Oliver

We've been thinking about going out for 6 or 7 weeks and have hit a problem with our house insurance. Reading the small print in the policy, lots of things aren't covered if you leave the house unoccupied for more than 30 days continuously. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you resolve it? I'm not one for keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that nothing happens or for lying to insurance companies about when we went away.

Allie Clifton Cruisers, south of Rugby but before Hillmorton Locks, have an Internet Cafe on their Wharf.

We will be coming up the GU from Brentford to Milton Keynes in a few weeks time (after the little darlings have gone back to school) - any tips on good places to moor overnight or places to avoid mooring? Thanks

A couple of weeks ago Wigrams Turn Marina 52p Crick Marina 57p

Is there anything to download with the CW logo so that we can identify other forum members (or their boats)?

Jon Looks as though the last lot of fiddling didn't do it. I changed my e-mail address, I've looked on old and new e-mail addresses, all the junk and spam folders and no validation e-mail. Tried clicking the Resend Validation, but still nothing.

Saw the article in Waterways World about GPS and it set me wondering (all questions relate to when you are out on the Cut). 1. If you get a GPS, is it a bit of a fad - you play with it to start with and then lose interest/can't be bothered? 2. Are they really any use on a canal? 3. What make have you got and would you recommend it?

Have been reading through all the various posts on computers on board and internet connections but it is not making very much sense to me - but then I don't really know very much about mobile phones. Any suggestions as to the most effective way to get an internet connection in the following circumstances. I need to be able to access my e-mails, upload data (max probably 2mb at any time) via FTP and have internet access for monitoring bank accounts, etc on board for relatively short periods of time - 4 - 6 weeks maybe 2 or 3 times a year. I want the e-mails to end up on my laptop not stored in the mobile phone. I have an old Nokia 3210 with a Virgin pay as you go card. My usage of the phone is very limited (I think) I put £40 on the card 7 months ago and still have £25 left. Him indoors has a Sony Ericsson V600i on some sort of contract with Vodaphone. The boat has an external phone antennae. Laptop is a HP Pavillion bought wihin the last 15 months. I've been and talked to a couple of the mobile phone shops and the both suggested getting T-mobile's Web n Walk professional via a PCMCIA card but that means signing up to an 18 month contract for £17.50 a month. (However, we are looking at changing our broadband provider at home - the shops both said that the T-mobile thing would give pretty much broadband speed so am wondering if this option would work if I used it at home instead of broadband) I've already got a couple of PCMCIA cards which I used to use to connect to our wireless network at home (new laptop is wireless enabled) but presumably these are different to the cards T-mobile provide. Can I connect one of the mobile phones to the port which is marked phone on my computer and then dial up? If so, can I buy a connecting lead for the old Nokia? Any recommendations as to which dial up service to use? Am I right in assuming that because of the intermittent usage I will need on board that it is going to be more cost effective to go pay as you go? I could upgrade my phone if necessary but don't need/want things like camera, gaming etc. Any suggestions gratefully received - but you'll need to keep them simple - I'm normally not too bad with understanding things but mobile phones are a real blind spot for me

I've been in touch with our local go-kart track and they have said that they are more than happy to give away their used tyres for people to use as fenders. The tyres come in two sizes - both are about 10 inch diameter. The front tyres are about 5 inches deep and the rear tyres are about 9 inches deep. The request from the track was that people didn't drop in individually to pick tyres up. If anyone wants some and is going to Beale Park, let me know and I'll see if I can get the tyres to bring down. I'll stick a photo up in the gallery - if a moderator can move it to this post, please do so.

Moley We did the Lower & Upper Avon and the stretch of the Severn up to Didlis Lock last year - end August/Beginning of September. Checked my trip diary which confirms my recollections. The Upper Avon was gorgeous, the Lower Avon nice, the Severn boring. We didn't have any problems with the moorings on the Avon, despite dire predictions before we went about having to breast up. Didn't enjoy mooring at Upton on Severn but it was only for one night. If we repeated this trip I'd time it such that we didn't have to moor on the Severn. Last year the cost of the combined Lower & Upper Avon licence was £44, a separate licence for each part £28. Major downsides of the rivers versus canals (imho) was not being able to moor up pretty much where you wanted and the long distances between the locks for dog walking. On the Lower Avon, we were put off by the fairly snotty attitudes of most of the GRP crews who seemed to have lost the word Thanks from their vocabulary. We're going to try the Thames later this year, but if we don't enjoy the trip from Oxford to Reading we'll head off down the Kennet & Avon, otherwise continue on down through Windsor, etc before rejoining the Grand Union for the trip home. Hope you enjoy whatever you decide to do.

It's my X0th birthday whilst at Beale Park and have just discovered that several of the family are planning to come down. Question: What happens in the evening after 6pm? Will there be somewhere we could have a picnic - there will be too many people for us to stay on board. Alternatively, are there any child friendly restaurants close by?

mikevye When we were looking for a builder, none of them asked for a 4 or 5% deposit - £500 or £1,000 was what was asked for. Didn't find anyone asking for any further payments until after the shell was delivered. Given the number of companies which have gone down the tubes, if I was buying now I would walk away from a builder who wanted a large deposit and stage payments which were due before the shell was delivered/work done - there are enough good builders out there with reasonable stage payment terms to find someone who will build you the boat you want.

My vote goes to AJ Canopies as well. I did splutter a bit when we got the price for our cratch cover and houdini hood as they were expensive but we decided to go with them and are glad that we did. We had a problem with a zip (caused by us being stupid, not a quality or design problem) and we were away from the boat, they came over to our marina, collected the cover, replaced the zip, returned cover to the marina all within 24 hours. We've just been out for a trip and heard other good reports of AJ Canopies aftersales service (and some not so complimentary comments about another cover company's not so good after sales care)

Thanks folks. Oeystein - I 'inherited' my girls when they were about 7 & 9 so I've no experience of children in the range 0 - 6, which is probably why I've become nervous about the weekend. Bottle - I'm glad to see that it isn't only my girls who think that the children will behave better for grandparents. My husband says everything will be fine and if the little one doesn't realise to start with that No means No and Stop It means Stop It, he soon will. I'm sure I'm worrying over nothing and that everything will be fine. I'll update thread once we've been away.

In a moment of madness (it seems now), we have agreed to take our very active 4 year old grandson away for the weekend on the boat, to give his Mum & Dad a break. This will be his first time on the boat and the first time he has been away from M&D for any length of time. Am planning to take him up the Napton flight because we can break the weekend up into 4 sections of 3 hour cruises and still keep to his norma routine of meals and bedtimes. We've got a good bouyancy aid for him, some of his favourite DVDs in case he hates boating but I'm really worried now that we have bitten off more than we can chew. A 4 year old and two dogs - I may not be old and grey now but have a feeling I will be when I get back. Any words of wisdom or advice for us?

Worked for me as well - stuck 0 inboxes for things which didn't apply. Survey is not much of an advert for the specialist company which designed it - pretty poor.

Heard about the BMF when we were looking at having a boat built. Got hold of the BMF contract which was said to protect the buyer. Read said contract to discover it favoured the boatbuilder - OK it was more protective of the buyer than some contracts offered by boatbuilders but it wasn't evenhanded. From my limited contact, it had the feel of a trade association. Is there any boatbuilding organisation out there where there is some sort of quality control on the members' work? (An aside: We recently had some electrical work done at the house and got our Category P sertificate from the sparks. A few weeks later he called and said that he was up for re-certification and needed to show an inspector some of his completed work - could he & the inspector come and visit on a specified date at a certain time, Turned up on time. Presumably a Corgi registered gas man has to have his work inspected too.)

Boat valeting offered locally to us - exterior only - about £90 for a 60 foot boat.

We paid for 60 foot of empty water for 6 months to get a mooring at the marina we wanted - we reckoned it was worth it to be sure of having a mooring in the area we wanted when the boat was ready and to be in our first choice marina.

We have a 'Stour' sofa bed from Wilsons of Kinver - we find it very comfortable and would happily sleep on it every night. It is also comfortable as a sofa - it is large enough for the two of us plus two dogs to sit on of an evening - or 3 friendly adults. It converts to the bed in a matter of seconds and all the bedding is stored in it. Price wise, it is a lot more expensive than the Ikea option. I'm not sure what Wilson's are charging now and how the choice of fabric affects cost. You can see the sofa in the picture on the left of this post

Hi Crosser Just got the trade stand list for IWA at Beale Park in August and Kingsground are down as exhibitors.

Our only source of heating on our 60 footer is finrads; we've not had a problem with lack of heat even in the winter (which includes time on board when we have had to break ice). We have finrads the entire length of the boat on both sides unless there is a cupboard or bed. In the bathroom, we do have a heated towel radiator. Our rationale for the finrads was that the heat came out at the lowest point in the boat and that there was continuous heat throughout the boat (you didn't get 'hot spots' fanning out from the radiators). If we had been going to liveaboard, I think we would probably have had a diesel stove (or possibly even gone for a Rayburn) We've found that the continuous shelf along the boat has come in useful as well - you can see it in the photo on the left.

Saltyseadog There is a winding hole below Napton Bottom Lock and we use it with ease for our 60 foot boat. There is also another winding hole a bit further on by Bridge 111. We have had trouble winding there because someone had padlocked their NB to the pilings in the winding hole. Nicholsons shows a further winding hole just after Bridge 109 but this is actually Napton Narrow Boats and if their boats are all in you could have difficulty there. Of course, there's also Napton Junction - what won't show on any Pearsons or Nicholsons yet is the new Wigram's Turn Marina, the entrance to which is directly opposite the turning onto the GU. If you've not managed to wind at the bottom of Napton Locks it won't add that much to your journey if you have to go as far as Napton Junction to turn.

Just got our mooring pack and it looks like we're the outside boat. We'll be on the north stretch of moorings. We're planning to go down the K&A afterwards, no doubt like a lot of people, any tips from people about first day or two's moorings?