captain birdseye

Odd you should say RN Register member says they are not made any more. Page 9 of their current newsletter says there are two under construction at the moment and a DM3 being built , plus another DM2 awaiting confirmation before build starts. Linky thing http://www.rnregister.org.uk/RNRN-105-WebSmall.pdf

I am just waiting to see if I can get a local CRT number that might work better, but yes it should be an official request. When I have been emailed with a request asking if anybody is available and I am I usually sort out meeting with the boater directly so we have contact before the day and I turn up at the right time and place and are expected

As one of said Volunteers, I was asked if I would assist a solo boater in her sixties down the Ashton and the nine last August bank holiday, which is the weekend of the Pride event in Manchester. We left the top of the Ashton at10am and were tied up in Castlefield by 5:30pm. A hard working day with her steering and me setting and working all the locks solo. Also some interesting sights on Canal Street. I did manage a pint to cool off from one of the outside bars set up, although the barman was surprised when I popped up from the lock and tapped him on the back to request a drink. If you don't have a crew go up the nine and stop at Islington basin having previously requested a volunteer for the eighteen locks up to Failsworth. Whoever turns out will give you invaluable help.

I bought a sheet of neoprene on amazon and cut it to size for mine. Easy to cut and compresses to a good seal and is flexible

Yours is the explanation of the term I have been told and always took as the correct meaning

I was looking through a box of old pictures and came across these. We met the gravel boats on the Soar whilst on holiday on Lindsey when she was being hired out as a camper from UCC in 1984

@cheshire~rose for your attention

@Ian Mac this looks like one for you

I ttok the picture at the end of the Marathon five years ago as we arrived at the end

@cheshire~rose Mac did say in our post #64 that as we hadn't sorted the hos we had left it at a canal stables and swapped it for a white one

And my children have come to see me, they look five years younger than when I left home. Are you in the right year Mac I found these two bottles under the side bed, I think I'll mix them together for a celebratory drink

Bread and Jam for lunch. Bread straight from the oven and Jam made the other year from foraged Blackberrys

Time for more coffee I think. Made in a Bialetti Moka pot, the only way to make coffee on a range. My dad bought one of the new fangled things home from Italy after the war and I had one at work from being a teenager. That will help the bad head after all the beer last night

Meanwhile I get on cooking the captains breakfast, here you go Mac some good Bury Black Pudding to settle your stomach And plated up one for him and one for me. Time to them ahead we have work to do

First brew of the day, and we need it after a rather heavy session last night. Coffee for me and a suitably large cup of tea for Mac The hos boy doesn't get meat so he has a special last day of the challenge eggy breakfast to set him up for the day

I remember working that bridge late one evening with a certain Mr. Shaw on a Tar Boat when I was a lad

That's the one

When on the Ashton they had three boats, I can remember them arriving. Two were ex Bijou line one called Topaz and I think the other was Jade but I may be wrong. They also had a Springer but I can't remember it's name.

Tony and Jane Shilladay if my memory serves me right

Wayfarer Narrowboats were originally based on the Ashton canal, but the owners were from Wigan, they were in Portland Basin in the mid seventies and eventually had to get out of the basin, I think due to its redevelopment and so they moved to Wigan

The days of driving to Brum and cleaning off bricks all day, Child labour it was I tell you. Still lunch was good

Up early and off to get th'hos what we had left pegged to the towpath overnight only to find he had found some burrs to play in. we will have to get these out of his mane and tail before we can set off.

Was it Taff Jones that fell into Dale Street lock on Cold Hole Party