Bewildered

Plenty of fields with footpaths and room to step off if meeting traffic coming towards you unlike towpaths with layer hedges bordering them

A few weeks ago I took the dog out for a walk, we were moored in the countryside about a mile south of Cropredy, I had only gotten about a hundred yards from the boat when I encountered a jogger coming towards me. I stopped and moved to one side, the jogger stopped undid his tracksuit top, lifted it over his mouth and nose then zipped it up again. He then turned to face the cut and skipped sideways past me. This left me thinking, if he wanted to get some exercise but was worried about catching Covid, why choose somewhere to jog that is less the two meters wide? Why not go and jog around a nice big field or something?

I stubbed a toe rushing up the stern steps, brought a tear to my eye that did. Almost as bad as getting a splinter.

Oxfordshire Narrowboats don't accept single users, not sure about college cruisers but suspect that they also have safety and insurance issues as mentioned in above posts. You may have had luck using one of the smaller family run companies during a normal year and when the season starts or finishes, but I suspect this year due to Covid most people will holiday in the UK so these companies would not need to take risks hiring out to a single user

I enjoyed watching Country House Gent in travels by Narrowboat but found I was eating through to much data just to watch what I could see out of my own window. Very sad watching the episode where he talks about being beaten up. Very distinctive looking boat Aslan, pretty sure I won't cruise by it without noticing.

Woke up one morning to find a fishing competition setting up on the visitors moorings. This was a small village with limited moorings, the banks either side of the village were quite wild and unsuitable for mooring a boat but easy enough to set up for fishing. I don't object to angling but why go out of your way to do it where it will deliberately annoy boaters?

I would have thought a food grade hose was the type used to fill a gravy boat

That would indeed be I.

Interesting, I've never heard of a "food grade hose". What are they for, soup?

There is also an Elsan point south of the tunnel underneath the building by the lake. As far as I remember it isn't sign posted and they really don't advertise it, probably because the staff in the building have to clean and maintain it. They also keep cleaning product in there. If you've not found this elsan before just walk towards the building at ground level and try your CRT key in the doors facing the canal. I don't think the door even had an Elsan sign on it the last time I was there

Would a large marine diesel generator run on heating oil? If so the answer is simple, remove the engine fit a genny in its place and fill the diesel tank with heating oil to run the genny and the heating. This would of course mean that the boat would need to be converted to electric drive but it would get around the problem of not being able to use heating oil for propulsion. As long as the genny is charging batteries and not directly powering the motor this could be the most economical way to cruise. Big solar array, big battery bank and genny powered by tax free heating oil; sounds to good to be true, must be a catch somewhere!

Still bored so made another one, wall hanging piece this time

I'm using a Dremel 3000 with a flex shaft, most of the wood removal is done with a Kutzal extreme flame bur, then the standard Dremel flame bur for smoothing out the tool marks left by the Kutzal. Once it is burnt with a blowtorch I use a flap wheel made with squares of emery cloth to sand it back. I need to spend some time playing with other burs to see what use I can get out of them, but the Kutzal is excellent for removing a lot of material fairly quickly. edit to add, I have also just bought a router attachment for the Dremel to do precision carving in flat planks, thought I might carve the boat name on an old scaffold board and mount it on the roof

But if I carve a witch I run the risk that she might turn me into a newt

That sounds as though they could be so named due to sailers climbing over them an catching themselves on their Bulwarks ?

I suppose a lot depends on the hardness of the wood, the one on the left is cherry and was the first one carved it took about 40 mins to carve. The other three are ash, the faces took about an hour and the owl took about 20 mins. As I practice, and hopefully improve, I would expect to be able to carve them in about 20-30 mins I was planning on making more of these for sale at Christmas Didn't start out to make them look like Easter Island heads, I'm just not confident enough to do a detailed beard yet

Been getting bored during lockdown so started playing with my Dremel, come winter I'm going to have trouble deciding which log to burn first

Random question, any one know what the gunwales on a ship were called before the invention of the gun? waitningfortheguntobeinventedwales seems a bit of a long winded name

https://www.oxfordshire-narrowboats.co.uk/holidays-and-short-breaks/long-term-boat-hire.html

Anyone know how much a travel power system supplied and fitted would cost these days? The internet is ominously devoid of such useful info

Thanks Tim, what area does he cover?

Don't need on fitted, already got one its just buggered at the moment. Do you have contact details for Ed? Still stuck on the Oxford. We have been traveling between Cropredy and Banbury water points. One week go to Cropredy to empty cassettes etc, and the next week Banbury for same and a fortnights shopping. The rest of the time moored in isolation to avoid all the dirty Girties. Even when they lift the travel ban we have decided to give the K&A a miss this year, don't want to get stuck on a canal famous for crap moorings if a second wave of Covid hits us.

Not sure I fancy playing around with it but it sounds like someone should start getting hold of some 48v alternators and build some cost effective travel power systems for the boating community. At £385 for the inverter add a couple of hundred for the alternator, should be able to sell for a grand or so and still turn a tidy profit.

Thanks Tony, just had a look at their website they say the can refurbish just about any DC motor or alternator so it is defiantly worth a shot. I'm not sure what is actually wrong but suspect the alternator as it it the moving part, could be anything though as I think the whole set up is about 16 years old. The handy thing about this company is that once the Covid restrictions are lifted I can get there by boat.