Hudds Lad

That'll be me in a fortnight, daughter is away next week on Scout camp in Northumbria, she gets back on the Saturday we are off on the boat again, so when back the week after i'll have a weeks worth of myself and the wife's stuff and two weeks worth of hers to sort and wash etc. (with hopefully no surprises in the rucksack as doubt there's time to unpack it). Don't do ironing though, modern fabrics and careful hanging/folding helps avoid it, only ironing is madam's Scout neckerchief, plus who has time??

Not to worry, if you look at the logo on the bottom left it plainly states they are "THE MOORING SPECIALISTS" so everyone else must be wrong

Thanks for the diary, its been very entertaining, look forward to the next chapter

I only have experience of Overwater so probably not much help, but that said, the staff are friendly and approachable and facilities are good.

Have moored there twice, once naughtily under the bridge due to being caught in a torrential downpour (longest night of my life, bangs on the roof in the early hours, pit bikes razzing past between 4-6am) and once just down from the Ice Cream boat opposite Saltaire Church (very impressive view to wake up to) which was much quieter. Never understood why all those lovely mooring rings were unable to be used overnight, but flats make sense now, nimby problems

pretty sure Reading is August bank hol weekend, mind you I've not been since 1995

The main problem I see is signal loss, unless its an offline map the data is unreachable at times whilst cruising

don't use those round-keyed cam locks like you find on fruit machine's etc. if you want it to be secure, they can be opened with the barrel of a pen and yes, I do know this from experience.

Glad we're back on the boat the week after that, as part of those miles of towpath encompasses Overwater Marina's exit onto the Shroppie.

£37 per year, nothing really for peace of mind, I've saved that already with the 10% discount I get at Halfords as part of the membership package

If you're still there on the 26th we'll give you a wave

never underestimate the restorative powers of a good fish finger butty if you are using an iPhone, I can recommend an app called Home and Dry by a developer called MetDesk, it uses radar images from the last two hours to then project weather movement for the next four if memory serves, its usually pretty accurate to within 10-15mins from my experience. Not sure if it initially costs anything though. I do also use BBC Weather & AccuWeather and i'm just trialling the Met Office Weather Forecast app. keep up the posts, very enjoyable.

If they migrate over Malta it may explain it

I love those SLOW DOWN notices with extra text about being considerate and it's someone's home etc. The writing is generally so small that you can only read it by being virtually on top of it, by which point of course, it's too late to comply with their wishes. Sheer genius.

Like I said, I'm unsure of the etiquette or even if you can/should overtake. As nobody behind was shouting either I just assumed not.

That's on the Shroppie isn't it? was like that in Feb when we first passed it with no sign of life, but when we went by in June there was someone aboard moving stuff onto the towpath from inside (just saw arms) but when we came back a week later all the stuff was piled back on and again no sign of life.

I'd wondered about this, recently got stuck behind some chap coming off the Middlewich branch of the Shroppie who seemed to be constantly alternating between tick over and idling (you could see no prop wash behind the boat at times so deffo not under power). I kept catching him up then having to slow to avoid getting too close in case he was planning a manoeuvre. Eventually there were a further four boats behind me all having to cut power as he continued his pootle. Eventually he stopped and pulled into the diesel station at Nantwich basin making me think he was perhaps low on fuel, by this point I'd run the gamut of frustration, annoyance and acceptance so just passed him without a glance. We stopped at the next clear stretch to have a brew and let everyone else crack on. Now, still being a relative newbie (only third season of boating) I wondered if I'd done something wrong, should I have gesticulated or shouted when the chap occasionally looked behind? It seemed rude to motor up and tailgate to force the issue so I didn't, but should I have?

Can you not get some of the longer ones and then cut them into two or more shorter ones?