sultan derocco

Old song from Dorset - next verse Now he sees I and I sees 'e Buggered if I won't have 'e With a bloody girt stick I'll knock 'e down Blackbird I'll have 'e.

Where be that blackbird to I know, where 'e be. He be up yon furzy bush and I be arter he. Old song from Dorset

We moored at Chirk Marina for a couple of season a few years back and found them very friendly and helpful. Of course things might have changed but could be worth a look. Handy for the A5 and train station too. Be aware of that Welsh covid rules will apply.

Mica is wonerful stuff. It is a naturally occuring mineral (muscovite) Used to be used in all sorts of electrical equipment as an insulator (heat and electricity in condensers etc .It was also much used by the military in munitions , gas masks etc. It occurs as hexagonal crystals made of a stack of sheets in igneous and metamorphic rock. Theoretically the crystals ca be split intop individual sheets only one atom thick though you would need very steady hands and sharp fingernails to do this. If you can get some it can easil be cut to size using ordinary scissors. In a stove where the edges are not sealed, air can pentrate between the layers causing some opacity. Of course the stuff in your stove may not be proper mica but some sort of substitute in which case all bets are off. So I would not worry about the odd layer flaking off unless there are holes.

Oops! Forgot about the Cheshire bit. Shropshire is on a bit. Whitchurch and Prees are in Shropshire.

Can of worms! The first bit is Sropshire. Then the canal passes into what used to be 'Part of Flintshire (detached). but is now Wrexham County Borough. Then back into Shropshire (Ellesmere and Welsh Frankton are in Shropshire) to the Poachers Pocket just before Chirk aqueduct then back into Wrexham Maelor (used to be Denbighshire). It was simpler when the canal was built!

Change the dipstick for the correct one as soon as possible. If it rests on the sump, vibration will cause it to wear through the sump pan creating a new drain hole. For reasons best known to BMC, dipsticks are made of harder metal than sump pans! How do I know this? Guess!

I seem to remember that there is (was?) a photograph of a boat with a pair of donkeys in the Queens Head pub on the Montgomery .

Don't use a dipstick that rests on the bottom of the sump. Over a period of time, vibration will cause it to wear a neat round hole in the sump and let the oil drain out. Don't ask me know I know this!

Why not put a Landrover 2.4 diesel in it and enjoy life even more? They were fitted to NBs at one time and there may still be a few about. Likewise adapters for a marine gearbox. Non turbo recon engines as fitted to Series 3 and some military landies can be purchased from dealers. Loads of spares available dirt cheap. Chain driven camshaft so no worries there. Easy to service bags of torque to drive a big alternator (or two) they will run at low revs happily and don't need pampering so what's to worry about. But then you know all this! Don't get a turbo engine with belt driven cams though. Good luck Sultan

We spent a winter at Chirk Marina but it was 5 years ago. It was a friendly place with a few liveaboards who had been there for years. Most services in Chirk and buses nearby. The golf course has gone but the club-house is now a restaurant. The marina was getting in need of a bit of tlc then. Could have been improved or may have deteriorated- who knows!

Mark 99, a byelaw of this kind can only be imposed if the local authority has contributed financially to the location concerned. I think that neither CaRT or EA fall into this category and you will see that this byelaw is imposed by Richmond BC.

We were at New Marton bottom lock this morning where CaRT are fitting new gates. The stop planks are in at the lock entrance and exit and the lock is empty but the usual amount of water was going over the by-weir. This is a very long weir so there is only a couple of inches depth over the lip and any lowering of level would expose the stonework. Has the acqueduct been drained by any chance? Levels upstream can drop a bit when it is but the flow downstream is maintained by pumping up from the Dee. The outflow from the pump into the canal is from a boxlike structure by the Fron lift-bridge. The flow has to be maintained because of the contractual obligation to supply mid Cheshire's drinking water at Hurleston reservoir. Sultan

If you take out the other stud, then rotate the gland through 90 degrees so that the broken stud is at the top,you will have more room to get at the offending part and perhaps get a sensible drill at it. The greaser tube may be in the way but it is flexi so should tuck out of the way. The fact that it has sheared suggests to me that the the broken part may not be finger tight! Good luck Sultan

While I was living in France I came across 2 H&S type notices which translated as follows;; 'The organisers are not responsible for anything' This at an agricultural show. 'Parents are responsible for their children' This at a swimming lake. In contrast, at a level crossing at Moels on the Wirral there was a sign that said; 'Open gate on far side before crossing' For all I know it is still there. Sultan