Sea Dog

I've no wish to enflame the general argument here, however, there's a point in the original post that should not be overlooked. if the LED which burst into flames was one of a batch of TEN, all of which were also faulty, you are probably being just a little more tolerant than you really ought to be. At the very least you ought to let the chandler know, as it seems unlikely he'd wish to be responsible for selling faulty goods, let alone dangerous ones.

Well, someone just sailed from here. Much revving of the engine in forward and reverse, crew on the bow beating the ice ahead with poles and lots of graunching noises. Slow going indeed and he looked pretty much stuck for a while so I can't see him making a huge amount of progress. Lord knows what he was doing to his blacking, but it takes all sorts, eh? Perhaps he's in a hurry? ETA: How nice is that South Oxford scene above?!

So we came to the boat last night to with the intention of running down to Diglis for New Year. Marina frozen over here at Droitwich, so I guess we'll be hanging around for a day or two looking at the forecast. I wouldn't have thought we were in a particularly exposed spot, not particularly far north, so I got to wondering how many others are surrounded by ice? And is everyone ok, or is someone stuck somewhere miles from a pub, with waxed up diesel, flat batteries (with just enough left to read a forum!), just fumes in their last gas bottle, down to their last shovel of coal and only a pint of unfrozen water left in their tank?!

Well resurrected! We hired a Brum Tug named Quercus from Brummagem in the 80s. She was a lovely little thing and was admired everywhere we went. That was our second canal boat hire, but it was the one which really did it for us! Even the dead dog floating upside down and looking like a sea contact mine on the new main line couldn't dull our enthusiasm! I know there are a few Brum Tugs still out there and I think I heard Quercus is still going under a different name down on the Wey, which backs up your 'solid old girl' view of (at least dome of) Brummagem's boats. Best of luck with your refit!

A reasonable enough observation, but the fuller the tank is, not only is there less free metal surface but also less air in the tank as a whole to carry the moisture. I buy the theory based on that.

Whether it's the case here or not I have no idea, but it's a common woodland maintenance policy to leave felled wood where it falls for the good it does for the woodland itself. It creates a habitat for fungii, plants, and invertibrates as well as larger animal life. Once you know that's a policy, you'll see evidence of it all over the place.

Good advice above by nicknorman - an easy point to overlook (unlike high banks and trees)! Also, as Annie said earlier, finding a mooring, particularly a free one, is often more difficult on a river. This is because in England the riverbank usually belongs to someone other than the navigation authority and is private land. The riverbank is not well suited to casual mooring - it needs to be deliberately adapted to accomodate a boat and No Mooring or Private Mooring signs are frequent at such places. Finding a mooring on a canal is relatively easy. I enjoy river cruising as do many others, but for your first voyage I'd suggest you go for a canal trip or maybe include a just a small section or river (such as the River Severn in the Worcestershire Ring).

Which is no doubt particularly helpful in muddy water.

The duty issue on diesel for boats was an EU directive, as we're aware. Interestingly, my son filled his car with road diesel (so full road-going duty price) in Belgium today.... at 87p per litre. Is there anywhere here that cheap even at 60/40?

Sounds like you're about on fumes there Annie! It's a pretty much universally accepted good idea to keep your tank full in winter to avoid consensation in there, thus causing water in your fuel and potentially leading to issues such as diesel bug. You're probably gonna have to carry your road diesel, so I doubt you'll be filling it from that source, but you may wish to consider filling up at a better price somewhere on the canal system at the earliest opportunity. Good luck.

Hi Morten, Many hire firms operate from quite rural areas and, whilst easy enough to get to by car, if you're renting a car it will be a waste of money to leave it parked there for a week. There are a few hire bases fairly easily accessed by rail which might be cheaper depending how many are in your party. Alvechurch is one which springs to mind, where the hire company is a short walk from the station. There's a good choice of interesting routes from there, including some circular routes or 'rings' so you get to see the maximum amount by not retracing your outward route on the return leg. There will be other bases like this which I'm sure others will know of. Enjoy planning your trip and I hope you have a memorable time.

Well that's not exacly true. He's actually only plucking pheasants til the pleasant fu ..... til his dad gets back.

Pleased to see you're actually getting some sensible suggestions amongst the fun Sarah. Hope you get it cleared quickly, it must be a PITA.

Or maybe get a lady snail and coax it out with that. If you don't know how to identify a lady snail, just catch any particularly attractive one and pop a bit of lipstick on it.

Unless they have squeaky voices, in which case it might work quite well.

That edit made I larf, it did! It does appear that things are a bit different depending what route or which links you follow to find the info you need and that the same info is not on the interactive map that might be found in the printable versions, doesn't it. The interactive really ought to be useful to browse when you don't really mind where you go as long as you can find an open route, which is what I'm doing. Clearly though, the Xmas opening at Cosely is not on that map, whereas the Tardebigge window at the end of Jan is. Consistency would be useful, as would removing the stoppages that finished months ago. Someone said a little while ago that C&RT search this forum regularly for any mentions of the various forms of their name. Maybe the CANAL AND RIVER TRUST or CRT will read this post and put a little polish on this nearly really useful planning resource.

I've just learned in another thread that WD40 is good for cleaning stove glass! Is there no end to this product's talents? What should WD40 definitely not be used for? Greenie for the most outrageous/amusing answer?

Interesting to hear of boats with no top vents; I'll keep an eye out for their sleek, trip-hazard free cabin tops! We should start a thread on things WD40 doesn't do.

Can that be done? I believe the BSS says you must have a percentage of high and low level vent of a capacity based on a formula, but can you get the high level other than through roof vents? I'm not onboard today, otherwise I'd pop my head out to see if there's any boats around without roof vents. It's an interesting concept as the smooth line would certainly be nice, and it might be common as muck and I've just never noticed, but I'm sure someone on here will know..

Oh-oh, wth am I looking at then? This is the page on the C&RT website where I'm looking after navigating Hone, Boating, Notices and Stoppages, Find A Notice Near You - have I been duped?? It still says the same as above when I go there. Where are you looking Starman?