Lily Rose

As far as I can see, no-one has previously mentioned Superheat in this thread. Presumably that's this... http://www.nationalcoal.co.uk/buy-coal-from-national-coal/coal/firefly-superheat. which is said to be "not recommended for closed appliances." Not to be confused with Supertherm, which I mentioned. https://www.cheap-coal.co.uk/supertherm.html (for product information, not a recommendation for the supplier!)

We watched the Thames Sailing Barge episode on TV last night and then watched the narrowboat episode on iPlayer. Both very enjoyable but especially, as narrowboaters, the latter. I saw a few boats/faces I'd seen before, including one chap in a pink top, at the Braunston rally, that moors at our marina (Alan on nb Purton). Might not have been him but it certainly looked like him and I know he takes the boat to various rallies. I must watch it again before it expires in 28 days. Hopefully it will be on TV at some point. I recall they did a similar thing with Canals: The Making of a Nation where we got one episode on TV, a different one in different areas with all the others on iPlayer. A while later they broadcast the whole series.

Some very good tips above, in particular, in my opinion, 2 or 3 that I picked up from experience and found very useful. These being... Little and often to stay in a straight line. So little in fact that I'm hardly aware I'm doing it anymore. Adding a brief burst of power (but not too much) with the tiller already pushed over if needing to steer quickly out of trouble. Briefly pushing the tiller over the other way after a turn in order to straighten up quickly. Treating the boat as being of two halves. I've never consciously thought of it like that but that is how I do it. Very useful for bridges and also for going round obstructions like an overhanging tree without scraping against it.

The one they sell most of at our marina is Supertherm. As your marina has more liveaboards (ours has none apart from the staff) it may possibly be different, I believe some/many of the liveaboards buy more anthracite (?). It's not cheap though. Last time I bought some early this year it was £12.70 for 25kg at the marina. I bought two bags from Ryan on Southern Cross in late Spring and it was £10.70, up from £10.50 last year. I've only tried a couple of alternatives (can't remember what they were unfortunately, but NOT Excel as I know I haven't tried that yet) but they were nowhere near as good, In particular I found them difficult to keep going overnight whereas Supertherm is easy. Sheridan recommended Supertherm to me when we first arrived and my limited experience suggests it was a good recommendation. I just wish the marina sold it a bit cheaper as I only have room for a couple of bags and don't like letting it get too low in case I don't come across a fuel boat (which I would like to support) while out and about. I usually see one just after stocking up at the marina before a trip starts but not if I don't stock up!

We're due to start a trip of almost 3 weeks commencing 11 October so it pleases me to hear that things seem to be quietening down nicely. Only the 3rd week will be school holiday time but as it's the last week of October hopefully that won't make too much difference.

Day 18, Braunston to Calcutt, 3.2 hours, 66.7 in total for the trip. On Saturday we cruised back to the marina. The trip is now over - boo hoo - and we are back home after spending Saturday night in the marina. Before we set off from Braunston I walked back to where the sunken Sea Otter had been sitting on the bottom, apparently since June. I can report that it has now gone from by bridge 90 where it was somewhat in the way if you were unfortunate enough to meet a boat coming the other way. The cruise from Braunston to Calcutt, one we have become very familiar with over the last two years, was uneventful. The only thing to note was that it was quite busy in terms of boats moving (but not in terms of moored boats) although very few were hire boats as Saturday is a major handover day for the many hire bases in the area. This is why I prefer cruising in the morning in this area on the main handover days. Mid to late afternoon on those days can be very different and is when you are most likely to have oncoming boats being steered erratically by first-time hirers, some of whom are already well underway with the boozing. Note: I am not hire-bashing - I have nothing against hirers and was one myself until 2 years ago. I'm just not so keen when the (very) occasional oncoming hirer suddenly loses control directly in front of me so if I can avoid heading towards a hire base on Friday and Saturday afternoons this becomes less likely. Moored boats were a different matter. At times along the Napton to Braunston stretch the armco seems to be almost full with moored boats (and often ours is one of them). Not Saturday morning though. In particular between bridges 100 and 101, a popular stretch, there was not a single moored boat. After spending 8 of the last 9 weeks cruising I now look forward to our next cruise which, as Mrsmelly puts it, will be in the proper boating season. Until then I'll have to make do with working through my backlog of narrowboat vlogs on Youtube, mainly Cruising The Cut and Life In A Nutshell.

Confirmed. Just in case there was any doubt!

It's not something I would do regularly, I hope, only on the hopefully infrequent occasions when the batteries did not get fully charged by the solar after a short-cruise day. Our leccy demand's are, and need to be, low. I don't intend to do anything to increase them. I would still aim to stay above 2.2 volts in order to make the batteries last as long as possible and therefore offset at least some of the higher cost. I'm not looking to reduce the average annual cost of batteries but, at the same time, I'd like to avoid increasing it any more than I have to.

Thanks Nick, I hadn't appreciated that and it is certainly something I need to consider. Like I said earlier, we are managing at the moment but... the current batteries are still under a year old and we are still getting worthwhile input from the 200W of solar. My concern is that I have little contingency for when solar gets less effective and/or when the batteries are past their best. I was hoping that by switching to AGMs next I would have a bit more in hand, and therefore less to worry about on those (hopefully) infrequent occasions when the voltage may have dipped below 12.2 by morning. Obviously I want to avoid spending some 5 times the cost of cheapos with little or no benefit.

I was basing this on a conversation with the boss at Springwood Haven. He was of the view that AGMs are much more tolerant of being taken below 50% SOC thus effectively giving more usable AHs. I realise that this would have an impact on the number of expected life cycles. For example 1,000 at 50% DOD vs 550 at 80% DOD according to the Tayna website for these... https://www.tayna.co.uk/GPL-31T-Lifeline-AGM-Battery-P7243.html.

After looking on the Tayna website I see what you mean about the prices! On the other hand, my main motivation is to get more usable amp hours out of my very limited battery space, not to save money long term. I'm hoping that replacing my 2 * 110AH sealed batteries with 2 * (say) 100AH AGMs will give me the equivalent of 3 * 110AH sealed batteries - which I don't have enough space for. I'm managing with what I've got but I have very little contingency. Even if they are fully charged by sunset they will be down to 12.4 volts by the time they start getting recharged in the morning. Sometimes it's 12.3 and, occasionally, 12.2. I would also hope AGMs would last longer, which yours obviously have, to offset at least some of the additional cost. My fear, though, is that they won't for some reason. I wouldn't want to be spending that sort of money every 2 or 3 years.

Coming through Hillmorton locks yesterday, which are supposed to be CRT's busiest, the lady lockie told me that boat numbers this summer were slightly down on last year. I believe they keep count so presumably that´s a pretty good indicator, albeit in only one location.

We had a brief spell of torrential, or at least very heavy, rain in Braunston this afternoon. I´d been for a 2 mile walk and just got back to the boat before it started. I also noticed plenty of mooring spaces this morning, e.g. only 2 boats moored outside Dunchurch Pools - though maybe the construction noise puts people off at the moment.

I thought this was supposed to be the answer.

Days 16/17, Newbold to Braunston, On day 16 we went through Rugby in the morning and up the locks after lunch then moored just beyond the first bridge. So uneventful I have nothing to say! On day 17 we went from Hillmorton to Braunston and moored outside The BOGOF pub (note: that´s not its real name). I noticed that Country Dreams is no longer on the permanent mooring there, although he was moored opposite. He told me that a friend of his has now taken that mooring. As (from a distance) that looks like a shorter boat it will hopefully be easier to get 3 boats in here in future. There's often only room for two. After lunch in the pub, with a very nice (if you like golden ales, I do. Unless they're lager!) pint of Ringwood Forty Niner, I went for a walk and spotted Old Friends (in the water), a burnt-out Sea Otter (no longer under the water, as of about two hours ago) and Paneke (not in the water). Two RCR blokes came to survey the Sea Otter but did a bit of prep work as well and then decided to re-float it. Not sure why as they're not sure it will get towed away today and thought passing boats or rain (and we had some very heavy rain a short while ago) might well re-sink it. Before we leave tomorrow morning I may go and have a look to see if it´s still there/floating.

Sea Otter, yes. I don't know how/when it happened. One of the RCR blokes said it had been there (immediately after the first bridge heading north out of Braunston) 2 weeks. We first saw it as we went through on the Wednesday two and a half weeks ago. They were only there to survey it but did a bit of prep work and then decided to re-float it. Not sure why as they're not sure it will get towed away today and thought passing boats or rain (and we had some very heavy rain a short while ago) might well re-sink it. Before we leave tomorrow morning I may go and have a look to see if it´s sill there/floating.

Two boats spotted in Braunston today. There was nobody home on either one of them as far as I could tell. Note: one of them may not be a member's boat. Just as well as RCR were in the process of refloating it.

I wish I had! 2 * 110AH leisure batteries on hours with no room for a third (or - luxury! - a 4th) and the tray too tight for 135AH batteries. The only upside I can see is that it's cheap when it comes to replacing them. After talking to the boss at Springwood Haven the other day I'm thinking about AGMs next time, assuming they'll fit in the space and that they will be happy with my alternator, battery charger and MPPT solar controller.

Prior to this thread, everytime I've seen the use of ash mentioned it has always been specified that it must be wood ash, not coal. Is that not the case? Apologies if I´ve missed that in the thread somewhere.

Day 15, Ansty(ish) to Newbold, 3.6 hours, 58.0 cumul. After a nice sunny start to the morning it had clouded over by the time we set off at about 10am, within a few minutes light rain started and a few minutes after that it became quite heavy so I needed to whip my waterproof jacket on pretty sharpish. I could have done with the waterproof trousers as well but I have discovered that putting them on at the tiller tends to cause me to (almost) crash. So I just had to put up with water running off the jacket to soak into my trousers. Metcheck had not forewarned me sufficiently today. I still enjoyed the morning cruise, despite both the weather and the fact that this is not the nicest stretch of canal in our area. At Stretton Stop, just as I was slowing down to step off the boat, a very nice lady appeared on the offside and opened the swing bridge for us. Thank you again Rose Narrowboats. We passed by the armco moorings just north of All Oaks Wood at about 12. I had thought about stopping here for lunch but it was a little early still so I decided to keep going. Mooring opportunities were plentiful with just two boats moored, one at the north end of the straight, and one further along, on or near the bend. The last two times I stopped here I only just managed to fit in. When we got to the moorings on the bend, opposite the farm, at the other end of the woods, I regretted not stopping, as I wasn't sure where the next opportunity would be, so we stopped here. The towpath was very muddy from the rain and the pins went far too easily into the mushy soil. It surely can't have been down to the morning's rain - it wasn't that heavy or prolonged. Even with interlocking pins at either end I didn't feel very confident in them and hoped we wouldn't have too many boats go by. Within minutes 5 had gone by, 4 of them hires, and quite a few more while we had lunch. Fortunately everyone slowed down and the pins stayed put. After lunch, just as we were about to get ready to set off, two more boats went past in opposite directions. One of them was Resolution, which I was looking out for in order to say hello to a fellow diarist. I just managed to get the back doors in time to say hello to Rob-M. After a short cruise this afternoon we came through the Newbold tunnel and found a space on the 48 hour (I think) visitor mooring just after the bridge near the Barley Mow. Since then three more boats have arrived behind us using up all the space we left between us and the bridge. After a quick walk down to a decent-sized local Co-op (which also has a fish and chip shop next door), only 3 or 4 minutes walk from the Barley Mow, we finished the day with a meal in said pub accompanied by a fine drop of Abbot. Mmmm, not bad... seven and a half out of ten. (Anyone spot that reference?)

I thought we would pass sometime after lunch but I almost missed you. Just as I was about to come out of the bathroom and get ready to set off again, I heard two brief toots of a horn, and at least one voice, and looked out of the bathroom window just in time to see the name Resolution. I just managed to get the back doorys open in time to say hello before you got too far away.

I thought it would be more like £8 or £9. Worth it for four then, if you're not going too far out of your way. Perhaps I'll make a call to someone local next time as well.

She might well take a different view if she was also a PDO (Poo Disposal Operative, as I would call her) but unfortunately she is not up to it. Even if she was, I doubt she would be up for it as one of the conditions for boat buying was that there would only be one of these. And it would not be her.

Ditto, just in case my brief comment didn't make it clear. When I've read Dylan's posts (only a few, I'll have to search for more) they always conjure up a picture in my head of Henning Wehn on HIGNFY. Dunno why and probably way off mark.

Midland Chandlers said £5 each when I picked up my new el cheapos in the car early this year. On the way to Braunston on our next trip we saw a boat about 1 mile from our marina displaying a batteries bought sign. I asked the lady what she would give me and she also said £5 each so I offloaded them there and then. No doubt I could have got more at a scrappie but probably only a few quid and as I only have two leisures (no space for more unfortunately) it didn't seem worth the hassle. Probably have to do paperwork at the scrappie as well for anti-thievery purposes.