tehmarks

It's a bit of effort but it is very possible to cruise with a car, especially for a temporary period. I'm a long-term continuous cruiser with a car, currently in Nantwich. There's an abundance of parking if you recce the options (Google Maps) prior to moving. Especially if you beat the Stanthorne stoppage and head in the direction of Stoke itself on the T&M. But you will end up doing a lot of walking or cycling!

After over a year of being mostly on the boat, I'm taking the opportunity to stay on dry land for once instead ?

I don't see the problem — let's face it, they won't need all that much space to boast about all they're doing to care for our waterways. A small exhibition of the smart new signage should do it, and the café can coexist happily. Or is this a veiled threat to actually do some work to care for our waterways?

Made a new friend last night on the Llangollen.

Yes, of course it's only lazy itinerant boaters. Couldn't possibly be lazy boaters of any other variety. If I consistently only burned wood and only generated wood ash, I would consistently spread my cold ash out in the wild. Why? Because it's the most environmentally sensible thing to do. It returns nutrients to the soil, and it avoids chucking yet another bag full of something that could be disposed of more sensibly into a landfill, locked inside a non-degradable container. I couldn't give a toss about people thinking it unsightly (which it can't be - it's spread); I'd much rather do good by the planet than by the bizarre strictures of society. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=621 for starters. Yes: coal ash should be disposed of properly as it has no value to the land whatsoever. Mmm, indeed. I'd suggest the first port of call should be to stop burning coal and stop generating so much waste in general. Follow it up by eschewing diesel. More generally, do what's most right by the environment - which in the case of what your complaining about, isn't quite just 'bag it and chuck it in the landfill'.

I'm pretty easy-going; I don't mind people nudging me, bumping me, breasting up, crossing my boat, whatever. But I was full-on rammed by a day boat last year on the Peak Forest, and nearly again on the Macclesfield, and I must admit that I had a sense of humour failure at the day boat skipper. I take the view that if their contact would likely sink one of our plastic pot brethren, shouting isn't entirely unjustified. Particularly if they're having a good laugh about it. Minor incidental contact is just part and parcel, isn't it? It's why we all have rubbing strakes/guard irons.

I'm reasonably certain it's possible to be able to afford the upkeep of a boat without being in a position to afford the capital outlay to buy one outright. I say reasonably certain - I seem to get by quite comfortably, and I've spent the past year de facto unemployed thanks to the pandemic. I certainly wasn't in a position to afford to buy my boat outright though. I've bought two boats with unsecured personal loans, the most recent one of which was from my bank. The other was brokered by Pegasus.

I used Ricky Tropman last year and he was excellent.

? alright. Going off on a tangent; can anyone recommend me a gas engineer who is a current IIMS member? Asking for a friend, but he doesn't wish to say any more.

Why would one expect a marine surveyor to be Gas Safe-registered?

Another neater alternative, if there is appropriate power at the bow end of the cabin, would be to use the good cable to switch a relay and power the tunnel lamp from an existing circuit. Might still need some fiddling with panelling at the bow end, but at least you wouldn't have to try to run new cable the length of the boat. Edit: or just use the existing circuit's negative, no relay needed. Makes much more sense than my first attempt!

A person of any gender who doesn't expect to overly burden every other person they cruise past.

Inspired by comments on another thread: what is in your essential toolkit? What is the bare minimum that you would consider cruising with (or without)?

Sent you a PM, but for the benefit of the thread, a gentleman known as 'Giddy' did a top job on some welding for me last year. I've lost his number, but I suspect Portland Basin Marina would have it.

I don't recommend trying it, but I've winded a 50' directly above Berkhamsted top lock. Don't think you'll have any issues with 48' and an actual sensible bit of canal!

Don't be ridiculous - there are plenty of people boating in London because they actually appreciate living afloat. Their reasons, their circumstances and their priorities may not exactly align with yours - but they are still boaters, living on boats and enjoying the benefits that come with living on boats.

Nope - I'm using polyester lines and wishing I wasn't. Don't get me wrong, cheap polyprop (the awful blue/orange stuff) is awful. But you can get nice polyprop lines, and I like them because they don't soak up water and so they're much nicer on the hands when it's cold and wet. For actual line handling properties, you are of course right: polyester wins easily.

'Decent' (Treadline call it multifilament, but for some reason I was under the impression that the 'nice' stuff was monofilament) polypropylene is good for mooring lines, in my opinion. The great advantage is that they don't retain water, so when you're handling soaking wet lines in cold weather you don't instantly end up with painfully cold hands. They also float, though I don't think that that is particularly important if you don't practise idiocy with them while motoring.

I have dedicated bow, stern and centre lines, and a variety of other bits of line for springs, fendering problems, etc - though they currently all need replacing. I wouldn't personally bother with separate nice lines for mooring on your mooring, but then again I don't rate appearance as a priority to that degree. A bit of lateral thinking: have you tried chucking your lines in the wash? I do it every so often when they get muddy, gritty or generally 'orrible to handle, and it's surprising just how much cleaner and nicer they look when they come out. And you have the advantage of not having to handle gritty lines too. Edit: but I'm a continuous cruiser, so I don't have a mooring on which I can leave nice lines. Though if I did, I still wouldn't bother. If I had nice bits of string, I would want them on the boat when cruising as that's where they're going to be most useful!

Late to the party as always so probably don't have much to add that hasn't already been said. I cruised the southern GU for a couple of years and never had any issue mooring anywhere from Southall (the closest I ever got in to London) northwards. Even on the popular moorings around Rickmansworth, Watford, Campbell Park, etc. I love it for the variety - you have the big (and surprisingly green) urban area of Milton Keynes, some lovely smaller towns and villages, and some stunning rural stretches too. And it's not at all difficult to find parking if you come with car, and there's also good access to the WCML south of MK.

The welder who did a few bits and pieces on my boat last year was only ever available, and only sporadically, by telephone. I can understand that: if he spent the day fending off text messages and emails, he'd never get the job finished. The joys of self-employment, I'm afraid. Larger companies with front office staff have less excuse. @LadyG: you seem to attract problems and attitudes. Just an observation.

Yes, sorry, that was meant to be implicit. A composting toilet, with waste composted, is surely the mot elegant solution to the problem of crapping on an inland vessel. To that end, given that composting is a natural process that will occur without massive expense or infrastructure, it surely isn't beyond the wit of man to provide communal composting facilities. What obviously isn't correct is putting compostable waste inside two layers of non-degradable container and chucking it into a landfill. That's the worst of all options.

I don't have a composting toilet but I support the concept wholeheartedly.

I spent a few months driving to London from the top end of Northamptonshire, and a few years driving to London from the nice bits of canal to the north of it. It's exhausting, simply exhausting. Getting home after a twelve hour day at work, knowing you need to go up Marsworth in the dark and walk a long way back for the car early the next morning, is rarely a nice thought. But it is doable, and you will presumably have the advantage of having a predictable job. I'm self-employed, work twelve hour days, frequently work over two weeks without a day off and am often booked at very short notice. And all that said, I managed it, so it is doable.

That's a plug — the 'male' bit refers to having pins, rather than holes in which pins can be inserted. If you can touch the shiny bits, it's a plug.