TheBiscuits

Bob.

Then they are blithering idiots for not having it set up ready to deploy before casting off!

Likewise, but in Greg's case he was concerned that the fuel tank might be as rusted through as every single body panel, so didn't want to risk wasting fuel

Have you got room to store a portapotti? That's what many pumpout owners do.

Both of whom have extensive experience in deploying anchors, and getting them to set. I think you are much better going with an appropriately sized Danforth than the 6lb RIB anchor I recently saw on a 60ft narrowboat preparing to cross the Ribble Link!

Now if you needed a 25mm2 hole, a 6mm drill bit is close enough, giving you 28.3mm2.

Didn't she work for Andersen Boats at Middlewich? There are lots of DVDs of her out there ...

I'm not suggesting you do so, just that the more information you give the more likely it is that a member will offer to look at it for you.

The more information you give us, the more likely someone will offer to help. Is it an engine problem? Is it a gearbox problem? We need to know what the boat is or isn't doing - and if it only does whatever it does sometimes, what makes it do it.

I can see that working very well with a rounded shortboat, but it's not a great technique in a pointy narrowboat.

It's a shared one amongst many CCing boaters. It's also why we get more cross at CMers who don't want to boat than most of the marina dwellers do, as we all end up getting tarred with the same brush.

Nothing complicated - just stay as far from the head gates as you can, so slide the bow fender down the tailgates and slide the stern fender up the tailgates. We don't faff for ages with paddles - they are either up or down. Admittedly with Vox being 70' long you might struggle with this in 62' locks! The only concern we have is bolts in backwards - the big coachbolts used to always be put in with the round head inside the gate and the thread and nut on the outside, but that is not always the case these days. [Insert rant about contractors who don't play with boats here.] Some of them now protrude an inch or so into the lock and can snag your buttons. The Rochdale we just treat like the L&L but with an extra 10 feet to play with. I always try to avoid diagonals on the Northern canals - there is a lot of subsidence round here, so lots of ledges you can get snagged on if you are touching both lock chamber walls. I find a very long line helpful if we are a single boat in a broad lock going up - tied on the bow, around a bollard or two and back down to the steerer. It saves a lot of diesel revving backwards and forwards, and gives good control of the nose against water flows, but we usually use the paddle flow to pin the boat to one side or the other in the lock anyway. Give us a shout when you come up this way - we are in Wigan dry dock at the end of April and a friend is in the week after us into early May, so we can show you the good beer while you are passing.

I had to replace the alternator on a 2003 A4 last year, and found a reconditioned exchange on eBay for about £70 from a Polish company called SGR.

I think that was the advice to the Skipper of a megayacht in the Med a few years back when the engine failed ... try and hit a cheap one!

On the L&L, always ride the tail gates, but watch out for bolts put in backwards. Riding the head gates is a recipe for disaster! This is a totally different canal to those easy skinny ones.

Not bad at all. Poolstock top had new gates installed in 2017/18. It caused havoc because the leaks through the top lock were the only reason the central pound used to keep in water due to the leakage through the bottom lock! I call rushing to get through locks after sunset ...

They are 71x15 feet. The cilled boat was under 45 feet, and sank after sunset last night. It might be time to start padlocking them overnight again. Refloated today and moved off.

Erm, didn't @ivan&alice end up buying the boat their spreadsheet described in nearly every detail?

I always say they are the waterways version of the VW Beetle. Not amazing build quality, but with their own quirks and style. Some of the well maintained ones are excellent boats, but as they were cheap and cheerful boats 40 or 50 years ago not all of them have been looked after. It will be interesting to see what eg Liverpool boats will look like in another 20 or 30 years.

I thought Tawny could float on a damp facecloth ... that's not sitting very far down!.

You do know you can pause live TV if you have a DVR don't you?

http://www.woodburningstoveslimited.com/product/country-kiln-adorne-log-multi-fuel-and-wood-burning-stoves via google search by image.

Last week of May I reckon ... The day after Marple flight reopens.

Oh, and if you go an hour the other way from Barnoldswick you get to Foulridge and we can't recommend the Hare and Hounds enough under it's new owners. You might want to do Foulridge tunnel while you are there so I'd suggest either doing that your short first day or to use up your last part day and night if you are back early.

I've fixed that for you ...