zubeye

one of the things I like about locks, is that they keep me busy for a while, and really takes my mind off things. it's quite relaxing not to have to think about the day job and all that grind. I could be living int he 18th century, life is so simple whilst i'm in the lock. no emails buzzing.

Okay that makes sense, point taken. Thanks for clarifying. Will do this in future.

Well the title of the thread should clear things up Okay, emails aside, genuine question. Is it very bad practice to stay on the boat when going solo as the lock fills/empties, if one is alert? and if someone can clear up the 'boating vs ambition' issue in one sentence, that would be great too.

Seriously, I sincerely apologise. I didn't realise it was such a risky thing to do. I thought maybe it happened every few years or something. I didn't know it was an actual thing.

Im guessing you don't work in IT in 2014. Sorry, bit rude. Yeah everything is cloud based now. I don't have any local files at all. Even Excel is online now. Yeah sorry, I don't really know what I'm doing, and I think this is a wonderful resource and I've always had really useful replies to my questions. It's just that sometimes the tone can be very negative, pessimistic, risk adverse, unencouraging. To be honest, the lock thing was meant to be taken figuratively and I was annoyed that it was derailed so quick. As so often happens on here for some reason. The established members are very quick to refigure a thread. Which is fine, but in this case it seemed a little weird.

Sorry but this is getting a bit crazy. Was I just incredibly lucky then that in an entire summer of cruising, i never came even slightly close to hooking or cilling?

I have no real experience, and so yeah I might be crazy, but my gut feeling is my method would result in less incidents than jumping about in a rush with ropes or whatever the advised solo procedure is. I am in a better position to control the boat with the engine foward and backwards, than standing on the side with a rope. I am talking about narrow locks of course.

I think you might be exaggerating the risks slightly. In one sense it's actually safer to go through the lock so slowly that it's possible to make a cup of tea or whatever.

It wasn't meant to be taken literally. I just meant that it is an undemanding way to pass the time. I'm a newbie, however I did about 200 locks this summer. And never had a problem working a lock solo. If you take a lock slowly, there is only a small window of risk, that lasts a few seconds, at the start, then things are very often quite calm and the boat doesn't move much. Mostly. In the unlikely event of the boat moving a lot, I can just throttle up and recenter the boat in the lock. I can see this happen instantly out of the window! I don't count hitting the sides. Boats are made for that. At the end of summer, a little bit of black on the scrapes and noone is the wiser. Are you saying that going through a lock is a dangerous and risky thing to do! I can't imagine a safer activity than canal boating.

I dunno, taking it slow it's pretty hard to mess up a lock. open one paddle, make sure the boat is in the middle. Chill! The chances of something bad happening in the 10 minutes it takes the lock to fill or empty are pretty slim no? I can see out the window if the boat moves a lot

My therapist isn't answering his or her phone, so thought I'd throw this out here . Is canal boating the graveyard of ambition? I am in my mid-30s and run an internet business, have flexible working hours. I'm an introvert and enjoy solitude. So in some ways this job and boating suits me quite well. I can check up on email as the lock is filling up, and cruise in and out of reception areas without much hassle. But before I lived on the boat, I felt a pressure to, you know, get a real office job, socialise, do more productive things and act busy in big dirty cities. OR at least be more ambitious expanding the business and that kind of thing .Now on a boat I don't feel any pressure at all. However I'm starting to worry a little that boating suits me a little toooo much. It's super pleasurable sure. But I feel so lazy. I have very little doubt that I will spend my retirement on the cut. But first, isn't it selfish and antisocial to live such an isolated life?

The thing that appeals to me is the idea of crawling along the Catalonia coast, anchoring every day at a new spot, and shooting in on a dingy for supplies. Mooring up for a weekend just every fortnight in an overpriced marina. Sounds appealing, no?

Maybe, just maybe, I havn't thought this through. Perhaps renting a coastal cruiser and captain in the med is a sensible first step

yeah mediterreanean baby. I just loved the feeling of the open water of the rough tidal thames. and fancy me a journey

Does anybody know much about sea going boats? I'm looking to exchange my narrowboat for something that will get me to the East coast of Spain and back, but will also survive a lock. Also something as simple to drive as a canal boat would be handy as I have zero experience! Any suggestions on what kind of boat and training I should be looking at?

Why the suspicion of 4G? My dongle is 100% reliable. I get good speeds even where i can't get mobile signal. On average 20mb down, easy enough to stream a film on Netflix.

If you are planning on being gone in the morning there are tons AND tons of places to moor between paddington and limehouse. Maybe I was just lucky, but if you are just passing through, it's not a problem.

I do love London, but it's a city for work. And it seems pretty crazy to live there if I can work anywhere. Also I can't deal with public transport I'm a cyclist and London isn't too welcoming in that respect. I went through Birmingham and perhaps I was unlucky but the canal I was on (Selly Oak way) was full of rubbish and loads of work boats everywhere. Which are the nicer canals? Surprised no mention of Manchester, Yorkshire, Bristol, Milton Keynes, Leeds.

I don't know the canal system very well. It would be awesome to get some advice on what kind of areas might suit me. For the last couple of years I’ve been living in Barcelona, and I plan to continue spending long winters there.I bought a boat a couple of months ago as a way to dip my toe back into the UK, and am really enjoying it so far. My original plan was to CC and use winter storage, but I'm thinking it might be nice to have a home mooring somewhere, or at least narrow down my area to a canal or ring, so I can settle down a bit, and cruise in a smaller area. I know such a perfect place doesn’t exist but here is my wish list. I work from home doing geeky stuff, on the boat usually, so 4G or at least half decent 3G is pretty important. Easy cycle access (<5m) to a train station. Simple access to an international airport via train, with bcn routes. (Barcelona airport = bcn) Natural beauty, quiet and tranquility. Non industrial. Not too crowded. Bike access to a nearby lively town or city would be great. Or easy train. I’m in my early 30s and should probably be dating and getting out and about. Though I like my solitude too. I’m not precious about boating facilities, shorepower etc. Any and all tips very welcome indeed.

London is a global city fuelled by making money, yes that is true. I don't like it, and I'm not apologising for it, I'm just pointing a fact. I don't live in London for this reason - it's all about money. For a long time, London has been fuelled by investments for foreigners. Nothing very new there. One of the largest banks in the city is HSBC, a Chinese bank. The Premier football league is populated by foreign managers and players with rare exceptions. London is a separate country in many ways to the UK. Not just philosophically. Tax differences mean it is different in reality also. Go to New York, or Tokyo or Paris, and again these are global hubs.

Is there really a crisis? Everything is in high demand and short supply, and therefore expensive in central London. Car parking. Property. Moorings. tickets to the west end, Is this a crisis or economics? Every global financial center is the same. It's not inherent to UK policy. Unless you count city tax breaks. You wouldn't expect to drive into zone 1 and get a free parking spot in a car, so I don't understand the entitlement about inner London moorings. I'm a newbie so apologies if I am misunderstanding things. For what it's worth, my experience of cruising in central London was excellent. Plenty of spaces in less popular spots and double berthing is socially acceptable in the popular spots. You don't go to London for water views and privacy after all.

Awesome thanks so much. My resting voltage is well above 80% so it looks like all is well.

I'm totally sold on the smartguage. But in the meantime, is there a way to use the 12V socket to inform my rev count, and charging time?

I am happy to install guages etc, but I'm pretty tied up for the next month or so, and therefore looking for an interim solution for the next couple of months. I'm off grid, cruising one day a week, so 6 days stationary, followed by a full day cruise.

Sorry if this has been covered many times before.... As a short term solution, I've bought a multimeter to assist in battery charging. It truly is a dark art to me, and I am very randomly running the engine each day at random revs. I've tried all sorts of spots around the battery bank but can't get a reading at all. I think that the positive terminals are inaccessible. I could unstrap the battery pack but this doesn't seem like a practical daily option so I havn't done this yet. The only place I've found where I can get a reading is the 12V cigarette lighter socket. This morning, with only the 12V fridge running, I had a reading of 12.4 V. I turned the engine on at 1200 revs, and this measured 13.50, increasing to 14 after about 10 minutes. Can anyone advise if it's possible to use these readings to manage my battery charging, i.e. set my rev count and a rough idea of time? It's not a problem to turn the fridge and all electrics off for the testing.