (unless your planning on using oil lamps only), you'll still need to charge whatever gagets you have onboard whether it be a phone, tablet or laptop and so on, even if you aren't planning on having a tv, but if you're planning on watching dvd's I guess you will indeed need a tv to watch them on and it will use electricity all of which take power from your battery bank which will need to have the engine run to top them back up. I'm not saying that it absoutly couldn't be done on £300 worth of fuel per year, but it sure would be a very meager & restricted lifestyle in my opinion. Due to my recent health issues, we haven't traveled more than about 60 -70 miles per year for the past couple of years, so my suggeston above regarding the amount of fuel we consume does not reflect much traveling at all really; the cost is based on how long we need to run the engine for each day to extend the life span of our battery bank for as long as possible. Dave has conceded that the 40 inch tv does consume a massive amount of power and instead of having it on when neither of us are actually watching it, it is now turned on daily to watch the morning news and weather and in the evenings when there is something on we want to watch. I got hooked on Sudoku whilst in the hospital and it takes no power at all other than my wee brain

I reckon you'll be fine with that budget - I'm no expert or anything, but it looks sensible to me at least. I would highly recommend investing in whatever amount of solar you can as soon as you can even if you can only get 1/4 of your planned bank, and add to it when finances allow. It will save you in the long run Best of luck

This ^^ describes us to a T. No genny, I'm on the boat all day, every day, Dave as well "most" days, we travel every 10 days or so, have a large screen TV and use the washing machine weekly, 1 phone, 1 laptop & 1 tablet, fridge & freezer. We do have 4 x 250 solar panels though. We had a discussion yesterday after reading Lady G's post of estimating £300 for fuel per year. Dave figures we spend approx. £80 -£90 per month in the summer, depending on how sunny it is. As in we've had to run the engine longer each day in July than we did in June - way less sun! and in the winter he figures it's about £95 - £100 per month again depending on the amount of sun. **we only turn on the central heating on really cold days and then only for 1 hour in the mornings when needed...approx. 12 - 15 times each winter so far, the rest of the heat comes from the SF stove. Mind you with that said, we have a seperate tank for the heating anyway; the main tank is for engine use only.

Lovely bathroom...can't wait to see some more

Fair play Mike, anytime we have been on the Thames it's been summer and green boards only. And being not much of a risk taker, I for one wouldn't have been comfortable in cruising on yellow or reds. We made sure we were well off the river before winter set in.

not sure if this is helpful or not; but we have a Barrus Shire 40hp in our 57 x 10.10 WB and it does us well on the canals and Rivers; Thames, Lee & Stourt. Sorry, can't offer any advice on the engine you've mentioned - but I'm sure others will be along shortly that can share their experiences.

I really don't understand what all the fuss is about regarding adding a few emoticons (for lack of a better term). For those members who wish not to use them, they aren't being forced to are they? For those members who use facebook and other social media sites that use such things they will take to using them quite easily, and it's really not rocket science to figure them out. Even I was able to figure it out within a few seconds! There have been loads of times in the past when a post really made me chuckle and my only opition was to give them a greenie...now I can give them a "haha" and then there are the occassions where I think a "not impressed" or "sad" would be appropriate I do agree that negative "emoticons" should not take away from the members rep points, which I believe has already been corrected. I appreciate the forum needs to keep up with the times, as we all do in other areas of our lives; I loved frayed bell bottoms and tank tops back in the late 70's, but sadly it was a fad that didn't survive the test of time...point being I see nothing wrong with the newest changes. Good work Rich & the support team members

Personally I like the the new additions and don't really see a down side to it. If someone wants to continue giving greenies only, there's nothing stopping them from doing so is there? Those of us who will choose to use the new opitions will do so. No harm done as far as I can see.

Is there a prize for whoever has the nearest guess? If I said 69 would I be close?